It was a little bit less of a hectic week for the Powassan Voodoos, but they still managed to pick up the ever-important two points with a 7-3 decision over the Cochrane Crunch.
“We got out to a quick start,” Head Coach Max Gavin said at our weekly sit down. “I think what can happen when you score back to back to back, you can get a little lax and I think that’s what happened and Cochrane took advantage of some mistakes we made and they kind of stayed with us the rest of the night. You have those games some times for whatever reason it’s an odd score and I think it’s important to get the wins out of those and again, lessons learned that we have to be ready to play every night in this league.”
The Voodoos, after last weekend’s sweep of the northern teams, including a 4-0 win over Cochrane, is 4-0 on the early season over their northern rivals. The Voodoos are also on a four-game winning streak since the 4-0 set back against the Kirkland Lake Goldminers during the first weekend of NOJHL action. If you were a betting fan, find a 50/50 ticket at the next home game with only fours on it.
As the score would indicate, it didn’t seem to be much of an adjustment between the two games for Cochrane, but Gavin, who sees the game differently as a coach than the average fan, disagrees.
“You saw it in the special teams for sure,” Gavin explained. “That’s where you can make the biggest adjustment. You can make adjustments five-on-five, but the biggest is on special teams. The record at the beginning of the year is nice, but it’s the end of the year that matters.”
A bit of a changeup this week for the Voodoos is none of its players were recognized by the league as one of the three stars. That’s the territory when you only have the one game.
Second-week NOJHL star Gabby Kioki was sent to the Rockland Nationals of the CCHL.
“Gabby felt that he had a better opportunity elsewhere with the people advising him. Best of luck to him and thank you for everything he did here and we wish him nothing but the best. But like I said to the guys here, when one spot opens up that means opportunity for somebody else. Guys have to step up to fill that powerplay, penalty kill, and top 6 role. There is some excitement in the locker room as well as some reservations and disappointments that he left.”
Such is the nature of the beast in Junior “A”, people are moved in and out almost all season long, but even without Kioki the Voodoos host an impressive range of firepower. One just needs to look at the scoring at home for proof as they have outscored opponents 18-4, albeit in two games.
“Spots are always in flux,” Gavin explained. “You try not to change things up on a daily basis, but if something’s not working you need to make adjustments. If guys are not playing up to the level they need to be in that position, then someone else will be ready. I think what is great about having a deep team like we do, anyone can fill anyone else’s role.”
Improvement is the name of the game and last week Gavin said the team so far was happy with the play in the offensive zone and neutral zone but the play in their end needed to step up.
“I think you see improvements. You give up three goals but most of them were turnovers off the rush, not so much defense but overall our D zone is looking better. Overall it is getting better and it’s going to take time, we are only seven games in and we have a 56 game season and as long as it is 100 percent on game 56 going into the playoffs, that’s all you want to do.”
Looking ahead to this weekend, the Voodoos play three games in a row against the French River Rapids. A home and home series on Friday and Saturday, before welcoming the Rapids back to the Sportsplex on October 2. For two Eastern rival teams who have yet to play one another this season, there are plenty of opportunities to get acquainted.
“Anyone can beat everyone, but we are really focused on what we do right now. We feel that when we are clicking at 100 percent we should be able to compete and win on a nightly basis. We are focusing on our habits and eliminating our deficiencies.”
For most people, looking at the French River Rapids, you might assume they are an easy out as they only have 34 victories since the team’s inception for the 2015-16 season. For reference, the Voodoos had 33 last season alone. That doesn’t mean you should count them out, according to Gavin.
“We have to get points everywhere no matter who we are playing. French River beat us last year and they competed with us most of the year and they were a good young team. They have a new coach, who is a good coach, Corey Bricknell, who has been in the league. He’s going to have them prepared and ready. There really is no easy teams, maybe five years ago you could look at certain teams a certain way but now anyone can beat anyone. I know it’s generic but it’s true if you look at this year so far, there’s not one team that has fallen behind anyone else.
“I expect French River to be at their best just as we need to be at our best.”
Not looking ahead too far, but next week the Voodoos play host to the Blind River Beavers who were recently ranked #20 in the top-20 ranking for the Canadian Junior Hockey League. For their part, Powassan received an honourable mention.
