Yaks split with Thunder; races tighten in North standings

The Bonnyville Pontiacs had their eight game win streak snapped on the road against Drayton Valley on Saturday night, splitting the weekend series. 

Despite being so late in the season, the Pontiacs made their first visit to their northern rivals, and began well on Friday, winning 4-2 thanks to two Matteo Giampa goals, markers from Nico Beaudoin and Liam Cavan, and sixteen Bodee Weiss saves. 

But the next night saw the Thunder capitalize on many of their opportunities, namely from captain Daniel Kernaghan. The 20-year-old leading scorer lit it up during Senior’s night, scoring a hat-trick and helping on two other goals, as the Thunder won 7-3. 

“Honestly I don’t think we played that bad of a game. It’s almost like a game we’ve played earlier this season, where we have a good shift and then we make one mistake at the end of it, they come down 3-on-1 and score,” said assistant coach Connor Cadaret postgame.

“That seemed to happen a lot. A lot of their goals came off of our turnovers. A couple on the penalty kill, which has been stellar for awhile. They played a good game. They used their strengths, they used their speed.”

It’s leading to an interesting week, where the Yaks return home for the Grande Prairie Storm on Tuesday, who’ll be playing three games in three calendar days, and then venture to Whitecourt for a road set against a difficult North team. 

Only trailing by four points, the Wolverines only picked up three points out of a possible eight on the road last week, which makes the jockeying for position that much tighter. 

Beaudoin trails Bandits forward Aiden Fink by one goal for the league lead with 37. Giampa is also six points behind Fink overall in points. 

There are details that the Pontiacs will look to finetune in the coming days, although there won’t be much practice time in between contests. 

“It was good for us to face that kind of adversity,” said Cadaret.

“I think our breakouts. That’s been a focus of ours, but I thought our decisions along the wall weren’t very good. We were just handing them pucks. We couldn’t get out of our own end. And probably our forecheck. In a game like that, and especially on Tuesday too, I’d like to see us be more aggressive and really see their D make decisions.”

What remains interesting is the Sherwood Park Crusaders pursuit of the 3rd seed. They shutout the Grande Prairie Storm 4-0 on Sunday, and face Blackfalds later Monday which could see them vault over the Yaks temporarily. 

Whoever finishes 4th is destined to meet the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in the first round.

Just five games remain on the schedule before Round 1 begins on Friday, March 10 at the RJ. 

• Tuesday, Feb 21 vs Grande Prairie | Home 7pm
• Friday, Feb. 24 at Whitecourt | 7pm
• Saturday, Feb. 25 at Whitecourt | 7pm
• Wednesday, March 1 at Drayton Valley | 7pm
• Friday, March 3 vs Grande Prairie | Home 7pm

You can listen to every game, all season at lakelandconnect.thedev.ca/pontiacs.