POWASSAN, Ont. – Paced by a three-goal night from Ryan Patrick, the soaring Powassan Voodoos won their 10th game in a row by sinking the French River Rapids 7-2 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League affair Friday night at the Powassan Sportsplex.
The Voodoos got the game’s initial tally at 14:13 of the opening frame as they came out of their own zone quickly that led to a quick give-and-go on a two-on-one and Patrick getting just enough off a Rhys Smetham feed to chip it by Rapids’ netminder Matthew Perdue.
Moving to the middle stanza, Powassan broke the game open by striking three times, in just over a four-minute span, to make 4-0 with over a half a game still to play.
Smetham began the outburst at 4:17 as he banged in the rebound off a Chase Strychaluk shot.
A couple of shifts later, Mathieu MacMillan extended the lead as he powered his way out of the corner and lifted a backhand by Perdue.
He then notched his second of the period right after that as he forced a turnover and promptly buried it from between the hashmarks at 8:06.
French River did get one back half-way through the contest on a Jack Ginocchi effort as he drove to the net, and while taking a hit, beat Powassan’s Kannon Flageolle.
Restoring their cushion with a man advantage marker prior to the intermission, Tucker Shields was set-up in the high slot and quickly fired a shot by Perdue for goal No. 23 on the season.
The Rapids got another one in the third as Matthew Campanella spun up high and sent a rising shot past a partially screened Flageolle with 14:22 remaining.
Powassan came back to put the game away though when Jack Kelly was foiled on a breakaway, but Patrick was right there to stuff in the rebound for his second of the evening.
Patrick then completed his hat trick by cleverly tipping in a Carson Ricci attempt from the left point to finish off the result as the Voodoos winning streak reached double digits.
With the win, Powassan also improved to 33-11-1-0 on the year while French River dropped to 7-38-1-1.
