This past week was highlighted by the battle of the top two teams in the NOJHL, the Powassan Voodoos, and Timmins Rock.
Heading into the game, Powassan was ranked #5 in the country, with Timmins sitting at #8 on the CJHL’s top 20 weekly rankings. The game lived up to its billing as the teams went the distance, with Powassan ultimately taking the game 4-3 in a shootout.
“Timmins is a very, very strong team,” Head coach Max Gavin said. “I think as a team we will see a lot of them, and they will probably be there at the end. That’s a measuring stick for us and we saw some of the things we need to work on, and we saw some of the things we did well.”
As for the shootout, count Gavin as a fan.
“It’s nice to have a winner and it is fun for the fans. Bunch of different skills, I think the boys enjoy it too. I think it is good for the game, I think it’s fun.”
It certainly helps when you are on the winning end of the skills competition, with Seiji Martone and Tomas Yachmenev scoring for the Voodoos, while the only Rock player to get one past Owen Say was David Laroche.
If the top two teams in the league wasn’t enough of a draw to the Sportsplex on a Saturday night, the fact that it was Pink in the Rink would have helped. Pink in the Rink is an annual game the Voodoos partake in where the players wear pink jerseys that are auctioned off after the game in support of breast cancer research.
This year, Powassan hosted Britt Bortolon, a local reporter who is battling breast cancer, to drop the puck for the ceremonial faceoff.
“I thought it was a great event,” Gavin stated. “I thought the people who organized it did a great job, and everyone pitched in. It was great to have Brittany there and to celebrate her and her fight and we are there for her in that. It meant a lot for us to have her there.
“It was nice to get a win to celebrate and cap it off.”
The Voodoos kept the good times rolling on Tuesday when they took down the visiting Kirkland Lake Gold Miners. The game was defined by penalties however, as Kirkland Lake held five man advantages to Powassan’s one.
“There are games where you are going to take penalties,” Gavin explained. “Hopefully you just prepare your penalty kill as best as possible. The guys stayed calm and stayed with it.”
An encouraging sign for the team, however, is that they won the game against the Gold Miners 4-1 with just the lone powerplay, which the team did not score on.
“We were relying on the powerplay too much at the beginning of the year, so to get some five on five support when our powerplay doesn’t have a good night is encouraging,” Gavin said. “You’re not going to have a 50 per cent powerplay at the end of the year, it’s not going to happen. You hope so, but it’s not realistic.
“It was big for our five on five to start clicking because there will be nights where we need our special teams and nights where we need our five on five, and hopefully at the end of the year you have both.”
Looking ahead to the weekend that is coming up, Powassan hosts Cochrane Friday night, before the defending champs, the Hearst Lumberjacks come to town.
“Every team on our side, and even the other side, there’s never an easy night,” Gavin explained. “Cochrane has improved and they will continue to improve, and Hearst is a top team in the league, they won it last year. Until someone knocks them off, they are the defending champs and every time they come into the building, you have to be ready to go.”
Powassan wraps up their weekend schedule with a rematch against the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake on Sunday.
