Yaks thrash Wolverines to advance to North Final

For just the second time in franchise history, the Bonnyville Pontiacs are heading to the North Division Final.

On Friday night, the Yaks secured their third road win over the Whitecourt Wolverines, found goals from Jack Budd, Matteo Giampa, and Trey Funk, and defeated the higher ranked opponent 4-2 to take the series in just five games.

Specialty teams again contributed heavily to the Yaks success. Bonnyville scored twice on the man-advantage, the Wolverines were stymied on their four chances.

“We had a really good plan going in, but that’s half the battle. The other half is getting the players to buy in and execute. They did that to a tee,” said assistant coach Connor Cadaret. 

“To be playing our best hockey at this point of the season against a really good team in Whitecourt who had an excellent season, but outplayed them almost in every aspect. That’s all on the players for understanding the gameplan and sticking to it, and adjusting when we needed to. But there’s were five of some of our best games that we’ve seen this team play.” 

In the push and pull of playoff hockey, the Yaks never lead in Game 1, despite winning in overtime. After that point, they only trailed for a total of five minutes and thirty-six seconds in the series.

The Yaks meanwhile, lead for a total of 141 minutes and 33 seconds from Game 2 on.

Head coach Mario Pouliot showed his veteran savvy behind the bench against the Coach of the Year in Shawn Martin, who both liked the matchup of Chayce Schmidt-Mike Cataldo-Luka Sukovic vs Cooper Smyl-Tanner Klimpke or Chase Broda.

Pouliot’s slight tinker of putting Sukovic with Funk and Tardif, and Hipkin with Cataldo and Schmidt, seemed to breathe new life in the forward group and created more chances for both units.

Not to mention the total 11 forwards and seven defencemen structure the team has been running for months, which allows for more ice time for Funk, Giampa, and Sukovic, and the different combos of two lines Pouliot throws over the boards — the two-time Memorial Cup champion had the Magic Bullet blending throughout the series.

Bodee Weiss made 27 quality saves in the clinching win, including 16 stops in the 1st period when the Wolverines had two powerplays.

“Bodee definitely made some big saves tonight. He was definitely our best penalty-killer tonight. But the willingness to block shots, willingness to do what needed to be done. They adjusted a bit on the powerplay, I thought we read their adjustments well,” said Cadaret.

The Yaks as of press time on Sunday have the playoffs’ top-2 scorers in Matteo Giampa (6G, 11A, 17pts) and Jack Budd (4G, 12A, 16pts).

Budd’s three goals in the series were massive: the Game 1 overtime winner, plus the first two in Game 5, shows a maturity in the 19-year-old defenceman. The Yaks always knew he had the offensive tools, but he’s picked his spots better in the playoffs, and has been more defensively responsible.

“Not only on the ice, but off the ice, and in-game, he has matured. He has learned how to play the right way and how to act the right way during the game. He’s been one of the players who’s really stepped up in these playoffs,” said Cadaret.

Liam Cavan has emerged as the team’s best defenceman overall during this post-season, collecting valuable minutes even-strength and on the PK, plus his willingness to front pucks and play hard in the dirty areas. The former Vernon Viper, who suffered through trials and tribulations in his junior career due to significant injury, has gutted it out in his last season.

North Final berth significant

It can be argued that the five game dispatching of the Whitecourt Wolverines is the most dominant series performance in the 31 years of the franchise.

Just the second victory in the North Division semi-final in team history in nine attempts, the context of playing this well in the second round is not lost on fans, who have suffered through tough losses as the higher-ranked seed in the past decade.

The Yaks join just the 2014-15 Pontiacs as the only other club that has gone that far.

But all that is academic and irrelevant to this team, who knows a challenge lies ahead in the form of the Spruce Grove Saints — a challenge they feel they’re up for.

“We have a job to do. We have half the puzzle down, we have two more rounds to go. I think their eyes are on the prize. The way we’ve done it all year is trust in the process, so next week is going to be really important, just for the coaching staff to continue the preparation that we’ve done in the same way for the first two series,” said Cadaret.

What does bode well for the Pontiacs is their regular season matchups against the Saints. The Yaks won four of six meetings, including their last two at home, which saw a 8-2 win on the Justin Fontaine jersey retirement night on Jan. 25.

That was the last regular season loss for the Saints, who won 15 in a row, and are coming off of a five game series win over the Sherwood Park Crusaders themselves.

The Saints home ice advantage has been almost impossible to beat, only losing twice all season long at the Grant Fuhr Arena — both times to the Bonnyville Pontiacs.

The North Final begins Friday, April 7 in Spruce Grove. Game 2 will be Saturday, April 8.

Bonnyville is home for Game 3 and 4, Tuesday, April 11 and Wednesday, April 12.

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