Despite one loss and one draw last weekend, Ponoka’s tier 1 midget Wolves remain second in the league. The team’s first game of the weekend against the Barrhead Steelers Nov. 2 resulted in a 4-1 loss. Two goals by the Steelers in the first and penalty trouble in the second made returning from the deficit difficult.
Their game against Edson midget Nov. 3 resulted in a 4-4 draw. Coach Ryan Koehli said competition is tight at this level. “One little mistake will change the outcome of the game.”
With little room for error, teams are likely to capitalize on a penalty. This is the first year Ponoka has played teams such as Edson and Barrhead. A pilot project was started this season to give Barrhead, Edson and Whitecourt a chance to compete against other teams and Koehli said competing with Barrhead and Edson was a new experience.
Penalties hurt the Wolves against Edson and Koehli wants to work on those issues.
The Ponoka midget B team lost 2-1 against Red Deer Baker Hughes after being down 2-0 after the second period. Ponoka’s Shawn Wilton scored a goal with 9:09 left in the third but the team could not capitalize to score a second goal.
The bantam team tied their Nov. 1 game at the Sylvan Lake bantam Lakers home rink with two points each and they beat the Rimbey Renegades 7-5 at home. With 56 seconds left in the third, Rimbey scored closing Ponoka’s lead to one at 6-5, but a mere 17 seconds later Ponoka responded cementing their victory.
The peewee B tier 4 players had a solid start to the weekend games with a 6-5 win over the Lacombe peewee B Rockets. Ponoka took the lead at home with a 3-2 in the first period. They furthered their chances of winning with two more goals in the second while the Rockets scored only one goal. But Lacombe rallied in the beginning minutes of the third to tie the game; the first was 30 seconds in and then a second just 40 seconds later. With 8:14 left in the third Kaiden Thompson of Ponoka scored the winning goal.
The Nov. 2 game against the Innisfail Flyers was another story. Ponoka was solidly beaten 7-1 with five of those goals scored in the second period. Travis Hyink, with 1:51 left in the second, scored the only goal for Ponoka.
The atom A team had better luck against Innisfail’s atom Servus Flyers Nov. 2 at home with a 4-3 win.
The atom Bs also had a strong game against the Maskwacis atom B team Nov. 3 in Ponoka. An early 2-0 lead in the first period helped guarantee their 6-4 win against the Maskwacis. Ponoka scored two more goals in the second period while their opponents only scored one. But the Maskwacis team fought hard to score three goals in the third but could not stop Ponoka, who scored another two goals to secure a win.