Elk Point laces up for First Week of Hockey

Elk Point Minor Hockey is officially back on the ice

How about that Mark ‘ the Marksman ‘ Letestu in the Heritage Classic on Sunday afternoon. Brings a tear to my eye  when he scored that short handed goal and especially when came on in the interview and told everyone from coast to coast how he used to play all night outside down a the salt plant rink in Lindbergh. He forgot to mention that Lindbergh is one of the coldest places on earth!  I remember playing their one New Years day, it was about minus 35; but we didn’t mind, bundled up with toques and scarfs and a thermos full of something to warm you up!

There was smoke, spotlights  and air horns for the very first official game of the season played in the A.G. Ross Arena this past Saturday, when the peewee Avalanche hosted Plamondon in their season opener .  The final score was not in favor of the Avalanche, Plamondon winning 10 to 8,  but, that also included a goal which was scored  into the empty net in the last minute after head coach Robyn Moroziuk called a time out, then pulled his son, the goalie, Vanden ‘ Super Mario’ Moroziuk, adding another attacker  up front, trying desperately to tie the game and it backfired. Its the risk you take, sometimes it works and sometimes not ? Down by 2 goals in the first five minutes of the game, the Avalanche bounced right back and by the end of the second period were winning 7 to 6. Plamondon came out like gang busters in the third period scoring two, bang , bang to take the lead, and then the empty netter. The Avalanche only scored one goal in the third, but came close with a few goal posts, and we all know that close don’t count in hockey.  Close only counts in horseshoes, although I have seen many goalies that had some horseshoes…. up the yen-yang!!

‘Mic Jager’ Fontaine hasn’t missed a beat after taking the summer off to play ball. Stepping up into peewee league as a rookie from the atoms, the slick ‘ Mic’ still doing a pretty fancy two step, he scored a double hat trick. 6 goals, plus an assist. Might be a little different if peewee hockey still had body contact, but somehow I think they would still have to be able to catch in order to contain him. Landon ‘ the Magnificent Malachowski . ‘ another rookie who looked absolutely ‘Magnificent, scored the other 2 goals.  Kobe ‘ the Cobra’ Warawa, Ceajay Quinney and Josef ‘ Red; Theriault with 2 assists each , Dean’ the Machine’ Ockerman, and ‘Bazooka Joey ‘ Cardinal with an assist each. Over all not a bad game at all for the first year guys,  in fact the whole team looks like they should be able to compete.

Silent is golden ! Pretty quiet in the midget dressing room before the game on Saturday night against Wainwright. The boys had butterfly’s I suspect. It was the first game of they year for these guys too. Usually after the game the boys can be a little sober, but this is the first time I have witnessed a team so quiet before a game. Usually they are joking around or goofing off in the hallway, but not this time. The boys were all dressed in plenty of time, still 30 minutes to game time, sitting thinking about the task at hand and not too much else when new head coach Gerry Kjenner entered the room for his pre game speech. The press exiting the room at that time, but it might have been interesting to sit and listen in as I sometime will. But being early in the year and a new coach I figured it may be wise to give them a little space. Its tough out there in the battlefield, but that didn’t seem to effect one the littlest players in the league, rookie Nick ‘ Sparky ‘ Anderson who lit up the scoreboard first with a beauty of a goal on a break-away, Rookie D Man Hayden ‘ Hot Wheels’ Ludlage feeding him the stretch pass.  ‘ Sparky ‘ has the wheels and the hands to finish the job. Big monster Brody ‘ the Big O ‘ Odgaard with the only other goal for the Avalanche in the second period assisted by Christian ‘ Wheels’ Castle -Wasson and ‘ Warrior Warren Ference  The game was still well within reach at the end of 40 minutes, the score  only 4 to 2 for Wainwright , but that was it for the Avalanche as far as scoring, the rest of the game they played reasonable well but couldn’t seem to find the back of the net even though they fired 33 shot on them. Our goalie Spencer `Fortress `Hardcastle facing 42 shot  giving the Avalanche  a really good chance for a come back. This coming Friday at 8pm the midgets will be hosting Kikino

There’s nothing sweeter than getting a little payback from a team that defeated you for the league championship banner last year. The bantam Avalanche  did just that and a whole lot more. Last year in North East Alberta league final round Provost beat our guys out to win the banner, On Sunday down in Provost the bantams played like a runaway train heading down a hill with no brakes. The game train starting out chugging slow, Danny Boy Cardinal getting on the board first, Provost would answer with their own, then ‘ Silent Sam’ making it 2 to 1, then ‘ King Cole’ Bendixen, the train starting to build momentum now, Matthew Quinney, next , then ‘ Lightning Liam’ Ludlage, the score 5 to 2 after the second. The third period it really started to gain speed, ‘ Lightning Liam ‘ with two more, ‘ Silent Sam with another, Dallas’ Cowboy’ Bristow with one and Jaden ‘ Jetstream’ Van Maarion capping it off … 10 to 3 the final for the Avalanche. How`s that for a little pay back!

The atom Avalanche coached by James Capjack were on the road up in Bonnyville on Sunday playing in their first game of the year, starting the year off on the right track , coming home with a big 4 to 2 win . `King Kong Konnor`Poitras with 2 goals, Cash `CC`Capjack and Ryan `Ram Rod`Cameron with one each.  And now for the K.A. Campbell quote of the week. ‘ Play every game as if it is your last one.’ – Guy Lafleur