A Gregory Trudeau-Paquet power play goal halfway through overtime helped thwart a late comeback by the Cochrane Crunch as the Powassan Voodoos pulled out their 19th straight Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory with a 3-2 decision Sunday at the Powassan Sportsplex.
Up a skater near the midway point of the first period, the hometown Voodoos would open the scoring as Sam Ellwood’s seventh of the season made it 1-0 after one.
Powassan came out quickly in the middle stanza and added to their lead 33 seconds in when Ryan Mills connected to give him at least one point in 15 of his past 16 outings.
It stayed 2-0 Voodoos late into the third when Cochrane mounted their comeback.
Owen Perala put the Crunch on the board with 2:07 remaining in regulation then the visitors came right back and notched the equalizer 59 seconds later to force extra time compliments of Hunter Buzzi’s tying tally.
Cochrane then went on the power play before time expired to put them up a skater heading to OT.
However, Powassan went up a skater themselves in the extra session and capitalized when Trudeau-Paquet slammed in a cross-crease pass to end it and extend the Voodoos lengthy winning run.
Shots on goal in the contest favoured the Crunch by a 40-28 count with Luke Greenwood getting the win while Cody Levesque’s efforts helped the Crunch earn a point.
The win also marks the 200th in Voodoos franchise history.
The Voodoos are back on home ice Wednesday night when they host the improving French River Rapids. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
