Right after the Micro-Novice game, rookie goalie Raif ‘ Rug Rat’ Evans Anderson played phenomenal in net, sliding from side to side, bouncing up and down and pouncing on the puck like a cat on a rat! The Novice 1 A winning over Mallaig by a fairly huge margin on Saturday morning at home.

Celebrating her birthday, that morning, on Ukrainian Christmas, ‘Hurricane Kayl’ Warawa was ready to put some icing on her cake, scoring a hat trick and adding an assist . Off his leash ‘ Mad Dog” Madden Flamand was really on a tear, he scored a hat trick plus assisting on 5 others. The rookie, called up from the farm team, ‘Wyatt Earp’ Fontaine with two goals and an assist. Sebastien Brousseau with two goals and some awesome back checking.  Boe Johnson with a goal and an assist.  ‘Notorious Nolan’ Ballas with one goal, ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan with three helpers and some goal posts. Even though ‘Stellar Ella’ Ballas wasn’t on the game sheet for a goal or an assist it certainly was not for the lack of effort, she was giving 100 percent effort holding the blue line the whole game playing on defense.

The next morning, Sunday, the 1 B team traveled up to Lac La Biche coming home with another big “W”. Hat tricks and one assist each for Evett ‘Snoopy’ Smereka and Kaysen DeMoissac, two goals for Braylee ‘BJ’ Lesyk.  Charlotte Henderson, Kale Ockerman and Miles Koren  all with one goal each. Brendan Kadutski and Riley ‘Coyote’ Bourne are not on the score sheet, but both contributed on the back end checking the opposition; always the same old story, no glory for the defensemen!

Like it or not, these are exactly the kind of teams you want to play before the provincial round robins start in a few weeks. Nice clean tough teams to see how you can compete, when the going gets tough and to see where you can make some improvements. Playing easier teams is fun, but going to the provincial final is more fun! You must be prepared to meet some tough teams.

The Atom Avalanche faced a Vermilion tier 1 B team on Saturday at home. Our boys played well, but many times during the early part of the game they would lose possession of the puck and were bailed out by goalie ‘Kid Kade’ Fontaine who faced 31 shots in the end. Tied two all after the first period on goals by rushing defenseman Sam ‘Spiderman’ Rogal, assisted by Ryan ‘Ram Rod’ Cameron  and a real nice short handed one all alone by Vaughn ‘the Vulture’ Ockerman. Halfway through the second period ‘King Kong Konnor’ Poitras  would score on the power play assisted by Cash ‘CC’ Capjack to tie the game again; this time at 3 all.

Then with only 17 seconds left in the second period  ‘CC’  finding the back of the mesh after another  nice feed by the  ‘Ram Rod’ ; the Avalanche heading into the dressing room leading by 4 to 3 after 40 minutes.  The third period the Vermilion Tigers came out hungry and scored one to tie the game part way through the third period and then pressuring they scored the winner with only 3 minutes left before the buzzer.  Coach James Capjack calling a time out with 40 seconds left and pulling the goalie for the extra attacker, the Avalanche with some quality chances but failed to score;  the final 5 to 4 for the Tigers.

And now for the K. A. Campbell quote of the week. ‘ Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapable and in hospitable cold, hockey is the chance of life, and a affirmation that despite the deathly chill of winter, we are alive.’ – Stephen Leacock.