Pontiacs take three points from weekend against Fort McMurray

Image provided by http://gamereadyphotography.com. Pontiacs Marc-Antoine Benoit, centre, and Joel Ray, left, celebrate their assists on defenseman Noah Lugli’s goal in the third period of Sunday’s game against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons to make it 5-2.

The Pontiacs took three of a four possible points against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons this weekend in their pair of games at the RJ Lalonde.

The Yaks fell in overtime on Saturday night 4-3, before finishing strong on Sunday with a sound 5-1 win.

Coach Rick Swan after Saturday’s loss

“I thought we played really well aside from giving up breakdowns for everything they had, and that was our focus today. We can’t give teams anything, we have to make them earn it. We were in control of the game until the eight-minute mark of the third period. We had two costly mistakes which were just poor reads. We know as a coaching staff that’s something we need to key on in practice to ensure that we minimize those or limit them.”

Sunday’s win 5-1

The Pontiacs got on the board early with a powerplay marker from Daine Dubois, but a strong second period with 22 shots on goal and three goals was where the Yaks took control.

“Today though we learned from that. We played our complete 60 minutes. Other than giving up too many shots today, I liked our performance, I liked our effort, I know that our guys definitely didn’t the result yesterday,” said Coach Rick Swan.

“It really makes that Wednesday game against Sherwood Park even more meaningful.”

The offense was spread out from each line, the Pontiacs motif this season. Eleven players this season have scored twenty points or more with 16 games remaining on the AJHL schedule.

Luke Albert continues to play well

 

Defenseman Luke Albert had another three-point night, (one goal, two assists) and is progressing through the team’s scoring lead. Albert has 32 points – only Benoit and Dubois have more. Sunday’s game was the fourth time this year he’s scored three points.

The twenty-year-old has committed to Brown University next season in the NCAA.

Albert was acquired from the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs last season and has impacted the team’s defense corps ever since. In 71 total games as a Pontiac, Albert has 52 points.

Albert isn’t taking penalties either. So far, he’s only spent 18 minutes in the sin-bin.

First place Crusaders in town Wednesday

The Pontiacs will have a chance to close the gap on the first place Sherwood Park Crusaders when they travel to Bonnyville on Wednesday.

The Pontiacs sit three points back of first place but have a game in hand. If the Pontiacs win, they are a point back and still have a game in hand.

“We do want to focus on what we can control. We want to make sure that we don’t allow us in our intentions and our purpose to be focusing on the other team,” said Swan.

“We know that against Sherwood Park we have to stay disciplined. We can’t continually rely on our penalty kill….and those penalties I talk about are those lazy penalties, those retaliation penalties. We’ve got to focus on the mental part of the game there.”

The Pontiacs are 2-2-0 against Sherwood Park this season. They will only play each other once more after Wednesday’s game.

The Pontiacs continue to sit the CJHL Top 20 rankings where they’ve found themselves for the majority of the season.

Currently, the Pontiacs are 11th in the nation. The Sherwood Park Crusaders are 9th.