A three-point weekend capped off the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs regular season and solidified a third place finish in the AJHL North Division.
The Pontiacs ended their 2014-15 campaign on a high note defeating the Spruce Grove Saints 4-3 on Saturday night, after losing 2-1 to Whitecourt in a shootout the previous night.
Bonnyville will open the playoffs with a first round matchup against the Drayton Valley Thunder. The series will start in Bonnyville with the first two games happening on Thursday and Friday night. Puck drop is set for 7:30 at the RJ Lalonde Arena.
Series Preview:
The two teams split the six-game regular season series with each team picking up two home wins and one road win. The Pontiacs outscored the Thunder 19-17 over the course of the six games. In their last meeting Drayton Valley stunned Bonnyville with a come-from-behind 3-2-overtime victory.
Offense:
The Bonnyville Pontiacs finished the season with both Dillan McCombie and Kyler Hehn hitting the 60-point mark. McCombie lead the team with 43 assists, while Hehn's 28 goals were tops on the squad.
Six other players finished the season with at least 30 points, including forward Bobby McMann, who was second on the team with 21 goals. Two defensemen, Braiden Doucette and Ryan Black, were among those six.
The Drayton Valley Thunder lacked a real game-breaker on offense during the regular season. Leading the way for them was forward Brett Smythe, who notched 12 goals and 32 assists through 57 games. Forward Trevor Poirier was the only other player on the squad to top the 40-point mark.
With McCombie and Hehn at the helm the Pontiacs put up 197 goals through the 60-game regular season. The two make up a formidable Pontiacs offense that has been clicking of late propelling the team to a 10-0-5 finish the to regular season.
Advantage: Bonnyville
Defense:
The Bonnyville Pontiacs defensive game really improved over the course of the season with the additions of defenseman Cody Fiala and forward Evan Warmington. The team has held opponents to two goals or less in ten of their last 15 games.
The Drayton Valley Thunder have been on a similar steak, holding opponents to two goals or less in nine of their last 15 games. During that time the Thunder defenders were effectively able to shut down powerhouse offenses of Fort McMurray and Spruce Grove on multiple occasions.
With the Pontiacs playing the majority of the last 15 games without the services of all-star defenseman Ryan Black, his addition should give them the edge.
Advantage: Bonnyville
Goaltending:
This will be by far the most intriguing matchup of the series. It will put the 6'6”, 215-pound Troy Trombley up against the smaller acrobatic Marc-Olivier Daigle.
When Daigle plays the Pontiacs he stands on his head and steals Drayton Valley wins. He made at least 30 saves in five of the six games against Bonnyville including an eye-popping 54-save performance on Dec. 20. The 20-year-old on his final AJHL playoff run and will be up to the task.
In the other crease will be the aforementioned Trombley, who came to the Pontiacs in early January after a trade with Melville of the SJHL.
Trombley's size gives him a huge advantage as he is able to cover the majority of the net. He is 12-3-4 in his short time as a member of the Pontiacs and hasn't lost in 13 games. In fact, all three of his losses as a Pontiac came in his first six games with the squad. Trombley is locked in, and has a confident bunch in front of him.
Advantage: Even
Special Teams:
The playoffs put more importance on the special teams, as every goal has that much more meaning. A team's success on the powerplay and penalty kill could make or break this series.
While both these teams don't overwhelm you with their powerplay, the Pontiacs are the better of the two. Bonnyville clicked at a 17.4% rate over the course of the season, notching 45 goals in 258 opportunities. Drayton Valley was significantly worse, only seeing a 13.3% success rate with 40 goals in 300 opportunities.
The Thunder's awful powerplay took a back seat to their horrendous penalty kill which just 80% of the time and allowed 52 powerplay goals against. Bonnyville, on the other hand, held opponents to just 38 powerplay goals, posting an 83.6% kill rate.
A decent Pontiacs powerplay combined with a questionable Thunder penalty kill could have hug implications throughout the series.
Advantage: Pontiacs
