Sr. Pontiacs lose third period lead and fall to Daysland

Daysland Northstars captain David Jacobsen battles in his own zone as the Pontiacs tried to get some momentum back in the third period.

The Sr. Pontiacs failed to hold on to a two goal lead heading in to the third period, and watched the Daysland Northstars come back to win 5-4 on Saturday.

Kenny Bradley scored with 1:50 left in the game, and the Pontiacs could not mount a response before the buzzer.

The Pontiacs offence had been rolling until the third period when the game shifted in favour of the Northstars, who only brought 11 skaters to the game.

“Right from the first shift it was awful. We didn’t manage the puck, we weren’t positionally sound, we left guys wide open. No one wanted to do their assignments, guys were cheating a little bit looking for offense. We couldn’t bare down. We didn’t win any 50-50 puck battles. We couldn’t establish a forecheck. We couldn’t get any pucks to the middle of the net to create some offense. The three breakdowns that we had, guys were wide-open and they pretty much have a wide-open net to shoot at,” said coach Corey Wandler.

“Obviously fairly disgusted with that third period performance. We come out and we play two strong periods we’re up 4-2 on home ice. We’re a desperate hockey club holding on to the last playoff spot in the league, we got a chance to get two points and climb the standings a little bit and we come out flat.

“I don’t know if the guys felt they had it in the bag or not, but you can’t take a team like Daysland for granted, even if they have 11 skaters. Those 11 guys all play good hockey. They’ve all won before and they can play in the big moment. Something our guys have to understand is there are good teams in this league and when were facing adversity like we have all year, obviously luck doesn’t go our way. It’s those second and third efforts, and we just didn’t have that in the third.

“Anytime you’re up two goals going into the third on home ice and you get nothing to show for it – it hurts a lot.”

Dru Morrison’s offence from the blueline was giving the team plenty of life in the first two period. Then Lucas Islay scored the Yaks the fourth goal of the game after camping in front of the net.

The Pontiacs will play a pair of games next weekend. They will travel to Devon on Saturday before hosting last place Whitecourt on Sunday afternoon.

“We need points. We’re holding onto that last playoff spot, so we’ll keep grinding it out,” said Wandler.