A pair of foothills hockey products has found a new home with one of the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s most consistent organizations.
The Bonnyville Pontiacs may have lost the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s (AJHL) top defenceman last season in Blake Leask to NCAA hockey, but with Owen Ferguson and Carson McCormick helping to round out a solid defensive corps the team hasn’t missed a beat.
The Pontiacs cruised to a 7-1-2 record in September and put themselves on the national scene with a seventh-place ranking in the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s top-20.
“The puck was really on our side that month,” said Ferguson, a DeWinton resident. “We were getting away with some things in the first month that we just aren’t getting away with right now.”
October hasn’t been quite as friendly to Bonnyville as the North Division team has won just three of its last eight games. The Pontiacs sit third in the North with 23 points.
“We’ve just got to get back to our game which is outworking the other team in one-on-one battles,” Ferguson said. “And we will be heading back to the top of the standings.”
Ferguson is slowly getting used to the defensive clamps in Bonnyville, a rapid departure from his rushing defenceman forays last season with the UFA Midget AAA Bisons.
“It’s been a lot different with the emphasis on defence,” Ferguson said. “My game has kind of shifted from a more offensive game last year to a defensive game. It’s helping me to focus on the defensive end first and then the offence comes.”
Ferguson has two assists in the 11 games he has dressed for Bonnyville.
Making the jump from the Midget AAA ranks to the highly competitive AJHL North Division has brought its share of changes for the 18-year-old.
“Everything happens a little faster, everyone is a little quicker, a little smarter with the puck,” Ferguson said. “It took the first few games to get used to it, but now I feel like I’ve adjusted.”
McCormick, a second-year Pontiac, fits in nicely with the defensive-oriented Bonnyville squad as a stay-at-home blueliner. It’s a role similar to his duties on the Okotoks Jr. A Raiders lacrosse team, where the 19-year-old is used almost exclusively in defensive zone and transition situations.
“Growing up in lacrosse I was actually really offensive,” McCormick said. “But when you make that jump to Junior, whether it’s hockey or lacrosse, you have to develop into the player that will get you the most ice-time.”
The High River native said the skills from each sport are definitely transferable.
“To go far in either having that determination and work ethic is really required,” McCormick said. “As far as conditioning goes you really have to battle in both sports and that kind of mentality has really helped me.”
The sophomore defenceman is earning an everyday spot on the Bonnyville blueline after paying his dues as a rookie in 2011-12.
“Last year I kind of battled in and out of the lineup at the start of the year being a rookie,” he said. “It’s different coming in and not being a rookie, being a veteran guy and it’s just one of those roles I hope I can continue to develop.”
McCormick has already surpassed his scoring output from last year when he was kept off the scoresheet in 44 games. This year, he has a goal and an assist in 14 games.
McCormick played his minor hockey in High River before playing Bantam with the Okotoks Oilers and Midget AAA with the UFA Bisons for two seasons, earning a two-game call up to the Junior A Oilers as an affiliate player in 2010-11.
“It’s different, I haven’t been on the ice yet when the crowd is like when they’re rooting against you,” said McCormick, who was sidelined from playing in his old barn at Centennial Arena on Saturday due to a shoulder injury.
“It just brings back old memories of playing here in Bantam and Midget and it really feels like home, but it’s kind of a home away from home now.”
