The Whitecourt Wolverines returned from the holidays strong over the weekend, with dual road wins.
Saturday, Jan. 3, they took the Bonnyville Pontiacs 4-3.
Jalen Bianchet opened the scoring for the Wolverines at 4:36. He was assisted by Kyle Tucker and Nolan Schmidt.
Later, Pontiac Parker Schellenberg was assisted by Deegan Kinniburgh and Grayson Niehaus in securing a 1-1 tie at 11:06.
Whitecourt’s Quentin Bourne then netted another at 18:21 for a 2-1 lead. Cole Barrett and Jalen Bianchet got the helpers.
Period two started with a five-minute roughing penalty for Wolverine Tristan Slywka, served by Parker Fitzgerald. That sent Bonnyville to the powerplay, where Christophe Lussier tied it up to 2-2. Niehaus assisted again, along with Maxwell Pendy.
The Pontiacs continued on to a 3-2 lead about 10 minutes later, thanks to a goal from Jovan Sandhu, assisted by Brent Hoshowski and Riley Pederson.
At 18:35, Jager Gugyelka capitalized on a powerplay for the Wolverines to bring it to a 3-3 tie before the period ended. He was assisted by Braden Nienaber and Mason Russell.
Whitecourt secured their 4-3 victory at the beginning of period three when Braden Nienaber scored his second goal of the season at 2:51, with assistance from Chayse King and Quentin Bourne.
—
The Wolverines found success again on Sunday with a 4-2 victory over the Lloydminster Bobcats.
Whitecourt dominated first period action with goals at 10:53 and 15:42, by Alex Symes and Brendan Ruskowski. Jalen Bianchet and Jager Gugyelka, then Tristan Slywka and Cole Barrett, assisted.
With the Wolverines leading 2-0 heading into period two, Lloydminster fired back to narrow Whitecourt’s lead to 2-1 at 4:12.
At 9:08, Bobcat Kael Screpnek was served a hooking minor. On the powerplay, Xander Schulte and Tristan Slywka helped Jager Gugyelka score another insurance goal for Whitecourt for a 3-1 lead. But the Bobcats scored again 1:27 later to bring the score to 3-2, still in Whitecourt’s favour.
Ty Rayan secured the Wolverine’s 4-2 victory at 15:09. The helpers went to Quentin Bourne and Xander Schulte.
No goals were scored in period three.
The Whitecourt Wolverines take on the Drayton Valley Thunder on the road on Jan. 9, then come home for a mid-week face off against the Devon Xtreme on Jan. 14.
