By: Terry Martin
Photo: Aaron Grimaldo
The puck dropped tonight for the Saints and the Pontiacs as they played their first of three games against each other within the next week. The Saints are coming off a 6-4 victory against the Drayton Valley Thunder on Tuesday. The Pontiacs are 5-1-1 on the season, recently winning against the Oil Barons in Fort McMurray. This game was a battle for sole possession of 2nd place in the AJHL North Division.
The Saints would find themselves down 2-0 early in the first period to the Bonnyville Pontiacs. Sebastian Tamburro would be the one to score first giving the Pontiacs a 1-0 lead just over 1 minute into the game. Michael Fairfax would then come down and would score on a 2 on 1, putting the Pontiacs up 2-0. Caiden Gault would get one of those goals back, stuffing home a rebound right in front of the crease. Nikola Jovanovic would bring the Saints back into the game after intercepting a pass to tie it 2-2. The score would remain the same after 20 minutes of play and the Saints would lead 13-12 in shots.
The Pontiacs would again score first in the second, this time Alex Power would be the goal scorer just after a Saints penalty had expired. Then Ewan McPherson would jam home the puck from the goal line to re-tie the game. Nikola Jovanovic would then get his second interception of the game and his second goal to give the Saints their first lead. The Saints would not slow down as Brett Pfoh sniped the puck glove side on an odd man rush to give the Saints the 5-3 lead. Liam Watkins would also add to the scoring, banking one off the Pontiacs defender. Luigi Benincasa would then dangle every Pontiacs defender and bump the Saints lead up to 7-3. Hunter Brown would continue the explosive period, scoring on another power play. The Saints get 6 in the period to lead 8-3 and dominate in the shot department, 29-19 after 40 minutes of play.
The third period would follow the trend of lots of penalties as both teams would combine for 18 infractions up to the 50-minute mark. The Saints would hold the Pontiacs off and win their second straight with an 8-4 victory. Final shots in the game also favoured the Saints totalling 38-26.
The Saints head up to Bonnyville for a rematch on Saturday night, and then will finish off the mini series in Bonnyville on Wednesday.