The Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs couldn’t keep their win streak alive over the weekend.
Although they bested the Calgary Canucks, they lost to the Canmore Eagles when they faced off on home ice.
Friday night win for the Pontiacs
The Pontiacs walked away with a 5-1 win when the Calgary Canucks came to town on Friday, Nov. 8.
The only point of the first went to Bonnyville when Marc Benoit capitalized on a power play.
The Pontiacs came out of the locker room hot in the second frame, with Daine Dubois starting the scoring off less than four minutes in.
Bonnyville’s Matthew McKim snuck the puck past the Calgary netminder to bring the home team’s lead to 3-0.
Dubois added another point to the score sheet with under a minute left in the second.
The final period saw the Canucks get their first point of the evening, but they couldn’t catch up.
The final point of the evening solidified Bonnyville’s 5-1 win, with Bruce McGregor finding the back of the net at 14:49.
Win streak ends for Bonnyville
It wasn’t the end to the weekend the Pontiacs were hoping for when they fell 3-0 to the Canmore Eagles.
“The Canmore Eagles outworked us,” exclaimed head coach Rick Swan. “I thought the overall group performance, let’s be honest, it was a poor performance by our group and Canmore was the better team.”
On Saturday, Nov. 9 at the R.J. Lalonde Arena, the Eagles took an early 1-0 lead and got the only point of the first period.
Pontiac captain Joel Ray believes the team was overly confident after Canmore lost 6-1 to the Lloydminster Bobcats the night before.
“We just, for some reason, weren’t prepared. We knew they were going to come out hard, but we didn’t stick to our game plan,” he explained. “We got away from our structure, we didn’t get the puck in deep, turned too many pucks over, and we got the result we did because of it.”
Forward Austin Saint agreed.
“I thought tonight was a hiccup. I don’t think you’re going to win every game, but I think we’re definitely going to make strides to fix our mistakes that we had during the game,” he noted.
The teams were evenly matched in the second, with no change to the scoreboard.
Canmore added their final two goals in the third, capitalizing on power plays as the result of Pontiac Jeremy Gervais receiving a penalty for game misconduct.
Swan stressed the importance of the players controlling the way they prepare for games, and how they play on the ice.
“It’s their approach. Staying in the framework of our structure, staying disciplined, and not taking penalties that allows a very good hockey team with some very good players to be on the power play,” he said. “If you’re not going to come prepared, you’re not going to work, or you’re not going to stay in that framework, or have that same approach, then us as coaches have to make sure we hold our players accountable and that’s ice time… You play the right way, the way you’re supposed to play, otherwise that’s going to affect consideration for your ice time.”
The Pontiacs next home game is against the Brooks Bandits on Saturday, Nov. 16. Puck drop is 7 p.m.
