Pontiacs out-pace Mustangs 11-3

Huge win for the team, right when it was needed

“When you work hard, you earn your right to celebrate,” Coach Rick Swan of the Bonnyville Jr A Pontiacs smiles reflecting on a 11-3 win over the Calgary Mustangs at the RJ Lalonde Arena on Saturday evening. Coming off a tough 4-3 shoot out loss to the Whitecourt Wolverines, the Pontaics needed to be reminded that hard work pays off, says the coach.

As an old school hockey coach would say,  Charlie Gawlicki set the tone for the game; first by popping in a goal at the 1:38 mark of the first from Erik Donald and Ludvig Adamsen, then by taking a visit to the sinbin for hooking at the 7:57 mark. The Pontiacs would get out of the penalty unscaved, while the Mustangs wouldn’t be so lucky. While Calgary’s Brady Pupp was in the box for the same offense as Gawlicki, hooking, Brandon Whistle took full advantage. With assists from Derek Brown and Jake Gresh, Whistle put in a goal at 15:07, on the power play, to make it a 2-0 game at the close of the first.

“It’s a team that we should’ve had success against,” Coach Swan understands the Mustangs are in rebuilding years, but he doesn’t let his players take too much from that. “When you look at the standings, you have a tendancy to feel like it’s going to be easy. They can forget the [fact] that they’re going to have to work… especially, in the Alberta Junior Hockey league, for everything that you get.”

The second period kept the clock man busy, the Pontiacs opened fire at 4:26 with a goal to Brendan Holterhus from PJ Marrocco and Ryan Piche, then just seconds later they flipped it around with Marrocco getting a goal from linemate Holterhus, at 4:55. The Mustangs were able to answer for one of the four Pontiacs goals just 20 seconds later thanks to Yuri Chernichko; but the achievement was short celebrated, the Pontiacs killer trio of  Holterhus, Marrocco and Piche lit up the board a minute later to take it from a 2-0 game to a 5-1 game in under 2 minutes.

The second period, far from being over, saw three more goals come in.  Brown from Trygve Many Guns and Gresh at the 14:44 mark, then a Mustang’s goal from Ryan Stoynich, followed by a Marrocco goal to close the period 7-2.

Mitchell Oliver started things off for the Pontiacs in the third with a goal from Alden Dupuis and Whistle at 2:30, followed closely with an unassisted goal from Jordan Xavier of the Mustangs.  Riley Perka took the Pontiacs to 2 for 3 on the power play and advanced the game to 9-3 from Jared Power and Gawlicki.  Alden Dupuis from Gresh and Ryan Symington and an unassisted goal from Power finished the game 11-3 in favour of the hometown boys.

“When you’re scoring that amount of goals, you’re obviously doing something right. You don’t abandon the structure, you don’t become a lone ranger, you don’t try to do too much, you don’t get selfish. You stay within the framework of the team game. That was the challenge today to play within our team game,” Coach Swan says it’s the big games that can challenge a team, just as much as the bad losses.

The Pontiacs are in action today, Sunday, at the RJ Lalonde Arena, to take on the Drumheller Dragons. Don’t miss the action, WIN tickets on LCN!