Yaks win streak snapped at 9, have busy weekend ahead down south

Off to one of their best starts in franchise history a third of the way through the season, the Bonnyville Pontiacs are currently on their longest roadtrip of the season, midway through a stretch of four games in five nights. 

The Bonnyville Pontiacs nine game win streak was snapped on Wednesday in a bad spot against the Calgary Canucks, falling 4-0 in the second game of their four-game roadtrip. 

On Thursday, the Yaks had a day off in Canmore, getting rest in the mountains before playing back-to-back games against the Eagles and Olds Grizzlys. 

There’s been a lot of hockey as of late for this group. The game Wednesday was their fifth in 8 nights, as the Yaks have taken advantage of their schedule in recent weeks to propel them to a 14-4-1 record almost a third of the way through the season. 

The game on Tuesday against the Okotoks Oilers was a barnburner with two lead changes in the third period ending in a 6-5 victory.  

Sebastian Tamburro may be credited with a deflection goal to tie the game 5-5 not even a minute after the Oilers took their first lead of the game, but Alex Atwill’s shot created the chance for the goal. 

Riding that momentum, Ethan Sundar’s hustle ran out an icing call on the ensuing faceoff, and centered the puck in front for captain Kash Rasmussen to bury the game-winner with 2:09 remaining. 

The nine-game streak ties the second longest in franchise history, accomplished in 2010-11 and 2015-16. 

The Pontiacs are tied for the most wins in the AJHL North Division with 14 victories alongside the Fort McMurray Oil Barons and Spruce Grove Saints, and just one point back of the Saints for first place. 

The Pontiacs have nine players with double-digit point totals with Bonnyville-natives Austin Saint and AJ Macaulay leading the way with 17 points.

The CJHL rankings put Bonnyville nationally as the 11th best team on Monday after not being listed during the 21-22 season.

#	PLAYER NAME	DOB	P	GP	G	A	PTS	P/G	PP	SH	GW	PIM
17	Austin Saint	7/23/2001	RF	19	9	8	17	0.9	2	1	1	41
89	A.J. Macaulay	4/12/2002	LD	18	5	12	17	0.9	2	0	2	8
18	Matteo Giampa	9/3/2003	RF	17	7	9	16	0.9	1	0	1	4
91	Sebastian Tamburro	3/4/2002	LW	19	6	10	16	0.8	2	0	1	24
10	Ethan Sundar	7/25/2003	LW	19	7	7	14	0.7	1	0	0	6
19	Michael Fairfax	3/4/2001	LF	18	5	8	13	0.7	2	0	2	12
12	Kash Rasmussen	4/20/2001	LF	14	4	9	13	0.9	0	0	1	2
5	Nick Traggio	8/1/2001	RD	16	4	8	12	0.8	1	0	0	26
44	Charlie Russell	8/21/2003	RF	17	5	5	10	0.6	1	0	3	25

Matt Hennessey remains top 10 in the league in goals against average with a 2.58 mark after the win against Okotoks on Tuesday. He is expected to start Friday against the Eagles.

Nick Traggio was recognizes as the AJHL’s Defensive Player of the Week after last weekend, where the 20-year-old rearguard had 4 points in a pair of Bonnyville wins on home ice.

The Yaks won’t play at the RJ Lalonde again until November 12 when the Blackfalds Bulldogs come to town for their first-ever regular season tilt. Then the Drumheller Dragons will visit Bonnyville for the first time in two seasons on Saturday, November 13.

You can listen to all the games at lakelandconnect.thedev.ca/pontiacs.

Upcoming games:

• Friday, November 5 at the Canmore Eagles | 7PM
• Saturday, November 6 at the Olds Grizzlys | 7PM
• Tuesday, November 9 at the Drayton Valley Thunder | 7:30PM
• Friday, November 12 Home vs the Blackfalds Bulldogs | 7PM
• Saturday, November 13 Home vs the Drumheller Dragons | 7PM