FRENCH RIVER – The Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League regular season champion Powassan Voodoos notched six first period goals to send them on their way to an 8-3 triumph over the French River Rapids Friday night at Noelville Arena.
It was all Voodoos in that opening frame as they connected a half-dozen times in just over a 10-minute span to put the game away early.
After Tomas Yachmenev put Powassan in flight at 1:21, Eric Allair added his fifth of the campaign 56 seconds later.
It was more visitors at 6:04 as Ryan Theriault connected on the first man advantage effort of the night.
From there consecutive offensive outbursts, in rapid succession, from Quintin Loon-Stewardson, Shane Beaulieu and Aaron Dickson added to the onslaught.
The Voodoos’ Cade Herd made it 7-0 midway through the middle stanza during a man advantage before French River got goals from Donny Schultz and Will Frustaglio late in the frame to pull back to within five heading into the third.
Nicolas Case added another for Powassan 4:04 into the final session before Max Lightfoot answered that for the Rapids in the back-half of the frame.
Herd had three assists for Powassan while Eric Moundoux chipped in with a pair.
Julian Galloway made 33 saves to pick-up the win.
Andrew Rocha allowed seven against on 32 shots and suffered the loss for French River while Jake McGuire handled three of four in over eight and a half minutes of relief.
Photos courtesy of Dal Photography