Everything that could go wrong went wrong for the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs on Friday night when they hosted the division rival Sherwood Park Crusaders.
Bonnyville entered the game without the league's leading scorer Bobby McMann and dependable, minute-munching defenseman Gen Bryshun. Both are day-to-day with undisclosed injuries.
During the opening period the Pontiacs suffered another blow when team captain Steen Pasichnuk left the game. His departure was soon followed by forward Brandon Whistle, which left Bonnyville with just ten forwards.
Pasichnuk is out with a high ankle sprain, while Whistle suffered an upper body injury.
Even though the Pontiacs lost two key forwards they still managed to win the first period.
Newly acquired Chasetan Braid poked the puck up to Zach Mills who made a nice deke just inside the offensive zone, lost the defensemen, walked in a slid the puck past Crusaders netminder Zac Dyment.
Bonnyville was up 1-0 after one period, but that was as good as it would get for the homeside.
The visitors took over the game for the final two periods, scoring four goals en route to their third win of the year over the Pontiacs.
Ryan Kruper scored at 10:26 of the second and again just 32 seconds into the third, while Cole Chorney scored with 29 seconds left in the second and 5:41 into the third.
Bonnyville will have a week off to rest up and get some practice in. The Pontiacs, who have played the most games out of any team in the league, won't play again until Nov. 6 in Whitecourt.
The Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs took the No. 5 ranked Jr. A team in the country to a shootout before losing 3-2 last Wednesday night.
The game brought the same hard-hitting intensity as the playoff series between the two squads last season.
It was a high-paced, back-and-forth affair in which whistles were few and far between.
“You hate to decide games in a shootout because anything can happen, it becomes a 50/50 game or a coin toss,” said Pontiacs Head Coach Rick Swan.
“I thought that the character of our team was tremendous overall.”
Young defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk, who sits second in league scoring with 28 points, opening the scoring in this game after the rebound of his point shot bounced off a defenseman in front and past goaltender Alex Leclerc.
The powerplay goal at 3:13 held up until Troy Van Tetering tied the game at the 11:44 mark of the second period.
The contest stayed deadlocked at 1-1 though the back half of the second period and majority of the third, looking destined for overtime before the Pontiacs had a defensive breakdown.
Bobcats captain Taylor Mulder broke down the left wing with a teammate trailing, turned down the option to pass and fired a wrist shot just inside the right post.
With 1:52 left in the game the Bobcats stunned the Pontiacs and took a 2-1 lead.
Miraculously, the Pontiacs would answer back in the dying seconds of the game when Brinson found Steenn at the side of the net.
“Mulder blocked my one shot, then I got the puck back, some of their players cheated over to me,” said Brinson describing the tying goal. “I saw seen pop out back door, so I fed it over to him and he made a great shot. It was an unbelievable feeling.”
The goal from the Pontiacs captain came with 13 second left in regulation and effectively sent the game to overtime.
The extra five-minute period was just as intense as the previous 60 minutes but it solved nothing and the two teams had to go to a shootout.
Kyler Hehn scored for the Pontiacs, while Noah Bauld and Connor Odelein notched goals for the Bobcats.
“We played a heck of a game against the No. 5 ranked team in Canada and we just think that we are going to get better,” said Swan.
“I thought our young guys stepped up great. It was a physical game and they showed a lot of character and a lot of sacrifice.”
