The Bonnyville Pontiacs snapped their three game losing streak with an energetic win over the Whitecourt Wolverines.
Coming off a wild 5-4 loss to the same team on Jan. 6, the Pontiacs had revenge on the mind when the puck dropped on Friday, Jan. 12 at the R.J. Lalonde Arena.
Bonnyville's Bobby Young continued his recent success, burying his eighth goal of the season just over five-minutes into the game.
Tempers boiled over shortly after, when a questionable hit led to Pontiacs defenceman Nicholas Ormon being taken to hospital with a concussion. Charlie Gawlicki responded and was given a match penalty for slashing and two-minutes for roughing after the whistle.
Despite seven-minutes of powerplay, Whitecourt failed to solve the Pontiacs penalty kill.
“I loved our effort tonight. It's what we've been striving for. I think it might have even been a little bit more than 60-minutes because of that seven-minute penalty kill we had to do right off the bat. I thought we played with a lot of emotion and passion,” said head coach Rick Swan.
Immediately after the seven-minute kill, the inspired Pontiacs went back on the attack. With less than five to go, Young set up Luke Albert, who capitalized, extending the lead to 2-0.
Momentum carried into the second, and after 15-minutes of Bonnyville holding the majority of the offensive play, Lucas Thorne made it 3-0 on the powerplay. Just three-minutes later, Isaac Saniga found the back of the net.
There was no change in score in the final frame, and the Pontiacs avenged their loss to the Wolverines with a convincing 4-0 win.
“It feels great. We've lost a lot of games by one goal and it just feels great to take it to one of the top teams in the league. We've been working hard and I feel like we deserve it,” said forward Carson Erhardt.
Justin Travis picked up the shutout for the Pontiacs with 28 saves in his first full start after relieving Silvestre in the team's previous game.
Swan was over the moon with his team's play, and said he expects to see the same kind of effort from his players every game.
“The players on our team were playing proud. They wanted to make sure they responded the right way and that was both on the scoreboard, and by making sure a veteran team wasn't going to push us out of our barn, or distracting us from playing the right way,” Swan said.
Their next matchup is on the road against the Sprice Grove Saints on Wednesday, Jan. 17.
