A loss to Spruce Grove on Friday night capped off a stretch of three home games in four nights from the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs, which saw the team collect four out of a possible six points.
Erik Pedersen scored 1:01 into overtime as Whitecourt edged Bonnyville 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Captain Steenn Pasichnuk scored in his return to the lineup as the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs slipped past the Grande Prairie Storm Thursday night.
Bobby McMann notched three points, with two goals and one assist against the top ranked Spruce Grove Saints on Friday night, but the Pontiacs came up short 5-4 in a shootout.
Wolverines top Pontiacs in OT
The Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs saw 2-0 and 3-2 leads slip away before losing 5-4 to the Whitecourt Wolverines on Nov. 17.
“It is definitely a disappointing result. I think we played them pretty well,” said Pontiacs defenseman Bryan Gerstenfeld. “It was definitely a game that we should have ended up winning, but there were a few breakdowns.”
Forwards Carter Rhine and Chad Hurtubise potted the only goals of the first period to post Bonnyville out to a 2-0 lead.
For Rhine, a defenseman who recently made the jump to forward, the goal was his third and three games since making the transition.
The Pontiacs saw their lead evaporate early in the second period when Dondre Watson and Bryson Traptow scored just 42 seconds apart to event then game 2-2.
Roughly six minutes later Whitecourt's Jamieson Ree was sent off for tripping, letting one of the AJHL's top home powerplays go to work.
Midway through the man advantage Brandon Whistle managed to get his stick on an Erik Donald point shot and deflect it past Tanner McCorriston giving Bonnyville the 3-2 lead.
The goal held up until the third period. That is when Wolverine forward Joseph Nardi showed up.
The 18-year-old forward scored 39 seconds into the final period, and then again 7:30 later to propel his team to a 4-3 lead.
Whitecourt's first lead of the game was short-lived, as Whistle would score 18 seconds after Nardi to tie the game.
“I just tried to drive the net for Bobby,” said Whistle, describing his second goal. “He was trying to feed it though. He shot it, it got blocked popped out to me and I had pretty much a wide open net.”
Bonnyville would hit the crossbar in the dying minutes of the third but failed to find the back of the net.
The Wolverines ended the game just over a minute into overtime.
Pontiacs squeak by Storm
After a five-game absence, Steenn Pasichnuk returned to the lineup and helped the Pontiacs overcome a feisty Grande Prairie squad.
The Bonnyville captain, who had been sidelined with an ankle injury since Oct. 30, opened the scoring for the Pontiacs at 2:02 of the second period.
Pasichnuk popped out from behind the Storm net and threw what appeared to be a harmless shot on goal. The puck managed to squeak between Storm netminder Arik Weersink and right post, trickling across the goal line to tie the game 1-1.
The goal seemed to spark the Bonnyville offence, as the Pontiacs pummeled Weersink for the next few minutes.
Defenseman Bryan Gerstenfeld blasted his second goal of the season home from the point at 5:28.
A whole 46 second later Brandon Whistle beat a Storm defender to a juicy rebound and swatted it to the back of the net making it 3-1 for the home side.
The back half of the period wasn't as kind to Bonnyville, as the Pontiacs started to have defenses lapses.
“A few mistakes were made in our own zone that cost us a few goals and we were in a tighter hockey game that we felt it should have been,” said assistant coach Mark Jensen.
Luke Mahura notched his second of the game at 11:52 of the second to get the Storm within a goal.
Half way through the final 20 minutes Brenden Wagner jumped all over a turnover and snapped the puck past Bonnyville's Josh Williams to tie the game 3-3.
The Pontiacs wouldn't let the goal get them down. They continued to throw shot after shot on Weersink, firing 45 shots on the Storm netminder by nights end.
With six minutes left in regulation Bonnyville crashed the net. Several shots were stopped before a pinching Brinson Pasichnuk shoveled the puck home.
The defenseman's 10th goal of the year gave Bonnyville the 4-3 lead and they would hold on for their 16th victory of the season.
“We came here to get two points and we got it. Definitely not the prettiest win, we can sit here and dissect it all we want but we have to go home and regroup.”
Pontiacs lose to Saints in SO
The Pontiacs saw a 2-0 and a 3-1 lead slip away in a shootout game against the Spruce Grove Saints on Nov. 20.
“Overall I think it was a very good game for us, we played hard right off the bat, didn't give them a whole lot through the first period,” Jensen said.
Whistle notched the first of the game just 27 seconds into the game with an assist from Kyler Hehn and Erik Donald. Whistle and Hehn then assisted Bobby McMann whose goal at 13:51 put the Pontiacs up 2-0 going into the second frame.
McMann, Whistle and Hehn's line was responsible for all four Bonnyville goals resulting in the three receiving three points each.
“When they get out there they're not sticking to the same pattern, every time they're on the ice they're going to try something new and they've all got a tremendous amount of skills and they've started to develop some chemistry,” Jensen noted.
The Saints bounced back with their first goal of the game by Tyler Busch 12:02 into the second. McMann responded with an unassisted powerplay goal around three minutes later to put the Pontiacs up 3-1.
The lead was short-lived though as Spruce Grove forwards Austin Hunter and Nicolas Correale scored a goal each in the last two minutes of the second to tie the game at 3-3.
Another goal by Whistle early in the third put the Pontiacs up 4-3 – a lead they maintained for most of the period. However, a Saints goal at 16:50 tied up the game 4-4 and dashed hopes of a regulation time victory for the Pontiacs.
“We don't really like those guys that much and when it comes down to a shootout it can go either way, it's kind of a 50-50 thing there and it definitely stings,” McMann said.
Saints defenceman Ian Mitchell scored the solitary shootout goal for Spruce Grove to make the final score 5-4.
The Pontiacs head on a four game road trip to the south this week. They play the Calgary Mustangs today (Nov. 24) and will be back on home ice on Dec. 5 to take on the Grand Prairie Storm.
