Voodoos vs Gold Miners GM 2 Mar 19 17 from Chris Dawson on Vimeo.
Andy Baker, the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s leading goal scorer during the regular season, tacked on his first two of the playoffs Sunday helping the Powassan Voodoos defeat the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 5-2 in Game 2 of their East Division semifinal at the Powassan Sportsplex.
With the result, Powassan extends their best-of-seven series lead to 2-0 heading into Game three Tuesday at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex in Kirkland Lake at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday’s match-up saw the Gold Miners pick-up the lone tally of the first period early on as Alex Storjohann notched his fifth of the playoffs at 3:45 on a two on one rush where the Arizona product beat Nate McDonald high.
However, action in the middle session saw the Voodoos struck three times on the power play to take a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Baker started and finished the extra-man outburst in the stanza while teammate Gary Mantz had the second goal in the period.
Down a man, Tyson Gilmour added some insurance for Powassan midway through the third as he forced his way through on a breakaway and managed to tuck his chance under a sprawled Kirkland Lake goaltender Ridge Gerads’ pads to pick-up a shorthanded tally.
A two-man advantage allowed the Gold Miners to move back to within two at 11:44 as they moved the puck around nicely and eventually worked it over to an open Ashton Amaya on the left of Nate McDonald in the Voodoos net, where he calmly slid a shot into the vacant side to match Storjohann for the league-lead in postseason goals with five.
The visitors pulled Gerads in the late going to try and get closer, but Bo Peltier iced it for the home team with an empty netter at 19:19to round out the night’s scoring.
McDonald made 22 saves to register the win for Powassan while Gerads saw 34 shots fired his way in a losing cause for Kirkland Lake.
All NOJHL playoff games are streamed live online at HockeyTV.com.
East Division semifinal (Series C)
No. 1 Powassan Voodoos vs. No. 4 Kirkland Lake Gold Miners
Powassan leads best-of-seven series 2-0
Game 1: Powassan 5 Kirkland Lake 1
Game 2: Powassan 5 Kirkland Lake 2
Game 3: Tuesday, March 21 @ Kirkland Lake 7:30 p.m. (Joe Mavrinac Community Complex)
Game 4: Thursday, March 23 @ Kirkland Lake 7:30 p.m. (Joe Mavrinac Community Complex)
Game 5*: Friday, March 24 @ Powassan 7 p.m. (Powassan Sportsplex)
Game 6*: Sunday, March 26 @ Kirkland Lake 7:30 p.m. (Joe Mavrinac Community Complex)
Game 7*: Monday, March 27 @ Powassan 7 p.m. (Powassan Sportsplex)
*- if necessary
