It was a good effort but the Oil Barons were shutout for the fourth time this season, 1-0 at the hands of the Bonnyville Pontiacs. With the win, the Pontiacs snapped their seven game losing streak, while Fort McMurray fell to 5-5-1 on the season.
The Oil Barons didn’t show any bus legs early on in the game, outshooting the Pontiacs 6-1 in the first four minutes.Danny Akkouche had the best opportunity during the flurry of chances, but was robbed by Cody Butikis, who stopped all 29 shots he faced in the victory. The Pontiacs nearly opened the scoring almost halfway through the first period. An initial shot was stopped by Noah Nelson, with the rebound from Dayton Reschny clanging off the post. Nelson made his best save of the night at the buzzer in the second period. After a turnover in the defensive zone, Mathieu Lajoie received a backdoor feed, and Nelson stretched out with the right pad to take the goal away. The lone goal of the game came in the third period, former Oil Baron Cade Meiklejohn picked up the puck in the left faceoff circle and sniped the top corner for his third goal of the season. Fort McMurray pressed for an equalizer, but Butikis made an unbelievable stick save on Dustin Good, while Simon Gaul rang a shot off the post with six seconds remaining, and Bonnyville survived with a 1-0 win.
Fort McMurray returns to action Saturday and Sunday when they host the Canmore Eagles for the first time since last season’s play-in series. Puck drop on Saturday is at 7:30pm.
Get your tickets online https://tickets.fortmcmurrayoilbarons.ca/
