Bobby McMann strengthened his AJHL MVP bid on Friday night notching the game-winning goal in a 4-1 victory over the lowly Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
The 19-year-old centre snapped a wrist shot past Eric Szudor with 48 seconds remaining in the first period to propel Bonnyville out to a an early 2-0 lead.
“(Kyler) Hehn worked it down low, fed me out front and I was able to squeak it by (Szudor's) arm,” said McMann describing his third goal in two games.
The Pontiacs sniper is one of four finalists for the league MVP award joining Lloydminster goaltender Alex Leclerc, Olds forward Wyatt Noskey and Camrose forward Nelson Gadoury.
Bonnyville's leading goal scorer sits with 33 goals on the season, but had 34 goals for a brief moment on Friday night, as he was credited with the Pontiacs opening goal of the game. A shot from the point caromed off a few players in front of the net before being whacked into an open cage.
“The puck went to the point, (Bryan) Gerstenfeld shot it and somehow it ended up in the air. Brandon Whistle was able to bat it out of the air and into the net,” said McMann.
Whistle's 17th of the year came at 7:54 of the opening period and was the first of two goals generated with line mates McMann and Hehn. The trio combined for five points and had Bonnyville leading by two before Fort McMurray's Will Conley scored with 18 seconds left in period one to get the Oil Barons on the board.
Defenceman Erik Donald restored the Pontiacs two goal lead at 7:45 of the second period snapping a point shot off the stick of an Oil Barons defender up over the shoulder of Szudor.
Carter Rhine, who was back playing the point, added to Bonnyville's lead with 1:22 remaining in the second walking across the top of the left faceoff circle and firing a wrist shot just under the bar. The rookie defenceman's fifth of the year allowed Bonnyville to continue their impressive offensive explosion giving the team at least four goals in nine of their last ten games.
“It is always difficult when you are playing a team that is short-staffed and a team that has been struggled for success, to get that out of your mind and play a real team structured game,” said Pontiacs head coach and GM Rick Swan.
“At times we created success by playing within the structure of our game and at times we started to press individually a bit.”
The game also saw Swan juggle the lines a little bit and pair captain Steenn Pasichnuk on the blue line with his brother Brinson Pasichnuk. The move was due to an injury to defenceman Ben Mack and allowed Steenn to get comfortable playing defence.
“We wanted to give him an opportunity to get some reps on the back end,” said Swan, who could have some tough decisions to make should his lineup get completely healthy. “With Zach Mills coming in and potentially Ryan Symington coming back we think our forward position is really deep, so it was a great opportunity to give (Steenn) some repetition on the back end just in case we need him going into playoffs.”
Brinson Pasichnuk set a new record for most goals in one season by a Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs defenceman on Sunday afternoon scoring twice in a 4-2 victory over the Camrose Kodiaks.
The 18-year-old defender came into the contest with 16 goals on the season, tied with the franchise record set by Matthew Register during the 2009-10 season.
Late in the first period Pasichnuk found himself leading a four-on-one break up ice and used Alden Dupuis as a decoy before snapping a shot past Kodiaks goaltender Patrick Gora.
“I was trying to find Alden the whole time but their defenceman played it really well, so last minute I shot it and got lucky as it went in,” said Pasichnuk.
Minutes later the Pontiacs solid defensive play resulted in another odd man rush up ice. Forward Ryan Piche capped off a three-on-two break with his seventh of the season to give Bonnyville the 2-0 lead.
“We played unbelievable defensively today,” said Pasichnuk. “Every goal we scored was because of our defensive play in our zone, which created odd man rushes for us. It was really good.”
At 17:29 of the second period Pasichnuk added to the Pontiacs lead squeaking a shot short side on Gora to put Bonnyville up by three.
“I've been trying to get a short-sided goal all year. I decided to try it one last time and if finally worked for me,” said Pasichnuk.
The Kodiaks attempted a comeback in the third period scoring back-to-back to cut Bonnyville's lead to one. Cole McBride scored at 2:51 and Trevor Costello followed up at 15:39.
Camrose was given the perfect opportunity to tie the game at 16:42 of the final period when Bonnyville's Josh Borynec was sent off for high sticking. Just 42 seconds into the man advantage Pontiac sniper Bobby McMann caught a break and wired his 34th of the year past Gora. The shorthanded marker squashed Camrose's comeback hopes and propelled Bonnyville to their 37th victory of the season.
The victory allowed Bonnyville reach 83 points and tie the franchise record for most points in a season set back in the 2004-05 season.
The Pontiacs will try and set a new franchise points record on Friday night when they host the Fort McMurray Oil Barons at the RJ Lalonde in their final home game of the regular season.
