Game Photos: Dal Photography
FRENCH RIVER – A three-goal first period was enough to send the Powassan Voodoos to a 6-2 triumph over the French River Rapids Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Friday evening at Noelville Arena.
Some early drama saw French River awarded a penalty shot in the opening minute of the contest, as Abram Snider was impeded on a rush into Powassan territory.
With that chance, Snider skated in slowly on Voodoos’ starter Alex Bugeja made a deke to his right, but could not convert as the netminder sprawled to keep the puck out.
Taking over from there, the visitors’ Rodion Tatarenko got his side going at 7:46 as he collected his 10th tally of the campaign by cutting out from the side of the net and stuffing one in off the far post and in.
Midway through the period, the guests made it 2-0 off a two-man break where Mike Levin made a quick cross-crease pass over to Chase MacQueen-Spence, who quickly stuffed it past Hayden Williamson in goal for the Rapids.
Not done there, Caleb Van de Ven made it 3-0 in the latter stages of the stanza as darted out from the side boards right to the slot where he wired one into the top left hand corner.
A goaltending change saw Cole Sheffield enter the contest for French River in the second.
The home side got on the board just past the six-minute mark after Spencer Hughes scooped up a loose disk and put a short backhand over to Chase Thompson, who converted from near the net.
However, Powassan answered back later in the period as Ben Danielson picked up his second of the season by powering out of the corner and moving through a couple of defenders before making a nice move to outwait Sheffield before putting it into the open side at 12:01.
In the third, Levin converted from the right of the net, late in a man advantage, to make it 5-1.
French River’s Dominik Godin and Powassan’s MacQueen-Spence traded tallies after that to round out the scoring.
Bugeja made 36 saves to pick up the win for the Voodoos.
Williamson meanwhile suffered the defeat allowing the three against on 20 attempts while Sheffield made 17 stops in relief.