The Bonnyville Sr. AA Pontiacs tasted victory for the first time this season.
The local team walked away with a 10-4 win on Saturday after dominating the Red Deer Rustlers at R.J. Lalonde Arena.
“There was a much better collective effort from everyone in the lineup tonight,” exclaimed head coach Corey Wandler. “We saw it right from the opening shift that we had chemistry, we were on the same page as far as the game plan, what we wanted to do in the forecheck, and how we wanted to defend in our zone.”
Left wing Lucas Isley agreed with his coach.
“We needed a win on the year, and the boys knew that going into it. I don’t think we were leaving the rink without one… It’s really good to get that one out of the way. We had a tough first three games there, and we finally got one in the win column, and we’ll hopefully build on it from there.”
The first two points of the night went to Red Deer, but Pontiac Denis Cadrin found the back of the net to bring the score to 2-1 before the end of the first frame.
Pontiac Coltan Buchta added his name to the score sheet with a goal seven minutes into the second period.
Bonnyville came ahead 3-2 when Isley snuck the puck past the Rustlers’ net minder.
Red Deer answered with a goal of their own, before Pontiac Logan Davies added another point to give Bonnyville the 4-3 lead heading into the third.
The Rustlers started the scoring in the final frame, but the Pontiacs dominated the rest of the game adding an additional six goals to their lead.
Pontiac Tanner Corbeil added his name to the score sheet just under four minutes in, followed by Isley’s second point of the evening.
With just under 10 minutes on the clock, Pontiac Cody Hodgson landed a hat trick, scoring three successive goals.
“It all starts with my teammates,” Hodgson said. “I can’t get a hat trick without them, and we’ve got to keep moving forward, play our game, and hopefully, it will turn out how it did tonight.”
Not to be outdone, Isley added another point for the Pontiacs to finish with a 10-4 score.
“It’s nice to get a few goals and get it going. It’s not like we skate every day, and it’s not like I skated all summer. It’s definitely rusty out there still, so it’s good to have some success,” he expressed.
Wandler believes the team hit their stride on the ice.
“You don’t want to make excuses, but it just took us a little while to get out of the gate and get rolling. New players and basically a new team, it just took us a while to get our chemistry going. I think we found that tonight, and hopefully, it stays with us as we move forward.”
The local team face-off against the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs for their next home game. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2.
