The rivalry was alive and well Friday night at the Casman Centre between the Fort McMurray Oil Barons and the Bonnyville Pontiacs.
The fans were treated to a playoff style game with big hits, fights and highlight reel goals as the MOB came out on top 4-3.
Both teams entered play in heated playoff races as the Oil Barons (27-19-8) look to secure home ice advantage in the first round and lock up the fourth seed while the Pontiacs (39-11-4) are trying to fend off the Sherwood Park Crusaders for top spot in the North Division.
“The two points was huge. We’re looking at Grande Prairie in our rear view mirror here and we’re three points up and we needed some wins and we needed this win tonight,” said MOB Assistant Coach Dave Dupas on the importance of the vicotry. “We go five points up and it puts some more pressure on them to win 80-90 per cent of their games left so it was a big win for us.”
The Pontiacs are red-hot of late, picking up points in 11 straight games while going 9-0-2 during that stretch. The regulation loss to the MOB was the Yaks first in a month and just their third loss in that span. Two of those losses have now come against the Oil Barons.
The Pontiacs jumped out in front in the first period off a powerplay goal from Cayden Kraus after the Oil Barons found themselves in penalty trouble, handing the Yaks three straight powerplays.
The Barons ramped things up in the second period, scoring three times as they began to force the Pontiacs defence which led to a pair of their goals.
Jaedon Leslie jumped on a turnover and circled the Pontiacs goal. He found Liam Izyk coming off the bench. Izyk’s shot deflected off a Bonnyville players stick and in past Colby Muise to tie the game 1-1.
After Trey Thomas put the Pontiacs back in front, it was Izyk again tying the score. After serving his penalty, Izyk jumped out of the penalty box and was sprung by Jarred White. Izyk powered his way towards the goal and stuffed the puck past Muise for his second of the period and 11th goal of the year. With the goal, Izyk hit the 40 point mark for the first time in his career and became the fifth Oil Baron to reach 40 points this season.
“He’s a 200 foot guy, he’s a big body, skates really well, he gets pucks to the net, he kills penalties and we had him out against their top guys tonight and he did a great job. He frustrated those guys and he scored two goals for us which was huge,” said Dupas on Izyk who also dropped the gloves with Noah Lugli in the third period.
The MOB kept coming and forced another turnover in the offensive zone. A breakout pass hit Reed Morison and went right to Kole Gable who snapped in his 24th goal of the season to give the MOB their first lead of the game 3-2.
The Pontiacs would tie the game off a strange goal in the third period. After Chris Curr made the save, the rebound went straight up in the air and was caught by Jarred White. As White tried to get rid of the puck, he was hit Jeremy Gervais and the puck somehow ended up in the net. Gervais got credited for the goal and the game was tied 3-3.
White would get the goal back with a powerplay goal late in the game. The Edmonton native curled off the right boards and ripped a shot into the top right corner. The goal gave White four in his last five games and stood up as the game winner.
Chris Curr was stellar in goal for the MOB making 36 saves in the win including a breakaway stop off Garin Butler in the third period.
The two teams will have a couple days off before meeting again Monday afternoon at the Casman Centre. Puck drop is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
