Blind River Beavers Elliot Lake Red Wings Espanola Paper Kings French River Rapids Greater Sudbury Cubs Hearst Lumberjacks Iroquois Falls Storm Kirkland Lake Gold Miners Powassan Voodoos Soo Eagles Soo Thunderbirds Timmins Rock | Hockey Canada Canadian Junior Hockey League Northern Ontario Hockey Association

GALLERY: Solid night for O’Brien as Powassan powers past French River

Photos: Jeremy Seguin

FRENCH RIVER – The Powassan Voodoos saw Conor O’Brien score twice and assist on the game-winner to help propel the Powassan Voodoos past the French River Rapids 4-1 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter Saturday night at Noelville Arena.

Powassan needed just under four minutes to open the scoring thanks to Tucker Shields as he joined a rush and finished off a give-and-go with linemates Chase Strychaluk and Rhys Smetham before beating Rapids’ netminder Brady Dyer.

The tally for Shields also helped him extend a consecutive game point streak to six straight contests.

Extending their lead at 11:13 of the first period, Alex Little made it 2-0 Voodoos as he jumped into the play and completed a cross-ice feed from O’Brien for his ninth marker of the season.

French River came back a couple of shifts later to put themselves on the board as Jordan Bax snagged a Powassan clearing attempt, then put a shot on net that came out to Connor Picard, who added another on target that eventually pinballed out front and hit a defender’s skate before trickling across the goal line by goaltender Daniel Dirracolo.

Staying 2-1 for the guests into the second stanza, they extended their lead when O’Brien quickly snapped in a spinning back pass from Thomas Gazich at 12:29.

In the final frame, O’Brien added another with just over four minutes remaining and he wired one in high blocker as a Rapids penalty was expiring to cap off the road victory.

With the win, the Voodoos improved to 23-10-1-0 overall while French River dipped to 6-27-0-1.

MAKE-UP GAME: The NOJHL has finalized the make-up date for the Voodoos – Greater Sudbury Cubs contest that was postponed back on December 22.

This match-up will now be held on Monday, February 20 and features a 2:30 p.m. start at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex in Sudbury and on HockeyTV.com.