All Aboard
Tales from the Timebox: February 7, 2017
Just think if you could predict the future…if you had a crystal ball…and at half time you knew that New England would come back to win the Super Bowl. Not in a million years would I have guessed that; but a good lesson for all… it’s not over until its over!
All aboard! Saturday morning, the bantam Avalanche loaded their hockey bags for the 5 hour road trip north to Wabasca to play in the second round of their provincials. At the end of the day, it was certainly worth the long trip, winning the game 11 to 0 and winning the two game total point series in just one game.
Four goals for Dallas ‘Cowboy ‘ Bristow, a hat trick for Hank ‘the Tank’ Rogal, two goals for ‘King Cole’ Bendixen, Jaden ‘Jetsteam’ VanMaarion and Jace ‘the Stafford Streak’ with one each. Five assists for the talented set up man ‘Lightning Liam’ Ludlage.
After defeating Mallaig in the first round, they were scheduled to play Wabasca in the second round. The Avalanche having venue meant they could travel there first or ask them to come here first. Easy decision if you have a crystal ball, and in hind sight knowing what they know now, they could have had Wabasca travel here first and save the bus money. But who knows, say you have a close game a home and needed to win the second game, it’s better to be playing at home for sure. And besides that, I always found a bus trip was good for team bonding no matter what the cost. The bantams will now go on to play either Boyle or Vegreville.
Super Bowl Sunday turned into a really Super Sunday for the Atom Avalanche, when they played their second round of provincials hosting CNN at home winning the game by two touchdowns plus a single. Sending them into the next round of provincials against either Mannville or Kikino.
Four goals each for ‘King Kong Konnor’ Poitras and Cash ‘CC’ Capjack, Sam ‘Spiderman’ Rogal with two, ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine, Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand, Phoenix Quinney- Canning, Ryan ‘Ram Rod’ Cameron and ‘Timmy Joe’ Cardinal with one each. ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford, ‘Saint Nicholas’ Penner, ‘Cyclone Cole’ Pierce, Gavin ‘Giver’ Kadutski and Brendon ‘Blue Line’ Haesch-Baker all with assists.
Almost started looking like a miracle on ice was going to happen for the peewee boys, who also played a provincial game on Super Bowl Sunday. The boys came out like gang busters and gave the league leading Mallaig quite a scare for the first period and a half. Pumped up ready to give everything they had they laid it all on the line and were winning the game 2 to 1 after the first period, then 3 to 2, half-way through the second.
In the third period the wheels fell off the cart, especially in the last two minutes of the game when the flood gates opened up, but , it was still one heck of a good effort by everyone. Landon ‘the Magnificent’ Malachowski scoring one on the power play , assisted by Odin ‘the Wall’ Smith and ‘ Mic Jager’ Fontaine. ‘Mic’ getting two goals, one assisted by ‘Wild Wyatt’ Pavoll.
I don’t care what anyone says about them, the bantam Storm girls played fantastic for about 50 out of 60 minutes on Saturday afternoon, against the Vermilion Tigers. It was a great first period, the Storm getting lots of shots on net; but after the break in the dressing room they came out a little sluggish for the first ten minutes of the second period. Almost seemed to be out of gas, getting just one shot on net and allowed 4 goals. They got their second wind after that they played great again for the rest of the game. It appeared like they had the Tigers chasing their tail around for most of the game, trying to get something going against our little team.
Driving to the net getting shots on goal and back checking like crazy, Chloe ‘Mouse’ Bendixen had two super opportunities to score from the slot. Jenna ‘Precious’ Poitras was back in the line up after missing a few games with a concussion. She seems to be doing fine and showed it with some awesome forechecking. Powerful center Halle ‘Comet’ Stybel was like a wrecking ball, really driving hard to the net and forcing her way through the traffic; they tried to pull her down a few times but she is wickedly strong and determined. Peewee aged petite defense woman Jadey ‘the Lady’ Capjack isn’t intimated by the bigger girls and does a great job of angling them off to the outside, she battled hard in front of our net and in the corners to regain possession of the puck,
The novice 1 A team won all the marbles over in the Mallaig one-day tournament this past weekend. Only one day, but it was one very long day! They played four games winning them all, The first one starting at 8am against the host Mallaig, the Avalanche winning 8 to 4. Being on the ice at 8 am means they left home about 6.30 a,m. That’s pretty harsh on a Saturday morning. Their second game was against Kikino, a team the Avalanche has had trouble with all year, losing twice to them in league play.
This game was tied 4 all until the hero, ‘Hurricane Kayl’ Warawa scored the winning goal with only 6 seconds left on the clock. Their third game was against Cold Lake and the Avalanche were starting to power out by then, but managed to pull it all together in the last four minutes scoring 3 goals to win 7 to 6 sending them directly to the finals; the final game starting right after , this time once more against Kikino.. Another tight game, going back and forth, the score 3 to 2 for the Avalanche after 40 minutes, the kids all exhausted by now after 10 hours at the rink, would reach down and find the strength to add another three goals in the third, winning the final 5 to 2.
The novice 1 B team also played in a tournament this past weekend in St. Paul. They won the first game 12 to 4, then although they put up a good effort they lost to two tough teams, one from Mannville and then Lynwood.
Our micro novice team was up early Saturday morning too, travelling to Frog Lake playing the T Birds. Jaxon Marcoux scoring his first goal of his career, but certainly not the last time we will hear of him! Another name to remember ‘Davey Crocket’ Cardinal scoring his first every hat trick. And keep an eye on these other young stars, Remington ‘Steel’ Reynolds, Wtatt ‘Earp’ Fontaine, Jaxon ‘Smitty’ Smith, all with hat trick, Jackson ‘J.R.’ Rawlake with some huge game saving saves, ‘Commander Tom’ Melnyk and Denys ‘the Menise’ Kuba with two goals each. The coaching staff was really pleased with the teamwork in this game passing the puck.
The midget boys had the weekend off but will be back in action this coming weekend when they play Provost on Saturday at 8 pm and Frog lake on Sunday at 5p,m . Both games are at home.
And now for the K.A. Campbell quote of the week. ‘ One road trip we were stuck on the runway for seven hours. The plane kept driving and driving until we arrived at the rink and then I realized we were on a bus.’ – Glenn Healy, spending time in the minors.
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