One for the Money… Two for the Show
Tales from the Timebox: February 13th, 2017
Three to get ready… Now, go go go! The Atom Avalanche are going to the big show! The Stanley Cup of minor hockey! The Atom D Provincial Championship Final, on the weekend of March 17th -19th in Delburne. Congratulation to head coach James Capjack and his assistants, Conway Pierce, Shane Fontaine, team managers Melissa Rogal and Gwen Pierce; and of course all 15 of the boys.
The kids are all getting along, they’re supporting each other. It’s a realy big team effort and that’s what we push on the team. When you score a goal, it’s not a goal for you… It’s a goal for the team. – James Capjack Head Coach Elk Point Atom Avalanche
Thursday night, the team traveled to Mannville to play in the final round robin for the Zone 2 championship, coming home with a 16 to 0 win; winning the series in one game.
This is the first time we have had a Atom team make it to the provincial final in many years, in fact the last time was 13 years ago, way back in 2003. Players on that team include some of our present day Elks senior players, Jordyn ‘Tiger’ Wozniak, Dylan ‘ In Your Face’ Loughran, Harrison’ Dirty Harry’ Maas and Kameron ‘Boom Boom’ Ballas, who plays with the Kitscoty senior team. They were all part of the last provincial Atoms to make it out of our Zone 2 to the final.
We got our first couple goals and the energy just climbed. The kids wanted it. They tasted it. Everyone was involved with the play. Our goaltender made some big saves, it was unbelievable. It was a great game, start to end. There wasn’t a penalty, the whole game, on either side. We played a clean game and the kids did really well. – James Capjack Head Coach Elk Point Atom Avalanche
On Saturday afternoon, the Atoms played a league game against Mallaig winning 10 to 2. Great team effort once again. Five goals in this one for ‘King Kong Konnor’ Poitras, two each for Cash ‘CC’ Capjack and Phoenix the ‘Pony Express’ Quinney-Canning, Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand with one, three assist for Ryan ‘Ram Rod’ Cameron, ‘Timmy Joe’ Cardinal and ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine with two assists each. Vaughn the ‘Vulture’ Ockerman, ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine, ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford, Sam ‘ Spiderman’ Rogal and the ‘ Saint’ Nic Penner all getting in on the action with helpers.
Two down one to go! The bantam Avalanche are still waiting to play Boyle in their final round robin for the Zone 2 banner and the right to travel to provincials. Those games are scheduled for the weekend of February 25th and 26th. Meanwhile, the crunch is on for the Bantams who are sitting on the bubble in league play and are still in the hunt to make the playoffs this year. Any loss now may put them out of contention, as I’m sure the coaching staff of Greg Van Maarion, Marty Bendixen, and Tyson Stafford reminded them before the game on Saturday; but they gave themselves a fighting chance late that afternoon winning over Wainwright 5 to 2.
Down 1 to 0 after the first 20 minutes, they picked up the play in the second period, Jaden ‘Jet Stream’ Van Maarion scoring on the power play assisted by ‘Hank the Tank’ Rogal and ‘Lightning Liam’ Ludlage, then the ‘Lightning’ taking things in his own hands, scoring one all alone, a short handed goal at that, making it 2 to 1 after 40 minutes.
The Avalanche special teams really clicking in this game, taking advantage of the power play again and again in the third, ‘Jet Stream’ and ‘Lightning’ both scoring a goal with the man advantage, both of them assisted by ‘ King Cole’ Bendixen. Talented Charlie ‘Angel ‘ Rogal adding one, his an even strength goal. The final score 5 to 2 for the Avalanche. Normally, a quiet stay at home defenseman, Jace ‘the Stafford Streak’ doing a little rushing with the puck, a terrific job of moving it up the ice with two assists in this one.
The peewee boys had a great game Saturday afternoon too; down by 2 goals in the third, they came back to tie the game. Saddle Lake scoring with 39 second left on the clock, to win the game, the final score 7 to 6, The peewee special teams were also clicking on Saturday, scoring four of the six goals on the power play. Landon ‘the Magnificent ‘Malachowski and ‘Mic Jager’ Fontaine with a hat trick each, two assists for team captain Kobe the ‘Cobra’ Warawa, rugged D Man Josef ‘Big Red’ Theriault with one assist. Brady ‘ Bionic Man ‘Hymanyk, Odin ‘ the Wall’ Smith, ‘Wild Wyatt’ Pavol, ‘Bazooka Joey’ Cardinal, CeaJay Quinney and Dean ‘the Machine’ Ockerman all playing their butts off. Goalie Vanden ‘ Super Mario’ Moroziuk facing 46 shots. The whole team winning the Heart and Hustle for their effort.
