Noah Benjamin picked up his initial Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League goal and went on to add his first two assists to help the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners upend the front-running Powassan Voodoos 3-2 Saturday evening at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
Powassan did begin on a positive note, picking up the night’s first tally compliments of Harrison Israel’s 24th of the campaign at 15:41.
Benjamin answered that for the Gold Miners however just 29 seconds later as he scored for the first time in NOJHL play.
He then helped set-up Connor Evans at 5:20 of the middle frame to put the home side up 2-1.
After that, it was the Voodoos’ turn to level the proceedings as Dylan D’Agostino connected a few minutes later to knot the affair at 2-2 through two periods of play.
Kirkland Lake then struck early in the third getting the game-winner from Sam Ellwood 70 seconds into the session to help secure the upset of first place Powassan.
Gold Miners’ netminder Cade McEwen certainly did his part in goal to secure the victory making 37 saves along the way to earn the triumph helping his team improve to 18-13-5-3 on the season.
Julian Galloway made 21 stops in defeat for the Voodoos who fell to 29-5-1-2 overall.
The Voodoos also announce that defenceman Dayton Murray has left the team to join the non-sanctioned Temiscaming Titans team which plays in the Greater Metro Junior 'A' Hockey League.
The Voodoos are back on home ice Monday night when they face the Cochrane Crunch. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at the Powassan Sportsplex.
