All three shooters scored in the shootout and goaltender Josh Erickson slammed the door as the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs picked up a 4-3 shootout win over the visiting Olds Grizzlys on Saturday night at the RJ Lalonde Arena.
“It's always great to win, especially in a shootout. It makes it more exciting and the fans love it,” said Pontiacs defenseman Ryan Black, who scored in regulation and again in the shootout.
The Pontiacs found themselves trailing 1-0 after the first period allowing Olds forward Kyle Star to capitalize on the powerplay and take the early lead.
Black got the Pontiacs on the board just 18 seconds into the second period with a powerplay goal of his own to tie the game 1-1.
“I usually stay in the middle of the ice. I am the guy who bumps (the puck) out to the side and gives guys one-timers. One of our guys rang it off the post and I was right there all alone and buried it,” said Black describing his second period goal.
Bonnyville head coach Rick Swan was pleased to see his team click with the man advantage, as the Pontiacs owned the league worst powerplay (10.7 per cent) heading into the game.
“What happens with skilled players is they want to over handle the puck. We over handle the puck a lot and the penalty kill units in this league are too good. They pressure and there is very little room for us to make moves because they get into the shot lanes,” said Swan. “We just need to stay with it. Don't over complicate things. Simplify things by getting pucks to the net all the time. Today was a good result. We had some good puck movement and forced their goaltender to make big saves.”
The game was rough the entire way through with both teams racking up eight minor penalties apiece and giving each other numerous chances with the man advantage.
Jake Tamagi was forced to make some miraculous saves on several Pontiac powerplays throughout the early going.
Finally, after killing off a hooking penalty early in the second period the Pontiacs pounced on the Grizzlys with Jackson Dudley beating Tamagi to put Bonnyville in front by a goal.
The lead lasted until the opening minute of the third period when the potent Olds powerplay went back to work. Star blasted a shot past Erickson to tie the game 2-2 and give him seven powerplay goals on the year.
“We take a penalty at the end of the second period when we were on a power play and it comes back to get us,” said Swan. “Our key to the game today was to make sure that our discipline between the whistles and after the whistles was maintained. That had to be the integrity and staple of our game.”
The Pontiacs didn't let the goal get to them as they answered back 21 seconds later to take the 3-2 lead.
Forward Brady Bakke crashed the net and banged a loose puck home to give Bonnyville the lead 1:24 into the third period. Steen Pasichnuk and Bobby McMann picked up assists on the play.
The Pontiacs did a great job holding off the Grizzlys for the better part of the third period not allowing Olds to get to many quality scoring chances.
The tides turned with 1:13 left in the period when Bonnyville defenseman Dan Wedman took a crosschecking penalty and gave Olds some life.
The Olds powerpay went to work and managed to tie the game 3-3 with 24 seconds left in regulation when Christopher Gerrie converted on a nice cross-crease pass from Star.
It was the third straight game the Pontiacs had blown a lead and went to overtime. Black says it was on their minds but they didn't let it weight on them too much.
“For sure it is in the back of our minds. We are thinking about it and we know we have (blown leads) so we were working hard not to mess up like that,” said Black. “But we couldn't be down on ourselves, we had to be on our toes and we had to stay in the game. So we did everything we could (to try and win).”
The Pontiacs dominated the overtime period out shooting the Grizzlys 3-1 in the frame and getting several great scoring opportunities.
Bonnyville was able to carry that momentum into the shootout where Luke Mahura, Spencer Foo and Black all scored goals. Erickson stopped one of the two shots he faced and the Pontiacs picked up the 4-3 win.
Swan was pleased with the way his team dug down and pulled out the victory.
“We have created a bit of momentum here. We got six of eight possible points in our last four games. We know that if we don't take penalties and we don't allow teams to get into games with what we are giving them then we feel confident moving forward,” said Swan.
The Pontiacs will travel on a two game road trip playing in Whitecourt on Nov. 12 and in Spruce Grove on Nov. 13 before coming home to take on the CJHL's top team, the Fort McMurray Oil Barons on Nov. 15.
“I like the dressing room. I like the chemistry. I like the enthusiasm and closeness of the group here. So it is a good time to be going away.” said Swan.
Bonnyville Pontiacs goaltender Stephen Klein was back on the bench for the teams 4-3 win over the Olds Grizzlys. Klein had sat out the previous three games with concussion-like symptoms after taking a shot off the mask on Oct. 26 in Drayton Valley.
Swan says it was take Klein a few more days before he is back to game shape and ready to start again.
The coaches are also hopeful they will see rookie defenseman Max Gottlieb back in a game this week. Gottlieb suffered a shoulder injury against Drumheller on Oct. 20 and has missed the last six games.
Swan also said the timeframe on defenseman Dallas Mortensen is unknown. Mortensen is back home with concussion-like symptoms and Swan said “we know we have to take it easy with his head injury.” The team plans to take their time with Mortensen's injury.
