HEARST, Ont. – Gregory Trudeau-Paquet’s 30th goal of the season, coming 2:06 into overtime, was the difference as the Powassan Voodoos pulled out a 5-4 victory over the Hearst Lumberjacks in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Friday at Claude Larose Arena.
Hearst did get off to a quick start as they tallied twice in the opening four minutes to go up by a pair thanks to Max Griffioen, with his 25th, and Dominic Dumas, who put in his 19th.
Powassan countered with a man advantage effort off the stick of Brett Shawana to get the visitors on the board at 5:54.
The Voodoos then tied it 1:34 into the second period on a Raf Praysner effort.
The Lumberjacks got that back half way through the session as Griffioen added another for the hosts.
Back and forth they went with Sam Ellwood levelling the proceedings at 14:15 as the clubs hit the intermission tied at 3-3.
Coming out fast in the third, Powassan went in front 46 seconds in thanks to goal No. 25 of the campaign for Tomas Yachmenev.
Answering deep in the regulation, David Gobeil forced extra time for Hearst with just over four minutes to go.
Things got worse for the Voodoos when defenceman Noah Brant was assessed a four-minute spearing penalty with just over two minutes left in regulation. However, the Voodoos battled through the double-minor at the end of regulation and into overtime.
And just as Brant jumped out of the box, Trudeau-Paquet built up speed through the neutral zone and took a quick shot that fooled the Hearst netminder between the legs for the overtime game winner.
Owen Say made 20 stops to record the win while Liam Oxner had 28 saves in defeat in which Hearst did pick-up one point.
The Voodoos, who pulled out a big 3-2 win in Timmins on Thursday night, will finish off their three-game northern road swing Saturday night when they travel to Cochrane to face the Crunch.
