Weekend at the Rink

Tales from the Timebox: December 11th, 2018

Novice Avalanche

The Novice team had two fabulous games this past weekend against two different Bonnyville teams. On Saturday, the game ended in a 11 all tie and the shots on goal were almost equal at 39 to 33. ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas with four goals and one assist. ‘Wild Wyatt’ Fontaine with a hat trick and two assists.  Kestyn Quinney with a hat trick and three assists. Jaxon ‘Smitty’ Smith with two goals and two assists. ‘Jesse James’ Penner with two goals. ‘Major Tom’ Melnyk and Jaxon ‘Magic’ Marcoux with one assist each. Denys ‘the Menace’ Kuba doing the goaltending duties in this one for the first time ever looked like a natural.

On Sunday, the game was not nearly as close, the Avalanche put up some even bigger numbers against Bonnyville. Jackson ‘J.R.’ Rawlake between the pipes for the second time this year shut them down; allowing only eight goals. Our guys added a bunch more than that. Too many in fact to list them all here, but I should mention with some great teamwork and passing everyone on the team scored more than once.

Micro-Novice Avalanche

Our Micro-Novice team also hosted a little team from Bonnyville this past weekend. Two goals each for Lennox ‘All Out’ St Arnault and Hudson ‘the Roadster’ Krankowski. Assists by Tor ‘Tornado ‘ Aarbo, ‘General Lee’ Barstad, Zander ‘Zorro’ Goertzen, ‘Mount Everett’ Hahn, and Jaydn ‘the Spectacular’ Sakowsky. The Roadster and Tornado were also very sharp coming up with huge saves when it was their turn to guard the cage. As you may or may know the Tom Thumbs do not dress a goalie and rotate the whole team every three minutes.

Atom Avalanche

Head coach Jeff Morgan and the Atom Avalanche did a good job of shutting down the big gun from the Frog Lake T Birds losing a close one 6-5. The last time these two teams played the Avalanche lost by a whole bunch. Most of the scoring by the T Birds is by one very dominate player which is often the case at this level. Two goals for Madden ‘Mad Dog’ Flamand. Braylee ‘Little Willy’ Lesyk with a goal and an assist. Evett ‘Snoop Dog’ Smereka, and Raif ‘Rug Rat’ Evans Anderson with one goal each. Brendan  Buzz Saw’ Kadutski with an assist.

Midget Avalanche

The Midget Avalanche without a league game scheduled this past weekend invited a team from Fort Saskatchewan to come out for an exhibition game .The Fort team plays in the same tier as ours only in a different league called the Sixteen Sixty I believe. Hockey Alberta is trying to have all the league tiers the same but it still seems to be a work in progress as our boy didn’t have any problem winning this one easily.

Dallas ‘Cowboy’ Bristow opened the scoring on the first shift of the game. Dustyn ‘Dusty’ Pankiw with a hat trick and an assist and four trips to the sin bin for some minor penalties. Two goals for the rugged winger Jaden ‘Jet Stream’ Van Maarion. Tricky Nicky ‘Sparky’ Anderson with a goal and three helpers. Chase ‘Rink Rat’ Dorey doing the same trick; one goal and three assists. ‘King Cole’ Bendixen scoring one all on his own, going coast to coast with the Avalanche short handed. ‘Lightning Liam ‘ Ludlage with four assists, his big brother ‘Hot wheels’ with two assists. D-Men Charlie ‘Chuckles’ Rogal and Evan ‘Batman’ Ockerman with one assist each. Goalie ‘Sexy Slader’ Hardcastle in net for the first time this year wasn’t overly busy facing only 21 shots, but still came up big when called upon. The final 9-3 for the Avalanche.

Peewee Avalanche

The Peewee Avalanche pulled one out of the bag on Saturday night here at home against Cold Lake. Down by 3-1 three quarters through the game, they rallied back to take the lead for a short while. Unfortunately, the game ended in a 4 all tie. Not as good as a win maybe, but when you are trailing by two it feels like a win even when you tie.

‘Top Gunner’ Crawford with the first two goals. Scoring the first one all alone going top shelf, the second one assisted by Brendon ‘Blue Line’ Haesch. We call him Blue Line because we can always count on him being there when the opposition is attacking. But I notice this year, Blue Line does jump up into the play a lot more than he used to, but is still fast enough to get back to the defense in time.

The third period ‘The Vulture’ Vaughn Ockerman was circling for the kill, scoring two goals both of them assisted by Brayden ‘Pinball’ Pinette who was also flying full out in this game. Spencer ‘Goldie Locks’ Malachowski also assisting on the go ahead goal. Goldie Locks is one tough customer playing on defense, she stays home and squeezes anyone on the rush to the outside. Coming up big in this one too on defense, was the ‘Big Bird’ Kaylee Radcliffe. She is a terrific skater and is getting better all the time with her passing and shots.

On Sunday, the Peewee Avalanche hosted Bonnyville, a team that had shut them down earlier in the season. This time the Avalanche winning 3-1. Some great goaltending in both Peewee games as usual by the Kid Kade. He comes to play every time he suits up and never gives up any soft goals. The Vulture was at it again in this one, circling and scoring two goals, the first one on the power play on a pretty set up by Ryan ‘Ram Rod’ Cameron. Ram Rod is another guy who doesn’t get enough credit and gives 100 percent every game. Top Gunner Crawford putting the nail in the coffin with the third goal just over three minutes left in the game. Seth ‘Motorman’ Morton and Ella ‘Stellar’ Ballas assisting.

Honorable mention going to the big tall smooth D-Man ‘Saint Nick’ Penner who is back in the line up. He missed the early part of the season with a injury and certainly makes a whirl of a difference on the blue line. He wasn’t in the line up when Bonnyville defeated the Avalanche back in November.

Out of Town Players

In the bantam female league Jadey “The Lady” Capjack scored two goals in the third period to tie the game against Lac La Biche on Saturday in Lac La Biche. The Lady was on defense and rushed with the puck to score twice to tie the game.

A big happy birthday going out today to hockey mom Tasha Marcoux.

 

And now for the K. A. Campbell quote of the week. ” The difference between try and triumph is a little umph. ” – Unknown