The Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs spent a night looking back on a record breaking season and celebrating a number of accomplishments.
The team held their annual awards banquet on Friday, March 23, at the Beaver River Fish and Game Building.
“It was an opportunity to not only get closure for our season, which is really important for our players, but to express appreciation to the people that made our season go,” expressed Rick Swan, head coach and general manager.
Taking home the rookie of the year award was goaltender Easton Hesse. By the end of the year, he had 13 wins, two losses, and a save percentage of .929 per cent.
The most gentlemanly player award was given to Jaden York who finished the year with just 14 penalty minutes.
Cayden Kraus and Daine Dubois claimed the Matt Cook Unsung Player Award, and Lucas Thorne walked away with the president’s award.
This recognition is given to the Pontiac who best represents his team to the community through his character, positive attitude, dedication, leadership, and sportsmanship.
With 31 goals during the regular season, Marc-Antoine Benoit received top scorer and the three-star award.
“It’s really nice to be ending the season with two trophies like that... I’m pretty happy about our season this year, and I’m pretty excited for next year,” he said.
The most improved pontiac this year was Victor Polowy.
Joel Ray had 15 goals, 22 assists, and 37 points overall, and as a result, was awarded the top defensive forward. Taking top defenceman with 47 points from 12 goals and 35 assists was Luke Albert.
Playoff MVP went to Colby Muise, whose save percentage was .934 per cent over six games with two wins and four losses.
The team MVP was captain Grayson Constable. In his 54 games played, Constable scored 24 goals, made 30 assists, and landed 54 points. He believes he was meant to spend his last year in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) in Bonnyville.
“It really worked out just how it was supposed to. The stars aligned. To meet Rick and all of these fantastic guys, it really worked out,” he said.
The 2018/19 season was described by Swan as the best in franchise history.
The Pontiacs beat their previous record with 41 wins, finished second in the north division, and had the least amount of shots on goal against them during their regular season. After sweeping the Whitecourt Wolverines, the Pontiacs fell to the Spruce Grove Saints in the second round of playoffs.
“I think we established that being good isn’t good enough, and it’s reflected by kids that now look at our program as being a place where they can develop and parents looking at our program as a place where they want to send their kids just because of what it offers them more than just on the ice,” Swan explained.
Along with the awards handed out, the Pontiacs also took the time to acknowledge the players leaving the team this year. Constable, Bobby Young, Albert, Matthew Monk, Sean Thomson, and Muise were all applauded for an outstanding final season in the AJHL.
Swan said, “We’re not always going to play hockey, that has to come to an end someday, but, you have to be a good person a lot longer than you can be a good hockey player and those guys get it. If they didn’t get it, they wouldn’t be in our organization, they wouldn’t be able to drive our culture the way they did and they left the jersey in a better place, which is all you want to do. You pass on that jersey with that high standard to the next one to try and strive towards.”
With the record-breaking season officially over, Swan was happy with what the team accomplished on the ice.
“They leave a standard now for other players to live and play to, and that’s a great thing because it makes the organization better as a result of what this team did.”
