Offence comes alive in Yaks home victory over Oilers

Perhaps it was a bit of puck luck that led to the Pontiacs success on Sunday.

After dropping two closely contested games last Wednesday and Saturday to the Fort McMurray Oil Barons and Drumheller Dragons, respectively, Sunday’s home matchup against the Okotoks Oilers didn’t go to plan off the start. But that didn’t stop a 6-4 victory to one of the South Division’s best teams and right the ship after Bonnyville felt deserving in their previous two losses.

“It’s a common theme now that no matter what the score is, this team doesn’t quit,” said assistant coach Connor Cadaret. “So it’s nice, like I said, for them to get the outcome that we wanted, that I thought we deserved in a lot of these recent games.” 

A lackluster start put the Yaks behind the 8-ball trailing 2-0 after the first period, but a funny bounce from Cole Hipkin’s stick, with a puck tap dancing on the goal line went the Pontiacs way. That kickstarted an offence that would score the most goals they have had in any period with four.

Max Seguin scored a pair of goals in the frame as well as a pretty finish from Ethan Look jostled the score back and forth, before settling 4-4 after two periods.

That’s when rookie Nico Beaudoin got the deciding goal early in the final frame and potted another into an empty-net. It capped off a four point game and a six point weekend, now sitting at 16 goals and 10 assists in just 23 games this year.

“These young guys continue to develop and get better and they’ve been leading the way for a while now. Most of the time, I don’t think we have a 20 year old on our top line most of the time. And it was really nice to see Max get rewarded because I thought he’s been working very, very hard,” said Cadaret. 

Sunday was a reversal of fortunes compared to the night before where the Pontiacs held a 3rd period lead, but after a major penalty to Matteo Giampa, surrendered two goals on the penalty kill, and despite a mad dash and the end, lost 5-4 to Drumheller.

Even on Wednesday, the Pontiacs outshot and outchanced the Oil Barons, but could never find the tying goal down the stretch. Fort McMurray scored an empty-netter and won 3-1.

Bonnyville knows that home ice success is crucial to the Junior A game and hope they can carry some of the momentum from Sunday into tonight’s home matchup against the Whitecourt Wolverines.

“We know we can play with any team in the league. So it’s nice to see that and it’ll just be more of a relief for the players and kind of keep building towards what we know works and what our game can be.”

The Pontiacs are home for four of their next five games, currently with a record of 12-9-2 and 4th in the North.

After Wednesday, they travel to Sherwood Park, before hosting the Drayton Valley Thunder on Saturday night.

The Oil Barons then come to Bonnyville the following weekend for a pair of matchups on Nov. 25 and 26.

You can listen to every game, all season long on www.lakelandconnect.thedev.ca/pontiacs.