The Storm bantam girls team are no longer just an easy push over, when teams push these girls… these girls push back and give effort like no other team I have ever seen. One thing I must say about the Storm bantam girls team is they will never surrender! Never, never, never! Saturday, they traveled to the Border City taking a early 2 to 1 lead at one point in the first, then down 4 to 3 after the second, the final 6 to 3. Consider this, six of the twelve Storm skaters are still peewee aged, two of them are still first year peewee aged, you have to give them a gold star for their effort.
Work horse Halle ‘Comet’ Stybel going top shelf, scoring the first one, assisted by the solid and steady long striding defense woman Avery ‘Whirlwind’ Warawa. No longer the nice girl she used to be, Jenna ‘Precious ‘ Poitras getting right into the Blazers goalie grill, scoring one short handed, assisted by the ‘Comet’. The Storm taking the Blazers by surprise and not rolling over or putting up the white flag to surrender. Laramie ‘Louis’ Parr going coast to coast scoring the third one for the Storm. She’s still a peewee and is going to be a great player one day, heck she already is! Rylee ‘the Rocket’ Warawa is one of the first year peewee players and she is going to be a dominate player one day too. She has some grit in her and is one of the finest skaters I’ve personally seen in all of our minor hockey system. Just wait until she gets a little older and bigger… look out boys!
On Sunday the Storm hosted Irma one of the top teams in the league with a very strong and huge defense, the girls not getting a lot of shots on net, but still played an intense game for the full 60 minutes.
The novice 1 A team were as little sluggish getting out of the gate on Saturday morning when they traveled to Mallaig, but picked it up a notch in the second and third period winning 8 to 3. Madden ‘Mad Dog’ Flamand with a hat trick, two goals each for ‘ Without a Trace’ Morgan and Sebastien ‘Bruce’ Brousseau, ‘Stellar Ella’ Ballas with one goal. Two assists for ‘ Hurricane Kayl ‘ Warawa, one assist each for ‘Mad Dog’ ‘Without a Trace’ and ‘Sus-pencer’ Malachowski.
The novice 1B team travelled to Frog Lake Sunday morning losing a close one 4 to 2. Brenden ‘Buzzsaw’ Kadutski and Braylee ‘B.J. Lesyk scoring the goals, Evett ‘Snoopy’ Smereka and Keyson ‘Dynamite’ DeMoissac with the assists.
The league leading midget Avalanche are rolling right along with another two big wins this past weekend. Saturday night against Provost the game was tied 2 all after the first, the boys turning up the heat in the last two periods winning 5 to 2. Two goals each for Bowen ‘Bam Bam’ Krider and ‘the Big O’ Brody Odgaard, Hayden ‘Hotwheels ‘ Ludlage with a single. Three assists for the slick stick handler, the very tricky Nicky ‘ Sparky ‘ Anderson. Also picking up assists, Chad ‘Pickpocket’ Poitras, ‘Warrior Warren’ Ference , Kyle ‘Ketchup’ Kjenner and Chase ‘Rink Rat’ Dorey.
On Sunday against Frog Lake the game was really close for the first forty minutes and going into the third period it was still 4 all until the last 10 minutes when the Avalanche opened up the taps again and flooded them with shots; 8 to 5 the final in favor of the Avalanche . ‘Ketchup’ and ‘Bam Bam’ with two goals and two assists each, the ‘Big O’ with a goal and two assists, ‘Hot Wheels’ and ‘Sparky’ with one goal and one assist each, ‘Captain Obvious’ Austin Stafford chipping in with a goal as well. Rugged D Man ‘Warrior’ Warren with two helpers, his hard nosed cousin Cyle ‘Grinder’ Graus adding one helper and a pile of blocked shots to assist his goalie. And speaking of that, one of the biggest reason this team has had success this year is the goalie tandem of Shane ‘Hercules’ Hurtubise and Spencer ‘Fortress ‘ Hardcastle. No matter which one is in the cage, these two guys give the Avalanche a chance to win each and every game. Everything starts with a good goalie, without a good goalie you will never have a hope in ((you know where)) to win, and these two guys have played great all year!
All you boys out there, don’t forget it’s Valentines Day today! Remember to give your sweet heart something special; and it’s a good opportunity to give something special to a potential sweetheart too! You’ll never know, unless you try!!
Happy birthday wishes going out today to former Elk Point minor hockey moms Betty Poitras, Sandie Bishop, and Karen Bjornstad.
And now for the K. A. Campbell quote of the week ” I’m not dumb enough to be a goalie’ – Brett Hull
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