GALLERY: Voodoos rally to hand Rock sixth loss in past eight games

Powassan Voodoos forward Cayden Kowal pounces on a rebound despite, being tied up by Rock blue-liner Sam Gallagher, before depositing the puck behind Timmins goalie Dryden Riley for the first of his two goals in his squad’s 5-3 win at the McIntyre Arena Sunday afternoon. Kowal’s 14th goal of the season gave the Voodoos a 3-2 lead, while his 15th of the campaign, into an empty Timmins net, iced the victory. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc

The Powassan Voodoos rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Rock 5-3 at the McIntyre Arena Sunday afternoon.


Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network


It was the conclusion of a three-game weekend road trip that saw the Voodoos drop a 4-2 decision to the Storm in Iroquois Falls Friday night and hang on for a single point in a 5-4 overtime setback against the Lumberjacks in Hearst Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon, the Voodoos dug themselves a hole as they fell behind 2-0 in the opening period.

“It was 2-0, but there was a lot of game left,” said Voodoos coach Peter Goulet. “They got the jump on us with an early goal and then got a power-play goal and we knew we could give up the next one, we had to get the next goal.

“We were patient and we got a 3-2 lead but then we took a couple of undisciplined penalties to allow Timmins back in the game.

“Then, we got a good fore-check and got to a loose puck, got it to the front of the net and got the game-winner. So, good effort from our guys, it was a great hockey game.”

Goals by Jack Kelly, his first of two on the afternoon and 17th of the season, and Brant Romaniuk, with his 10th of the campaign and first since returning from the QMJHL’s Les Olympiques de Gatineau, had staked the Rock to the 2-0 first-period advantage.

The Voodoos began to chip away at the lead early in the middle frame, as Caden Dubreuil netted a power-play marker, his 16th goal of the season.

Anoushan Mungunthan, whom the Voodoos picked up from the OJHL’s Markham Royals on Jan. 3, then tied things up with his first career NOJHL tally.

Cayden Kowal then pounced on a rebound in front of the Timmins net to beat Rock goalie Dryden Riley with the first of his two goals in the game and 14th of the campaign to give the Voodoos a 3-2 lead.

But Kelly netted a power-play marker, his second goal of the game and 18th of the season, to tie things up midway through the frame.

Any hope Rock fans may have had of their team gaining at least a single point were dashed, however, when Jack Nolan scored his 11th goal of the season with less than three minutes remaining regulation to put the Voodoos back in front, 4-3.

Kowal then deposited his second goal of the game and 15th of the season into an empty Timmins net with Riley on the bench in favour of an extra attacker to ice the victory.

While Goulet was happy to see his squad finish the three-game road trip strong, he felt they left at least a point on the table.

“Iroquois Falls has beat us all three times this year, 2-1, 3-2 and 4-2, and Friday night they worked hard and got great goaltending from (Mavrick) Fletcher,” he said.

“It was a good combination. We outshot them, I think they had the shots 38-33 for us, but we missed a few breakaways. We missed a breakaway that would have put us up 2-0 and they go down to score and tie the game. It flipped the momentum.

“They work hard over there and you have to show up in this league. If you don’t show up and respect your opponent, they are going to come out and beat you.”

While the Voodoos managed to pick up a point with Saturday night’s overtime loss in Hearst, they were up 4-2 late in the third period.

“I think they scored with 2:40 left to make it 4-3 and then they got a nice tip to tie the game up and we left (Mathieu) Comeau, their best player, walk right down the middle and he scored (in overtime),” Goulet said. “The same thing happened at home in the overtime game. Comeau walked right down the middle and scored. You can’t give that guy that kind of ice. You always have to respect him.

“But any time you can get a point off Hearst and two points here in Timmins, it’s a good thing, but we definitely feel like we left two or three points on the table. We need this one today because in our next game we have Sudbury at home on Friday and we all know how good they are.”

The Voodoos coach was pleased with what he saw from all of his players Sunday afternoon, but had a little extra praise for a few in particular.

“Austin (Seibel), our goalie, and the effort he gave after we fell behind 2-0 and all of our forward and all of our D really played well,” Goulet said. “They stuck to the game plan and they got the job done. It’s a huge two points for us going home tonight.”

Captain Jackson Smith was held off the scoresheet Sunday afternoon, but the blue-liner was a force in the defensive zone for the Voodoos.

“Saturday night’s game and today’s game are the two best games I have seen Jackson Smith play since he joined our team,” Goulet said. “He is a great young man and he is a great leader in our room.

While Kowal had a pair of goals for the Voodoos, the scoring was pretty well spread around Sunday afternoon.

“You have got to have four lines to play hockey today,” Goulet said. “The game is too fast and the guys are too strong. If you can’t play four lines, you are going to run out of gas. It is easy for another team to shut down one line but trying to shut down three or four is tough to do.”

Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry, whose team snapped a four-game losing skid with an 11-0 win over the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake Friday night, was far from impressed with what he saw from his squad Sunday afternoon after the first period.

“It is the same story over and over again, how many two-goal leads have we blown this year?” he said. “We just beat ourselves. It was a nothing play with the puck 30 feet in the air and we are going to try and go get it and it’s a three-on-one at the net.

“The decisions we make are inexcusable and the amount of leads we have blown are inexcusable. We can’t put together a full 60 minutes of playing hard.”

The Rock coach’s frustration was even greater given his squad had battled back to tie things up in the third period.

“We just gave it away, gave it away, just bad, bad decisions on our part,” Perry said, with a shake of his head.

According to the coach there was no rocket science involved in what had gone well for the Rock in the opening period.

“We just played hockey,” Perry said. “We did what we are good at, we paid attention to detail. We capitalized on special teams. It’s not hard. There’s no magic wand. We have success when we do X-Y-Z, when we do not do those things, we do not have success. We did those things in the first period, we did those things for parts of the second period, we did those things for parts of the third period, but not the whole time and we lost the hockey game.”

Even Friday night’s one-sided win over the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake didn’t provide much comfort to the Rock coach.

“Some guys on our roster look like the best players in the league on those kind of nights, but when games are tough and it’s tight checking and we need guys to show up, they are nowhere to be found,” Perry said.

“We are not going very far if we keep playing this way.”

Seibel, who turned aside 31 of the 34 shots the Rock directed his way, earned his eighth win of the season for the Voodoos.

Riley, who stopped 18 of the 22 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.

NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of Sunday’s game were Kowal, Kelly and Nolan … The Rock went 2-4 on the power play Sunday, while the Voodoos were 1-5 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena on Sunday was 755 … Sunday’s other action saw the Blind River Beavers blank the Rapids 7-0 in French River and the Iroquois Falls Storm edge the Lumberjacks 2-1 in Hearst … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they take on the Paper Kings in Espanola, at 7 p.m. The next home game will see the Rock host the Soo Thunderbirds at the McIntyre Arena on Friday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m.