The Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs are undefeated in 2014 after picking up a pair of home victories over the visiting Drayton Valley Thunder and Sherwood Park Crusaders on the weekend.
Goals came in bunches on both nights with the Pontiacs cruising to a 6-2 win over the Thunder on Friday night and an 8-6 win over the Crusaders on Saturday.
A couple of defensemen led the attack against Drayton Valley with Ryan Black and Dan Wedman each putting together three-point nights.
Black set up Bonnyville's first two goals at 10:04 and 16:01 of the second period to help the team jump out to a 2-0 lead.
“I have been working on my shot a lot. I even worked on it all break,” said Black after being named the Pontiacs' star of the game. “What I needed to do was sort of dip and dodge, get into lanes and shoot the puck, get it down deep. Guys were actually tipping and it was working out well.”
Six different skaters scored goals for the Pontiacs including Wedman, who scored the team's sixth goal at 15:51 of the third period.
Backed by a 19 save performance from goaltender Josh Erickson, the Pontiacs easily defeated the Thunder by four goals.
“I think (the Christmas break) benefited us more than any other team in the league because now, as you see, it is the first time since early September that we have had a healthy lineup,” said head coach and GM Rick Swan. “And we have got healthy guys sitting in the stands. So it creates a sense of challenge for our guys because they want to stay in the lineup, so they are prepared to do the work on the ice knowing that there is somebody prepared to come in, that is anxious to get into the lineup.”
TJ Cunningham (foot), Jackson Dudley (knee) and Mitch Fritz (wrist), were back in the lineup for the games this weekend after all sitting out games leading up to the break.
Fritz's retuned with a bang on Saturday night scoring two goals and adding an assist in Bonnyville's 8-6 victory over the Crusaders.
“Coming back from Christmas break, we all just came back regrouped and got our minds together. We came back mentally into it,” said Fritz. “We all came back just really excited to play, so I think that is what has given me an edge tonight.”
The team showed this excitement early on in their battle with Sherwood Park, which caught the Crusaders off guard.
Kyler Hehn scored his first of two on the night at 10:09 of the first period, and Spencer Foo added a goal just 49 seconds later. By the end of the first period Bonnyville had a commanding 3-0 lead.
Fritz, Kostyshen and Noskey found the back of the net in the second period as the Pontiacs continued with their offensive outburst.
Bonnyville seemed to be in complete control of the game heading into the third period with a 6-2 lead.
Unfortunately for the Pontiacs the third didn't go as planned.
Hehn chipped in his second of the night at 6:33 of the period and then the team began to fall apart defensively.
Sherwood Park, assisted by a series of Pontiacs penalties, went on to score three straight goals and by the 2:57 mark Bonnyville's lead had evaporated to just two goals.
An empty net goal by Foo with under two minutes to go gave the Pontiac's the insurance goal they needed to squeeze out and 8-6 win.
“In the third period obviously complacency set in. It is a lesson to be learned,” said Swan.
“We went into the third period casual and thinking we were somebody that we weren't. We were lucky we scored eight goals because it could have been a different result. We are going to take the two points and we are going to learn from what that third period threw at us.”
Bonnyville will head out on the road next weekend and play games in Drumheller and Camrose on Saturday and Sunday.
Swan knows the road trip is going to be tough, saying the locations are “two of the toughest places to play in the AJHL”.
The Pontiacs are currently in sixth place in the North Division, just two points back of Sherwood Park and Whitecourt who are tied for fourth and fifth.
