Brendan D'Agostino tips home a perfect cross crease pass from teammate Steve Harland in the Voodoos 10-5 win over the Mattawa Blackhawks. PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS DAWSON.
The Powassan Voodoos racked up the goals against their East Division Rivals from Mattawa on Monday Night to end the Blackhawks’ 2-game winning streak with a 10-6 victory.
The game began with some back and forth play for much of the first until Mattawa found themselves in some penalty trouble with back-to-back infractions that ultimately provided the Voodoos with a 2-man advantage where Nathan McLeod scored on his own rebound to open the scoring. Powassan didn’t stop there as Forward Brendan D’Agostino notched his 8th marker of the year on the powerplay to increase the lead.
The Voodoos started where they left off just 25 seconds into the middle frame as Dante Juris finished off a nice give and go from line-mate Jack Zaneville to make it 3-0.
After Mattawa Forward CJ Nicholson got the Blackhawks on the board, Powassan’s Aaron Dart answered seconds later with his 5th goal of the season on the powerplay to restore the 3 goal lead.
Following a lengthy 2-man advantage for Mattawa, Powassan’s leading scorer Steve Harland took the game over with an incredible individual effort to go end-to-end before dishing a quick pass to D’Agostino for his second goal.
Voodoos Head Coach Scott Wray expressed how happy he was with his top line’s play.
“They’ve been really good all month and they were phenomenal again tonight,” said Wray, who was thrilled to see the contribution from Brendan D’Agostino.
“Brendan is the sand paper on our top line and he played hard tonight so it was great to see him get rewarded with some success.”
McLeod would also score his second before the Blackhawks’ Hayden Hickey and Andy Williams scored on separate 5-on-3 powerplays to claw back on the scoreboard.
The Voodoos’ top line silenced any comeback hopes, however, as Harland went for his second coast-to-coast rushes of the night, setting up D’Agostino yet again for his hatrick goal.
D’Agostino wasn’t done there as he hammered home his 4th goal of the game just seconds later after a nice feed from Kyle Moore to make it 8-3.
Both team traded markers early in the third with McLeod scoring the Voodoos’ second hatrick of the night. Jimmy Philbin scored for Mattawa midway through the final period while Powassan Forward Jacob Erwin scored his 8th goal for the Voodoos in only his 5th game since coming over in a trade from Cochrane.
Both Harland and Moore combined for 7 assists in the victory while back-up Goaltender Jack Ondrovic won his 4th game of the season.
The Voodoos next matchup comes against the Sudbury Nickel Barons on Wednesday at McClelland Arena in Sudbury. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.
