The Whitecourt Wolverines lost a 4-3 overtime heartbreaker to the Bonnyville Pontiacs at JDA Place Wednesday night.
The Wolverines opened the scoring at 16:39 of the first period when Kaiden Wiltsie scored his eighth goal of the season with help from Colby Browne to make it 1-0.
In the second, Bonnyville responded with a goal from Ludovik Tardif, his eighth of the season at 5:59 to tie it 1-1. Max Seguin and Nicolas Beaudoin assisted on the play.
The third period, however, saw the Pontiacs take a 2-1 lead when Luka Sukovic scored his 19th goal of the season just 19 seconds in with assists from Jack McAra and Billy Batten.
Bonnyville would then add to their one-goal lead when Brent Hoshowski scored his second of the season at 2:58 with assists coming from Clarence Beltz and Braydon Vandenbilche.
But Whitecourt kept pressing and made it a 3-2 game when Matthew Ronn scored his third goal of the season at the 10:13 mark. Travis Verbeek and Joey Melo assisted on the play.
The Wolverines then tied the game 3-3 after Travis Verbeek scored his 10th of the season at 15:13 with help from Joey Melo and Colby Browne.
That would eventually send the game to overtime, which saw Bonnyville’s Luka Sukovic score his second of the game, and game winner at 1:05 of extra time to seal the deal. Sukovic’s OT winner was his 20th of the season and came with the help of JR Ashmead.
Bonnyville outshot Whitecourt 32-27 on the evening, with Wolverines netminder Ben Charette stopping 28 of 32 shots on goal.
The overtime loss drops the Wolverines record to 11-11-2-1 on the season.
Their next action is Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, 7:00 p.m. at JDA place when they host the 7-13-1-2 Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
