The Bonnyville Sr. Pontiacs started their first North Central Senior Hockey League playoff run with two home wins in a best-of-five series against the Whitecourt Wild.
Nikolas Bourget and Michael Desjarlais scored two goals each to give Bonnyville a 4-1 victory against the Wild last Saturday.
Lucas Isley's overtime goal on Sunday gave the Sr. Pontiacs a 3-2 win in the second game of the series.
Sr. Pontiacs win 4-1
After a scoreless first period, Bourget got Bonynville on the board first by scoring off a pass by Tyler Ferbey at 5:13 in the second. Just under five minutes later, Isley took control of a rolling puck in the Whitecourt zone and centred a pass to Desjarlais, who fired a shot into the back of the net, giving Bonnyville a 2-0 lead.
Although Whitecourt forward Lyndin Lewis responded with a goal just 20 seconds later to make the score 2-1, Bourget widened the lead with his second goal of the night to make it 3-1 heading into the second intermission.
“It was kind of what we expected, they've got a good goalie so our main goal is just to get traffic in front of him,” Bourget said.
Bonnyville outshot the visitors 21-10 in the middle frame.
“I think we kind of put our foot on the gas in the second period,” said coach Neil Langridge. “The line of Nikolas Bourget, Mike Desjarlais and Denis Cadrin were huge.”
The home team maintained their lead for most of the final period, with Desjarlais notching his second goal of the night on an empty net in the last few seconds, putting Bonnyville up 4-1 at the final buzzer.
Isley scores Game 2 overtime goal
Bonnyville was back in action the following day, with forwards Devon Kalinski and Dallas Ansell joining the lineup following suspensions from a regular season game against the Rocky Rams.
“They're both huge contributors on a nightly basis,” Langridge said. “We need guys like that to step up.”
Ferbey scored the first goal of the night from a pass by Desjarlais on a three-on-one breakaway late in the first period, giving Bonnyville a 1-0 lead heading into the second period.
Cadrin, who has 13 goals and 23 assists throughout the regular season and playoffs, scored Bonnyville's second goal at 15:11 in the middle frame.
Whitecourt bounced back into the game in the final period, with a goal around three minutes in by Lyndin Lewis. With Bourget in the box for a hooking penalty, Whitecourt forward Brandon Anderson scored a powerplay goal to tie the game 2-2, taking it to overtime.
After multiple shots by Bonnyville forwards, Isley scored following a wraparound around six minutes into overtime, giving Bonnyville the 3-2 victory.
“I think it was a really good way for us to start the playoff season, going into it we knew that Whitecourt wasn't going to be any slouch of a team,” Langridge noted. “We've played them twice over the regular season and both times we had really competitive games.”
Bonnyville heads to Whitecourt for Game 3 on Jan. 30 with a 2-0 series lead. Game 4 will played in Jan. 31, if necessary. Should the Sr. Pontiacs lose both those games the series will return to the RJ Lalonde for Game 5 on Feb. 6.
