Two games into the Battle River Hockey League Championship series and it is quite clear the Bonnyville Sr. Pontiacs and Tofield Satellites do not like each other.
The two squads combined for 122 penalty minutes in heated, scrappy affair on Sunday afternoon in Bonnyville, in which the Sr. Pontiacs were 7-2 victors.
The win came off the back of a 3-1 series opening victory for the Pontiacs in Game 1 of the series on Saturday night. Both games saw the teams get into scrum, after scrum during the stoppages in play and resulted in a ton of bad blood.
“It has been a rough, chippy series, but you have to play through some of that stuff,” said Pontiacs Coach Chad Mercier. “Certainly I thought as the game went on we settled in a were a little better at handling it.”
Bonnyville kicked off the series by pummeling Tofield netminder Tanner Schalin with 49 shots. Although they shelled Schalin with rubber they were only able to score three goals.
Derek Jeannotte opened the scoring at 7:12 of the first period. Michael Desjarlais added to the lead with a powerplay marker at 14:45 and Craig Cuthbert sealed the deal with a late empty-netter.
The three tallies's paced the Pontiacs to a 3-1 victory, in which they limited Tofield to just 14 shots.
Sunday's game took a completely different turn, as Tofield came ready to play and was able to compete with the Pontiacs for the majority of the contest.
Bonnyville's Chase Tomlinson got the home side off on the right foot notching his first of the postseason just 2:31 into the game.
The lead was short-lived as a nifty powerplay marker from Tofield's Scott Effert tied the game less than four minutes later.
A tripping penalty to Cole Cavell midway through the first period led to the difference in the opening frame. Bonnyville's Joel Olszowka blasted a slap shot from the point past Schalin with seconds left in the powerplay to send the Pontiacs into the break up 2-1.
The second period is when the rough stuff started to pick up. After several minor penalties were handed out to both sides the anger finally boiled over and resulted in Ty Carey and Doug Wolken attempting to fight. Although the linesmen stopped a punch from ever being thrown, both Carey and Wolken were tossed from the game for fighting.
The ejections were the first of five in the game, as emotions ran high on both sides of the ice.
At 6:57 of the second Bonnyville decided to take a break from the rough stuff. Garret Pulak made a nice pass to Levi Ansell who slid the puck under Schalin for a 3-1 lead.
Again the Bonnyville two-goal lead was quickly cut down with Tofeild answering back three minutes later. Ryan Olson beat Bonnyville goaltender Josh Paul to get the Satellites within one.
The highflying Satellites were brought back down to earth just 36 seconds later when Niko Bourget snapped home a wrist shot from the slot to retake the two-goal advantage.
Minutes after that Bourget added another to extend Bonnyville's lead to three.
With Bonnyville holding a 5-2 lead the game once again went back to the rough stuff in the third period. Both teams lost players after two rough checking from behind plays. The penalties didn't sit well on either bench and just added to the intensity of the contest.
Ansell and Mark Jensen notched goals in the third period to pad the Sr. Pontiacs lead and the team cruised to a 7-2 victory and 2-0 series advantage.
“In reality we probably played better in Game 1 than we did today,” said Mercier, after the teams Game 2 win. “We had 49 shots; give their goalie a lot of credit. Tonight we had a little more composure with the puck. We were able to find some back plays and we were able to get a little more traffic and make it tougher for their goalie to see the puck.”
Bonnyville net minder Josh Paul has allowed three goals through first 120 minutes of the series. Effectively silencing the Tofield offense. Paul is confident in the squad as they head to Tofield for Games 3 and 4.
“The key for us is to just keep going as hard as we can. No team in the league can skate with us,” said Paul. “But we have to stay discipline. “It is something we have been trying to do all year, but if they other team is going to do it we are going to fight back. We are not going to take it.”
The series will shift to Tofield for a pair of games on March 14 and 15 before possibly returning back to Bonnyville on Friday, March 20.
The winner of the series will go to the Senior A/AA Provincial Tournament in Daysland at the end of the month.
