BONNYVILLE – The sounds of players in the locker room and on the ice were welcome noises to the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs.
Last week was the first time the team has been back together since the season was paused in November due to provincial mandates that forced the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) to take a break.
On Feb. 19, the league announced it had been granted approval by the province to continue the 2020/21 season under the protocols of a comprehensive Return to Play Plan. The only other league in the province also granted permission to play is the Western Hockey League (WHL).
This plan required players, coaches, and staff to self-isolate ahead of the training camp that started last week, ahead of games that will begin on March 12. The Pontiacs will be facing off against the Sherwood Park Crusaders for an eight games series for the remainder of the month and into the first week of April.
“I’m excited to get started,” expressed Pontiac defenceman Spencer Lecot. “I can’t wait to start playing with the boys here.”
According to Pontiacs head coach and general manager Rick Swan, the Lloydminster Bobcats were also meant to join their cohort but opted out of the remainder of the season due to regulations from the Saskatchewan government.
Swan described the training camp as "different from any other" the team has put on.
“The players have been semi-dormant for the last eight to nine weeks. They've been confined to their own homes and haven’t had the ability to train normally as they do in the summertime to get prepared for the grind of a hockey season,” he explained. “We start from square one, but we’ve got a short time frame to be able to get ourselves ready and back to where we were.”
Pontiac Alex Power was glad to be back on the ice after the pause and quarantining.
“I think it’s a good start so far. It’s definitely a new feeling being on the ice again, but I thought overall it’s been pretty good. I found my stepping as it went on,” the centre said.
The Pontiacs had a record of 2-2 before the pause, following games against the Grande Prairie Storm and Whitecourt Wolverines.
Swan said the team was happy with that result as some of the players on both of the opposing teams had come from the WHL, something Bonnyville didn’t want to do. That decision seems to have helped them now that both leagues are been permitted to continue playing.
“We wanted to stay committed to the ones that committed to us,” he stated. “We were competing against major junior players and then moving forward we probably had the least turn around because all those other guys, once the WHL opened up, they lost those guys and they had to almost bring in a whole new team, where we feel fortunate that we’ve got essentially the same group coming back.”
Although Swan believes Sherwood Park had one of the best teams he’s ever seen in the AJHL last year, the only aspect that matters to the Pontiacs in this second half of the season is whether or not they can play meaningful games.
“We just want to be able to provide our guys with the competition that they desire and we desire. I think that every game is an important measuring stick for us to be able to provide a bigger sample to the school for exposure.”
At the time of publication of this story, fans were not permitted to attend games, however, they were being live-streamed online.
