POWASSAN, Ont. – The Powassan Voodoos soared out to a three-goal, first-period lead and rode the solid goaltending of Joe Vrbetic as they went on to defeat the Timmins Rock 4-1 a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest held Tuesday evening at the Powassan Sportsplex.
The Voodoos took flight eight and a half minutes into the match-up with Henry Scott collecting his 15th tally of the campaign.
Powassan then went up by a pair midway through the first as Scott and Cade Herd combined the set-up Ryan Mills for his 10th tally to help him extend a modest point streak to four consecutive outings.
The home side were not done there as Brett Shawana also reached double digits in markers in 2018-19 with his 10th at 18:38.
Timmins cut into the deficit late in the second stanza, compliments of their captain Derek Seguin, as he notched his team-leading 27th at 17:25 to bring the visitors to within two heading into the final frame.
However, Voodoos netminder Vrbetic and his teammates did the rest to keep it that way until the late going of regulation when Shawana iced it with an empty net effort in the final minute to round out the scoring.
Vrbetic finished with 35 saves on the night to record the victory.
The Rock’s Tyler Masternak started and finished the game allowing three against on 17 shots while Jean-Marc Brisson handled all 10 attempts he faced in just over 29 minutes of relief.
With the outcome, Powassan wins for a fourth straight game and improves to 26-18-1-1 on the season to move to within one point of fourth place Timmins (26-17-3-0) in the tightly-contested NOJHL East Division standings.
GAME NOTE: The Voodoos road contest on Saturday, February 16 at Elliot Lake will now start one half hour later than originally scheduled with game time now slated for 7:30 p.m. at Centennial Arena.