Jr A Pontiacs finish 4th, will play Drumheller Dragons in 1st round

Left to right: Josh Simpson, Luka Sukovic, Tyler Blocha, JR Ashmead, all play their last regular season junior game. Image: BPontiacs.

The dust has settled.

Fifty-seven games have been played and the Bonnyville Pontiacs will finish as the 4th seed for this year’s AJHL playoffs and face the Drumheller Dragons.

This comes after a tight, playoff like game on Friday night that finished 2-1 to the eventual 1st place finishers in the Whitecourt Wolverines. Saturday night was a wide open affair, finishing 4-3 for the Pontiacs over the Drayton Valley Thunder.

The Yaks needed a Whitecourt win over Lloydminster to move to 3rd, but the Bobcats took care of business with a home victory to lock up the 2nd seed.

Luka Sukovic’s quest to be the leading scorer fell just short.

Caden Cabana finished with 69 points to be the league’s leading scorer. Interestingly enough, Brendan Ross of the Blackfalds Bulldogs still would’ve won the scoring title with the points he earned before the Bulldogs were exited out of the AJHL.

Sukovic would add one goal this weekend to finish with a league-leading 35 this season.

What remains up ahead is a wait. The Pontiacs won’t start their round against the Dragons until at least Friday, March 15. The Dragons will have been idle for six more days than the Pontiacs, having completed their regular season on Feb. 25.

Meanwhile, the three best-of-five “play-in” series matchups have been established.

The Grande Prairie Storm will play the Olds Grizzlys, the Canmore Eagles will meet the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, and the Camrose Kodiaks will meet the Drayton Valley Thunder.

The series’ begin on Thursday, March 7.

It’s been a long unusual year, but the post-season is finally in sight.

Notes

Sukovic’s goal scoring prowess is 18th best in franchise history.

With Saturday’s win, the Yaks finished with a record of 30-23-4. Only twice since 2010 have the Pontiacs failed to achieve this milestone, a remarkable stretch of consistency and endurance for the franchise.

Four Pontiacs, Tyler Blocha, Luka Sukovic, JR Ashmead, and Josh Simpson, all played their last regular season games in junior hockey as graduating 20-year-olds.

In the regular season, the Pontiacs finished 2nd in both goals for and goals against. Their powerplay is also tops in the AJHL at an impressive 24.6%, despite having the fewest amount of powerplay attempts, and 136 fewer attempts than the Canmore Eagles.

The roster is talented with more NCAA Division I commits than any other team in the league.

But the team wobbles at times and struggles with consistency.

They’ll have two weeks to prepare for the Dragons, who finished the regular season on a five game losing streak.

The Pontiacs will wait to hear the status of their award nominees in the coming days as well.

• Rookie of the Year – Dante Siciliano
• D-Man of the Year – JR Ashmead
• Goaltender of the Year – Bodee Weiss
• Most Dedicated Player – Nicolas Beaudoin
• League MVP – Luka Sukovic
• Top Forward – Luka Sukovic

You can listen to every playoff game with Michael Menzies on lakelandconnect.net/pontiacs.