Brown Records Hat Trick as Yaks Attack Thunder 8-0

The Jr A Pontiacs took Drayton Valley Thunder 8-0 last night at the RJ LaLonde Arena. The Yaks had the Thunder playing defense most of the game with only 13 shots on Bonnyville’s goalie, Oliver Charest, during 60 minutes of play. Charest, who recorded his fifth shutout of the year, says the team helped ensure the shots on were low and were a huge contribution.

“The guys did a great job making sure it was a low shot against, every period.” Charest says it’s a catch-22 scenario, low shots on is ideal, however can make it a little tough on the goalie, “it’s tough when you only get a shot every five minutes.”

It was a nice win & it sure feels good! – Oliver Charest #31 Bonnyville Jr A Pontaics

Assistant Coach of the Bonnyville Pontiacs, Mark Jensen, says he was very happy with how the team played, “we had a week off. Sometimes, when you have that much time off, it’s common to come out and be sluggish or a little bit rusty. We came out, and right off the bat, we were pretty dominate, putting shots on net and creating scoring chances.” In the first, Bobby McMann opened the scoring at 11:46 from Kyler Hehn and Brandon Whistle. Chad Hurtubise followed at 15:37 from Derek Brown and Gen Bryshun. The Pontiacs would close the period with a 3-0 lead after Brown put in his first goal of the evening, at 16:02, from Hurtubise and Charlie Gawlicki.

Whistle opened the second strong with a goal from McMann and Ben Mack at 4:11. The Pontiacs didn’t let up after that, Brown‘s second goal of the night came at 9:39 from Gawlicki. Ryan Piche popped a goal in from Erik Donald and Brad Bigsby, and go one to assist Brown with his first AJHL career hat trick before the end of the second.

The sole goal in the third came from  Whistle at 17:03 from Hehn. “We had a lot of young guys step up,” says Assistant Coach, Jensen. “Whistle had three points and we got a hat trick outta Derek Brown. We just were able to take the puck, right from start of the game, right through for 60 minutes.”

Derek is a special player, especially when he moves his feet. We’ve seen that a lot from him lately, he can do thing at high speeds. When he’s working with his line mates to move the puck and jump in those holes, that line is tremendous. It’s nice to see a kid, who’s working so hard to adjust from Midget AAA to Jr A, get rewarded with his first hat trick. – Mark Jensen Assistant Coach Bonnyville Jr A Pontiacs

The 8-0 win will help propel the club to victory, Friday night at the RJ when the Crusaders are in town. The Pontiacs haven’t had a lot of success from playing Sherwood Park this season, and are looking for their first win against the organization. “They’re a team we haven’t seen for a while and sometimes that’s a good thing,” explains Jensen, “we get to regroup. We could potentially play these guys in the first round of the playoffs, so we wanna go out there and play the way we have been playing. We’re a lot better of a hockey team then when we first played them, so we need to go out there and show them, we can play them and beat them. Then if we do end up playing them in the first round, we can go out there and be confident.”

Puck drops Friday at 7:30 pm – WIN tickets on LCN