The Bonnyville Sr. AA Pontiacs are improving, but they still have an uphill battle.
The home team fell to the Eckville Eagles 7-3 on home ice Saturday, Oct. 13.
Head coach Corey Wandler believes the team is coming together, and saw good things on the ice overall.
“We came out with a better effort out of the gate. We lost to a good, experienced team with a lot of fire power and, arguably, with the best goalie in the league,” he said.
Similar to their first game, the bench was short on players.
“We’re short benched again, and missing some key bodies. The group that we had, they battled and they didn’t give up. We just came up short against a real good hockey team with lots of experience, and we’re still learning and getting adapted to the league with some new faces. With this effort tonight, I was happy with it,” Wandler explained.
Dru Morrison fights his way to the net.
The first period had the Pontiacs making 12 attempts to find the back of the net, while Pontiac goaltender Calvin Giese only allowed two shots in out of 18.
Eckville managed to get four more goals in the second, bringing the score to 6-0.
The Pontiacs weren’t going down without a fight, with Adam Tilford getting the puck past the Eagles’ goalie to put them on the board.
With less than a minute in the second, Ryan Rancier added another point for the Pontiacs with an assist from Dru Morrison and Tilford.
In the final period, Joel Bourget found the back of the net for the home team. But, the Eagles managed to sneak in another goal to finish the game off.
Chase Tomlinson said the team had a better showing compared to their home opener, and the newer players are starting to get comfortable on the ice.
“Guys are starting to get to know each other, there’s a lot of new guys. Don’t know how everybody plays together, so we’re still figuring out who plays with who and see how that goes,” he noted.
Adam Tilford skates his way across the ice.
Overall, Wandler felt improvements were visible on the ice in their second game of the season.
“We had a better effort tonight. It’s only game two of the season for our guys. (We saw) much better things on the ice as a group as a whole. We’re going to build off that, but too many breakdowns during the game, giving them easy opportunities to capitalize and that was really the difference. Not being sharp enough in our own zone,” Wandler detailed.
The Pontiacs next home game will be Saturday, Oct. 20 against the Whitecourt Wild. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.
