COCHRANE, ON – Matt Young turned away 57 shots in an impressive performance to lead the Powassan Voodoos to a 3-1 upset victory over the Cochrane Crunch at the Tim Horton’s Community Centre on Friday night.
Young made a number of spectacular stops throughout the night gaining the road victory against the team that traded him to Powassan back in October along with teammate James Vuillemot in exchange for Sturgeon Falls product Ben Auger.
“It feels good to beat my favourite team,” said Young, who was one of the returning players from the Elliot Lake Bobcats franchise that moved to Cochrane in the off-season.
“I know James (Vuillemot) and (Jacob) Erwin were just as happy too,” added Young about the two other former Crunch players who are on the Voodoos roster.
The guys played great in front of me allowing me to see shots, it really felt great,” added Young who kept the league’s leading scorer, Cody Gratton, off the scoresheet.
The Crunch got on the board early as Jason Berube beat Young with a high shot over the blocker on a 2 on 1 at 6:23 of the opening frame.
The Voodoos responded just over 4 minutes later as Brendan D’Agostino evened the score with a power play marker to make it 1-1 after 1.
For D’Agostino that improves his point scoring streak to 12 games; where he has recorded 22 points.
The red hot Steve Harland, named the NOJHL’s player of the month for November, got what turned out to be the game winner midway through the second period to give the Voodoos a 2-1 after 2 periods of play.
Young and the Voodoos defence got tested late in the 3rd period as they killed off an extended Crunch 5 on 3 power play late in the game.
Near the end of the penalty kill the Crunch received a Too Many Men on the Ice call.
On that power play opportunity, Aaron Dart beat Crunch goaltender Brett Young at 15:58 for the insurance marker.
The Voodoos have now pulled to .500 with a record of 11-11-0-5 on the season and have now recorded points in 10 of their last 12 contests.
The Voodoos are back on the ice Saturday night when they travel to Iroquois Falls to take on the Abitibi Eskimos. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Jus Jordan arena.
