It took five rounds of a shootout to find a winner, but when the dust settled on Feb. 19, the Powassan Voodoos had squeaked by with a win over the Greater Sudbury Cubs.
The Voodoos travelled to Sudbury for the Family Day match at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
It was late in the first before anyone got on the board. Shorthanded, Alex Little of the Voodoos snagged a loose puck, raced down the right wing and managed to beat Cubs goalie Noah Beaulne to make it a 1-1 Powassan game.
Just past the five-minute mark of the second, the Cubs managed to tie it up. Cubs’s forward Ethan Larmand took a pass from Josh Kavanaugh at the top of the left circle and beat Voodoos goalie Patrick Charette to make it 1-1.
Later that same period, the Cubs took the lead thanks to Hudson Chitaroni, who converted on a nice backdoor pass from Chris Innes on the right side, beating Charette and making it 2-1 Cubs after two periods of play.
Powassan gambled late in the third and pulled Charette from net for the extra attacker. The gamble played off when Tucker Shields took a pass in the slot from Alex Case and beat Beaulne to make it 2-2, with less than two minutes to go.
The third ended in a tie, as did the five-minute overtime period that followed, so the game went to a shootout.
Alex Case scored for the Voodoos while Nolan Newton scored for the cubs. Reyth Smith scored the clincher to give the Voodoos the 3-2 win.
With a record of 37-10-1-2, The Cubs now sit second in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League with 77 points, just one point behind the Blind River Beavers.
