The Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs bounced back after a tough loss on Friday night, hammering the visiting Calgary Canucks 7-1 on Sunday afternoon at the RJ Lalonde Arena.
Unlike Friday night, the Pontiacs got off to a great start on Sunday afternoon scoring just minutes into the game. Brady Bakke took a nice feed from Spencer Foo and slid it five-hole at 3:25 of the first period to put Bonnyville on the board.
Foo picked up his second point of the period at the 15:17 mark, when his shot trickled past the outstretched pad of Canucks goalie Grayson Sharpe to put the Pontiacs up 2-0.
Pontiacs head coach and GM Rick Swan had stressed the importance of getting off to a good start to his team before the game and was happy with the way they responded.
“Our preparation had to be at a different level. We had to raise our standard of preparation. That was the big focus after our loss to Sherwood Park,” said Swan. “Today our response was to have the best warm-up that we have had all season so that it would translate in terms of our performance out there on the ice.”
It took the Pontiacs over five minutes to record a shot in the second period but once they got going they were tough to stop.
At 5:47 of the second, Alex Smith stripped the puck off a Canuck defender in the attacking zone, cut to the net with speed and was able to stuff it five-hole on Sharpe. Minutes later Wyatt Noskey scored his first AJHL goal and the Pontiacs were out in front 4-0.
Tempers flared after the Pontiacs offensive outburst with both teams mixing it up a few times and packing the penalty boxes throughout the period.
Bonnyville's Steen Paschinuk and Calgary's William Nicholas dropped the gloves and traded punches halfway through the second in the game's only fight.
Even with his team leading by four goals, Swan told the Pontiacs to keep up the pressure in the final period.
“The message was to stick with it for sixty minutes,” said Swan. “Make sure we commit to defense and we will have lots of offensive territorial play.”
The Pontiacs must have listened to Swan as their offensive outburst continued in the third period.
Foo started the scoring with his second of the game at the 4:06 mark. Tommy Barszcz got in the act, crashing the net from the corner and stuffing the puck past Canucks goalie Colin Cooper. Finally Joseph Tambasco blasted a rocket from the top of the right circle capping off three goals in a span of five minutes.
The seven-goal outburst saw seven different Pontiacs finish with multiple points in the game.
Everything was going the Pontiacs way up until the 9:29 mark of the third period when a Logan Franz shot deflected off the skate of Bonnyville's Marc Dubeau past goaltender Josh Erickson, breaking the shutout.
Erickson, who was making his first career AJHL start, thought his team responded well after Friday's loss.
“I thought our guys responded well,” said Erickson. “They blocked a lot of shots and controlled the puck for the majority of the game. It was nice.”
Erickson picked up his first AJHL win, making 22 saves in the process.
“I thought I played well. I was ten minutes away from a shutout, you can't ask for much more than that,” said Erickson.
He felt his performance on Friday night in relief of Stephen Klein gave him more confidence entering Sunday's game.
“Playing Friday definitely helped. Especially coming off two bad performances in the last two preseason games I played. It helped me a lot today.”
Swan acknowledged the strong play of Erickson feeling he did his part in helping the team pick up the win.
“I thought that when he needed to make a save he did. He was calm and collected,” said Swan. “Whether a (goalie) gets tested or not they still have to be focused for that entire sixty minutes. I thought he did a good job today and did what he had to do especially coming into an adverse situation on Friday night when Stephen got pulled.”
The Pontiacs will have the week off before travelling to Spruce Grove to battle the Saints on Friday Sept. 20. Bonnyville will be back at the RJ Lalonde Arena the following night to host the Okotoks Oilers.
