After eliminating Whitecourt from the playoffs in January, the Bonnyville Sr. Pontiacs got off to good start in their second round series against the Tofield Satellites. The Sr.
After eliminating Whitecourt from the playoffs in January, the Bonnyville Sr. Pontiacs got off to good start in their second round series against the Tofield Satellites.
The Sr. Pontiacs edged Tofield 8-5 in their first game of the best-of-five series at the RJ LaLonde on Saturday.
A hat trick by Ty Carey propelled the Sr. Pontiacs to an 11-2 victory against the Satellites in Tofield on Sunday.
Devon Kalinski got Bonnyville on the board first with a goal just three minutes into the game at home ice last Saturday. Although Tofield's Kyle Mass tied the game up 1-1 just 30 seconds later, Bonnyville forward Michael Desjarlais scored from a nifty pass by Nikolas Bourget to give Bonnyville the 2-1 lead.
With three minutes left in the first period, Lucas Isley received a pass from captain Logan Isley and sneaked the puck past Satellites netminder Tanner Schalin to widen Bonnyville's lead to 3-1.
"I'm pretty happy we came out with a win," said Logan. "We did work hard in the (offensive) zone, so it obviously paid off a few times."
Tofield managed to make it a one-goal game less than a minute later. The goal by Satellites forward Ryan Olson made it 3-2 heading into the first intermission.
Sr. Pontiacs forward Dallas Ansell, who scored two goals and one assist, scored his fifth playoff goal off a pass from behind the net by Kalinski. The powerplay goal game came at 4:26 in the middle frame to put Bonnyville up 4-2.
"We've been trying to stick as well to our game plan as we can and just getting the job done," said Ansell. "We have five lines that can get the job done any given day, so if we have 12 forwards and six defencemen in the lineup, no matter who it is, they're going to score goals and try to keep the other team off the board."
Less than minute later, Bourget widened Bonnyville's lead by scoring from a centred pass by Denis Cadrin, putting Bonnyville up 5-2 heading into the third.
Tofield's Cole Cavell scored less than 20 seconds into the third to make it 5-3.
At 4:57, Isley took a pass from Carey and shot shortsided from the right wing to score his second goal of the night, giving Bonnyville the 6-2 lead.
Almost ten minutes later, Carey passed the puck to Logan, who shoveled in a backhanded goal to broaden Bonnyville's lead to 7-3.
Tofield's Joel Tessier scored two goals in quick succession, with roughly three minutes left in the game, to make the score 7-5 and give the Satellites some hope.
Bonnyville dashed the chances of a Satellites comeback with Ansell scoring the empty net goal with just 25 seconds left in the game.
"We're doing our best to stay focused on one game at a time and then if we do end up (at provincials) then we'll try not to make the mistakes that we did last year and try to bring home the gold," Ansell said.
Two goals by Bourget 2:34 apart roughly 10 minutes into game, and one goal by Carey, gave Bonnyville a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period against the Satellites on Sunday.
"Joel (Olszowka) kind of threw (the puck) on net, it bounced off a guy, hit my feet and the goalie was way out of position so I could just put it in," Carey said of the goal.
The Sr. Pontiacs offence kept generating goals in the second period.
Ansell notched his first of the night 4:06 into the middle frame, with Carey, Kalinski, Logan and Troy Dumais scoring shortly afterwards in quick succession.
"We came out flying, they weren't fully ready to play and (goaltender) Josh (Paul) had a heck of a game in net and a lot of boys were firing pucks in net," Carey said.
Tofield managed to net one goal in the dying seconds of the middle frame, making the score 8-1 at the second intermission.
Logan notched his second of the night at 2:36 in the last period to widen Bonnyville's lead to 9-1.
Olsen responded with a goal at 9:21 for Tofield's second, but it was too little, too late.
Carey found the back of the Tofield net for his hat trick just second later to take the score into double digits.
"The third one was just kind of a pass to the net to Lucas Isley and the goalie knifed it into his own net," Carey said.
Desjarlais picked up a point with Bonnyville's final goal just before the final buzzer, making the score 11-2.
"Hopefully we finish off the series when we go back to Bonnyville," Carey said. "All the boys are flying out there so there's no reason to change anything."
The series returns to Bonnyville for the third game on Saturday at the RJ LaLonde. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.
