The Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs will enter the final weekend of the regular season with a chance to seize second place in the AJHL's North Division.
The Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs will enter the final weekend of the regular season with a chance to seize second place in the AJHL's North Division.
The opportunity at the high finish is thanks to a pair of victories this past weekend, which included a thrilling, come-from-behind win over the second ranked Jr. A team in the country.
"I think right now we are confident about our game. We know that we are a good team and if we do the things that have allowed us to create success up to this point, then teams are going to have to be at their very best to have any success against us," said Bonnyville Head Coach and GM Rick Swan after his teams four-point weekend.
After giving up a goal in each of the first two periods the Pontiacs found themselves down 2-0 heading into the third period in Spruce Grove on Friday night.
The hole was in part to some classic AJHL officiating with the on-ice crew disallowing two Bonnyville goals in the games first 40 minutes of play.
Even though the odds were stacked against them the Pontiacs came out of the gate on fire to start the final period and found themselves back within a goal just minutes into the frame.
Forward Bobby McMann capitalized on some nice work by Steenn Pasichnuk to score his 20th goal of the season at 6:18 of the third.
The score stayed 2-1 until the final seconds of the hockey game. After winning a faceoff in their own zone the Saints dumped the puck down the ice. Bonnyville forward Dillan McCombie turned on the jets and chased down the loose puck deep in his own zone. He reached the puck with about three seconds remaining in the game, turned and fired a hail mary slap shot 180 feet down the ice. The puck dipped to the right and fooled Matthew Murray, sneaking by the Saints goaltender with 0.3 seconds left on the clock.
"The way Dillan McCombie scored with 0.3 seconds left was something I had never seen in all my games as a player and a coach," said Swan.
The goal sent the game into overtime, where Bonnyville captain Braiden Doucette scored the winner.
The improbable 3-2 victory gave the Pontiacs momentum and confidence they carried into a Sunday afternoon tilt in Sherwood Park.
Bonnyville pounced on the Crusaders and took an early lead when forward Adam Wilson scored his third goal of the season just 2:36 into the contest.
The Pontiacs added to their lead approximately 10 minutes later when Bobby McMann scored shorthanded to continue his hot streak. The 19-year-old's sixth goal in his last five games opened up a 2-0 lead for the visiting Pontiacs.
Bonnyville's offense didn't slow down, as the team added two more goals in the first half of the second period to open their lead up to 4-0. Kyler Hehn and Alden Dupuis notched the goals, which proved to be all the Pontiacs needed.
Unable to generate anything against the Pontinacs, the hometown Crusaders got frustrated, which lead to a hectic, scrappy third period.
A total of 153 minutes in penalties was racked up between the two sides in the final 20 minutes of play, with three separate fights breaking out. Brinson Pasichnuk, Steen Pasichnuk and Adam Wilson all dropped the gloves and fought within the span of 32 seconds.
"We had it all in Sherwood Park. We had pretty goals, we had great saves, we had big time hits, and three fights in the game," said Swan. "Ultimately the most important thing was that we came away with two points."
After play on Sunday the Pontiacs sat in third place with 68 points. The team is two points up on fourth place Fort McMurray and two points back of second place Lloydminster.
It will be an interesting finish to the AJHL's regular season as Lloydminster will travel to Fort McMurray for a pair of games to end their regular seasons. Bonnyville will play in Whitecourt on Friday and at Spruce Grove on Saturday.
"Our mind set isn't going to be any different. We are just going to take it one game at a time and then take that down to a micro-goal of playing one period at a time," said Swan. "Obviously we want to finish as high as we can, but we don't want to get to far ahead of ourselves and start thinking about what two points will mean and what four points will mean."
