Emotion filled the Bonnyville Pontiacs’ dressing room on Sunday night, as players and coaches said their farewells after a hard-fought battle.
Following two losses on the road to the Fort McMurray Oil Barons last Thursday and Friday, the teams were at the R.J. Lalonde on Sunday, March 11 for game three in the best-of-five series. Despite a third period comeback push from the Pontiacs, it was too little too late as they fell 3-2, ending their season.
“It’s always tough, it never gets any easier. I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s the toughest speech that you have because, as a group, they’ll never be this same combination ever again,” Pontiacs head coach Rick Swan said of his post-game meeting with his team.
Their first, and what would be their only, home game of the playoffs got off to a rocky start for the Pontiacs, as Fort McMurray got themselves on the scoreboard just under four minutes into the game.
The visiting team kept that momentum going in the second frame, adding to their lead at the 8:12 mark in the period.
With both teams trading penalties throughout the second and third, the Oil Barons were able to capitalize on a late third period power play after Bonnyville’s Riley Smith was sent to the box for cross-checking.
While Fort McMurray lead 3-0 with less than five minutes left in the game, the Pontiacs weren’t ready to give up on their season. Following a time out called by Swan, the underdogs came back fighting, pulling their goaltender in favour of an extra man up front.
With just 1:13 remaining in the third, the Pontiacs managed to find the back of the net to get on the scoreboard and end the Oil Baron shutout. That goal was later credited to captain Charlie Gawlicki, with assists going to Smith and Adam Sandstrom.
Not having any time to waste, less than a minute later Gawlicki fired in his second goal of the game, off a pass from Smith and Bobby Young.
Unfortunately for the Pontiacs, with only 18-seconds left on the clock, it wasn’t enough time to tie it up.
“They’re a great team, they’re a veteran team. We’ve got two 20-year-olds in our line-up and they’ve got six,” Swan said of the Oil Barons. “Definitely we were the underdog and we tried to hang onto that role. A double overtime win in game one would have let us continue on, and too little too late tonight in terms of having a strong finish but just not quite enough time.”
While they didn’t walk away from the evening with a win, Swan noted the playoff series was far from being a loss for the young Bonnyville team.
“From a learning and a growth experience, we take a lot of positives away from this. We knew we were going to be young this year. We knew that we were building for the future and we needed to give them great playoff experience just like we did against a very good team to know what it takes to get ourselves to that next level.”
For Gawlicki, the game marked not only the end to another season, but the end to his career with the Bonnyville Pontiacs. The captain is one of two Bonnyville players who graduated from the AJHL after this season.
“It’s definitely not the end we wanted, or even the season we wanted, but it was a ton of fun. We had our ups and downs, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys to go through that whole season with,” he said.
For the 20 players able to return to the team next season, Gawlicki shared one piece of advice.
“Just cherish it. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to come to the rink everyday and all you have to worry about for three years is hockey. Just take it all in as best as you can and have as much fun as you can.”
With such a young team, Swan said they’re already looking forward to what the 2018-19 season will bring.
“The support we got and the patience we were given in order to run a plan that would allow us to not have a great record this year, but get some playoff experience, we really believe that we’ll be special next year.”
He added, “We think it’s going to allow us to take a next step. It was hard this year in order to go through that process, but if it’s not hard then the rewards aren’t as great.”
