Photos: Dal Photography
FRENCH RIVER – A pair of splendid shorthanded goals by Dominik Godin highlighted an eventual 5-3 victory by the French River Rapids Saturday over the Powassan Voodoos in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest Saturday at Noelville Arena.
Flying out of the gate, French River struck three times before the first frame was half done, including the pair of man-down markers by Godin.
His initial effort came at 3:34 as he flew down the left wing and proceeded to wire one top shelf.
The Rapids then added another a few shifts later when Chase Lefebvre picked up the rebound of his own shot, then chipped one over Powassan netminder Alex Bugeja.
Down a skater once again, Godin worked his magic once more by anticipating a pass by a Voodoos’ defenceman, then smartly picking it off and flying down the ice on a breakaway and burying his second of the stanza and 27th overall.
The visitors did get one back at 11:02 with Mike Levin converting as he calmy waited from up high on the right side and whipped one upstairs on netminder Cole Sheffield.
Moving to the middle frame, French River went back up by three at 16:43 thanks to Godin putting one off the end boards that bounced right in front to an open Levi Siau who lifted in his 17th to make it 4-1 after 40 minutes.
In the third, Rodion Tatarenko brought Powassan closer with 5:05 to go as he took a cross-ice pass and whipped in his 16th off the bar and in.
Getting Bugeja out for an extra attacker, the Rapids secured the decision at 18:49 with Chase Thompson putting one into the empty net.
Still battling though, the Voodoos did notch another thanks to Brett Richardson snapping a Justin Spurrell feed past a screened Sheffield to round out the night’s scoring in the final minute.
With the outcome, French River raised their record to 19-18-1-0 while Powassan slipped to 25-8-4-1 in defeat.