Bonnyville Pontiacs home opener is tonight

The Bonnyville Pontiacs have already gone through their first run of adversity, but the new head coach Mario Pouliot arrived earlier this week, and the team is getting battle ready for the home opener tonight.

The Yaks split in their first two games at the Grande Prairie Storm last weekend, winning 4-3 before suffering a 7-2 setback on Saturday. Assistant coach Connor Cadaret and associate general manager Neil Langridge held down their fort behind the bench as Pouliot arrived in Bonnyville late Monday night.

The two-time Memorial Cup winning head coach fell in the Yaks lap after then head coach Brad Flynn resigned due to a family emergency that forced him to return to Ontario.

Now, the French head coach, who has never coached outside of Quebec, is looking to make an impact out west.

“It’s been a pretty good week here. Honestly, I’m very happy about what I’m seeing since I’m here,” Pouliot told Lakeland Connect. 

“I think I want to use my experiences, and for me it’s going to be a new challenge, a new opportunity. It’s going to be a challenge one, because I don’t know nothing about the AJHL and about all the players here. So that’s kind of the biggest challenge I will have, but at the same time, I’m really happy to have the chance to live that, to discover all that,” he said. 

The 58-year-old is the only coach in Canadian Hockey League history to win back-to-back Memorial Cup championships with different teams, taking the Acadie–Bathurst Titan in the 2017-18 season and the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the 2018-19 season to Memorial Cup titles.

After health issues early last year, he stepped away from the game. But when the opportunity arose, he felt the itch to come back.

“I want to come in and to help those young men to become good players and to achieve their goals too. 

“We have a good group of players and we have a pretty interesting potential. Now it’s going to put all that together and play the game in the right way. And we’ll see what’s going to happen.”

Home opener activities  

While the action begins on the ice at 7:00pm against the Sherwood Park Crusaders, getting to the rink early is a good idea. The Home Tailgater Party starts at 5:00pm as the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority will be cooking up burgers. Fans who show their game ticket will get a free burger and pop, sponsored by Bonnyville Welding.

The 50/50 pot is guaranteed at $2,500 as well and Juno Award winner Clayton Bellamy will sing Oh Canada.

Tickets and be bought at the RJ Lalonde or online at https://tickets.bonnyvillepontiacs.ca.

On the ice

Bonnyville will be without captain Trey Funk who serves the last game of his suspension after a ban was issued from opening night.

But the recruiting has not stopped. Since last weekend, the Yaks have added three new forwards, including (’04) Max Seguin from the Vernon Vipers, (’03) and Connor Brazil and (’02) Sam Schofield from the Cowichan Valley Capitals.

Triggerman Matteo Giampa has been off to an impressive start. The Canisius college commit has a goal in each game so far this season, along with Cole Hipkin, the St. Lawrence commit.

Each have provided offensive leadership in the first pair of games playing together.

The Sherwood Park Crusaders enter the weekend with a 1-2 record after beating the Spruce Grove Saints on opening night, before losing the rubber match to the Saints, and falling to the surprising Lloyd Bobcats, who have started 3-0 in the North Division.

Despite all teams having played at least two games, only one North Division opponent is winless: the Whitecourt Wolverines, who suffered an overtime and shootout loss to the Bobcats.

The Pontiacs are home to the Spruce Grove Saints on Saturday night.

You can follow every game, all season long on lakelandconnect.thedev.ca/pontiacs.