The Bonnyville Sr. Pontiacs started the season with a tough loss at their home opener.
The Morinville Kings picked up the win against Bonnyville with a score of 12-3 on Saturday, Oct. 6.
With a new roster this season, the Pontiacs found themselves with a few empty spots for opening night.
“Coming in, we were short-staffed. We only had 12 skaters,” explained head coach Corey Wandler. “I’m the coach, and I dressed to give us another body. There were six or seven of the guys we had tonight who have never played a seniors game before... I have to give our guys some credit.”
The Kings dominated the first period, managing to score four goals and prevent the home team from getting on the scoreboard.
“We played with them for the first 45-minutes of this game with a short bench, and a lot of inexperienced guys,” Wandler said.
The Pontiacs hit the ice determined during the second period, with Ryan Rancier finding the back of the net at 13:50.
They held the Kings off for most of the period. Lucas Isley closed the gap for the Pontiacs later in the second, but Morinville managed to slip one past the Bonnyville netminder before intermission, bringing the score to 5-2 heading into the third.
Isley started the final period off quickly for the Pontiacs, getting an unassisted goal 20-seconds in.
Unfortunately, that was the last celebration the home team would have. The Kings continued to fire the puck in the net to win the game 12-3.
“We kind of gave up in the third, they took over and made the score pretty lopsided. That’s something that burns us, we don’t want it to happen again no matter what. We want to push back and fight, and keep the attack going,” Wandler detailed.
Back-up goalie Cyril Snyder said the team got outplayed during the game.
“It’s our first game. We’ve got a bunch of new guys and we’re just not syncing. The chemistry isn’t there. We had some good team defence here and there, but we’ve got a good group of guys. We’ll survive.”
The Pontiacs are optimistic going into the remainder of the season, planning on working on the weaknesses they saw in the home opener.
“First game of the year, we’ve only been on the ice three times with this group, we weren’t really setting an expectation coming into this game. We just wanted to get the guys going in a game, get the feeling back, get the pace back, and get an idea of what this league is like. For us, it’s a big learning experience,” Wandler expressed.
The next home game for the Sr. Pontiacs is Oct. 13 against the Eckville Eagles. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.
