BONNYVILLE – The U15 Bonnyville Pontiacs, filled with a mix of players from 13 to 15 years old, invited six other Bantam teams to the Bonnyville and District Centennial Centre for a round-robin tournament over the weekend.
Arriving to Bonnyville with sharp skates were the Thorsby Thunder, Wetaskiwin Kings, Westlock Warriors, NWZ Hockey, NEZ Hockey and the Mannville Hawks combined with the Irma Aces.
The top four placing teams from the round-robin made the A-side final and the bottom three teams played in a B-side final, explained Craig Taylor, the coach of the U15 Pontiacs.
After the Pontiacs won both of their games on Saturday, winning 9–3 over Westlock and then 6–3 against Thorsby, they found themselves playing in the semi-finals for the A-side at 7 a.m. on Sunday.
“We ended up playing Wetaskiwin and unfortunately we lost in overtime. We lost the lead right at the end of the game then losing in a three-on-three overtime,” said Taylor. “It was disappointing, but the kids played hard and I think they had a lot of fun.”
The Wetaskiwin Kings went on to win the whole tournament, beating the Manville-Irma team 8–4 in the A-side final.
Battling it out in the B-side final was the Westlock Warriors and NWZ Hockey. In the end Westlock took the game winning 8–6.