Pontiacs earn exciting 7-4 win over Oilers

Key contributors step up in revenge win on Friday. Image: The Pontiacs gather at the Bonnyville Remembrance Day ceremony outside the Royal Canadian Legion. 

In a word – thrilling. 

The Bonnyville Pontiacs beating the Okotoks Oilers 7-4 on Friday night at home extinguished a two game slide, but thrilled the Yaks faithful in an excellent and exciting game. 

Easily the most exciting of the season so far from an entertainment standpoint, the two points for the Pontiacs were important from a standings perspective, and also for their psyche. They had lost to Okotoks just five days before, and blew a two-goal lead against the Lloyd Bobcats on Wednesday. 

Billy Batten scored the game-winning powerplay goal and added two assists, Ludo Tardif electrified with a fantastic solo job for a two-goal night, Luka Sukovic added another two markers, and Nicolas Beaudoin had three helpers all in a winning effort. 

Bodee Weiss made 21 saves for his 11th win of the season, including eight big saves in the 3rd period. 

After going down a couple early in the game, the Yaks stormed back, and never let up in a relentless effort. 

“That’s the game of hockey – highs and lows. You have to be able to manage those,” said assistant coach Ryan Blocha in the B&R Eckels Bonnyville Pontiacs post-game. 

“I thought we were okay. I still think we need to improve on our hard-on-pucks attitude, maybe a couple more battles in front of the net. We’re going to take the two points. That’s a big win after the loss we had last weekend, but we still have things to work on.” 

Back and forth scoring

Rylan Brown scored a highlight reel snipe on the powerplay to make it 1-0 Okotoks, then moments later, an odd-man rush with an initial shot, then rebound swung out of the air hit the crossbar, and third chance finally buried by Brett Wilson, could’ve allowed the Pontiacs to say — here we go again.

Similar to five days previous, Bonnyville was down two goals early.

However, this time around the Yaks scored three goals in a span of 3:37. Batten put the puck on a silver platter for Sukovic at the side of the goal to get off the snide. A powerplay chance allowed Dante Siciliano to score on a long bomb from the point, and then Tardif was able to finish off of a nice relay pass from Max Seguin.

It was nip and tuck from that point. As the Yaks got margin with goals from Josh Simpson, and later Billy Batten, the Oilers replied to make it a one-goal affair twice.

Sitting with a 5-4 lead in the 3rd, the terrific solo effort by Ludo Tardif as the Yaks faced incredible Oilers pressure, saw him poke the puck past Rylan Brown, slide it by the other defenceman, then knock it past Christian Green for a beauty.

Sukovic added an empty-netter and that was all she wrote.

The Yaks powerplay percentage continues to climb, going 2/2 on Friday, placing them 2nd across the league with a 25.3 per cent conversation rate. This is all the more impressive considering how few man-advantage opportunities they receive.

Bonnyville has had just 75 PP opportunities, which is 61 fewer than the Canmore Eagles who’ve had the most, and nine fewer than the team with the second fewest opportunities. This is nothing new. For the last two seasons, the Pontiacs have had the fewest man-advantages, as games in the RJ Lalonde are just called differently than across the league.

Their penalty-kill is nothing to scoff at either. Sitting 8th, the Yaks have also taken the fewest penalties in the league, being shorthanded 84 times, and killing at a 83.3 per cent clip.

League-wide

With the rest of the weekend off, the Pontiacs got some much-needed rest as they watched a series of upsets unfold across the AJHL.

Okotoks lost on Saturday to Lloydminster before scraping together a 7-6 win in a rematch on Sunday. With only two points on the trip, the Yaks remain in a tie for 4th overall with Calgary, who responded to a 9-0 shellacking to the hands of the Brooks Bandits, with a 3-2 shootout win over the Olds Grizzlys.

Those last-place Grizzlys beat the Drumheller Dragons the night before.

Notes

Luka Sukovic sits tied for 2nd still in goals along with Brendan Ross of the Blackfalds Bulldogs with 18 with that pair. Dakota MacIntosh, who left the Bulldogs for the Moose Jaw Warriors, remains in the lead with 19. “Suko” is 5th overall in league scoring.

Nicolas Beaudoin has climbed in top-20 in scoring as well with his recent streak. He has 12 points in his last six games. Having earned 74 points last season, he has 25 in 23 games so far in 2023-24.

Three of the eight league’s top rookie scorers are Pontiacs. Jack McAra (4G, 15A) is 4th, Billy Batten (3G, 13A) is tied-6th, and Dante Siciliano all rookie d-men in scoring (6G, 8A) and is 8th overall. Siciliano is a longjam tie for 2nd in all defenseman goalscoring.

Bodee Weiss is 3rd in the league in wins with 11 and has played the 4th most minutes amongst goaltenders this season. His 2.54 GAA is easily the lowest of his junior career, and represents a Yaks team that is 4th in goals against.

Bonnyville has a trip to Whitecourt on Wednesday, before big home games on Friday and Saturday nights vs Sherwood Park and Camrose.

You can listen to every game, all season on lakelandconnect.net and lakelandconnect.mixlr.com.