Gajewski leads Voodoos past Thunderbirds

By Matt Stefano

After dropping a 5-2 decision to the Rayside Balfour Canadians back on Sunday night in Chelmsford, the Soo Thunderbirds were back on John Rhodes ice on Friday night as they took on the top team in Canada, the Powassan Voodoos.

The Thunderbirds, who were hoping to get back on the winning track after having their six game winning streak snapped against Rayside, took on a Voodoos team that entered Friday night’s game on a twenty game winning streak.

The Voodoos opened up the scoring just 2:11 into the first period, as Ryan Mills notched his seventh goal of the season from Cade Herd, which put the visitors up 1-0 after twenty minutes of play.

Woodhaven, Michigan native Dylan Gajewski would put the Voodoos up 2-0 at the 8:47 mark of the second period with his fourth goal of the season.

Voodoos leading point man Gregory Trudeau-Paquet would pick up the only assist on Gajewski’s fourth goal of the season.

Another American-born player would score for the Voodoos at the 12:12 mark of the season, as Nashville, Tennessee native Tomas Yachmenev would notch his thirteenth goal of the season, which put the visitors up by three.

The Voodoos would then get a power play goal with just fifty two ticks left to go in the second period, as Eric Mondoux would notch his second goal of the season from Dylan Gajewski, putting the visitors up by four after forty minutes of action.

Gajewki’s assist on Mondoux’s goal, also gave him his second point of the night.

The Thunderbirds would crack the goose egg at the 14:31 mark of the third period, as leading scorer Nick Smith would notch his fifteenth goal of the season on the power play from Jacob Kovacs and Warner Young, which cut the Voodoos lead to three.

The Voodoos ended up going on to their twenty first consecutive victory on Friday night though, as they went on to defeat the Thunderbirds by a score of 4-1 at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

Thunderbirds netminder Dakota Meyer gave up four goals on forty one shots in the loss while Voodoos goaltender Owen Say made twenty eight saves for the victory.

The Thunderbirds will be back in action on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m., when they take on the defending NOJHL champion Hearst Lumberjacks at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

The Lumberjacks, who defeated the Thunderbirds in the 2019 NOJHL Final, will make their first and only visit to the Rhodes on Saturday night for the 2019-2020 season.

(Photo by Bob Davies)

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