Eye of the Tiger
Tales from the Timebox: October 31st, 2017
Too good to be true? When I watched the Midget Avalanche last Sunday, against Bonnyville, I knew right away, this team is loaded with talent, size, speed and toughness. Anyone could see it. And after they manhandled the Pontiacs in that game I figured we better wait and see what happens next weekend against Cold Lake before we get too excited.
This past Sunday, the boys just annihilated Cold Lake. Nothing is going to hold these guys back. If this continues for the next few weeks, which I suspect it is going to ( knock on wood), our Midget Avalanche will be moving up from tier # 2 to tier # 1. My feeling is they will still be able to compete and win games a lot of games at that level.
Not so easy for the Novice Avalanche, who had a much tougher challenge this past Saturday, at home against another one of the Bonnyville teams. The week before they had defeated a Bonnyville team, but this Bonnyville team seemed much stronger on their defense, and especially tough for our little guys to penetrate the blue line. The final score 10 to 8 for the Pontiacs. Every time we had a breakaway, one of their big D-men would be there to shut us down. Our guys did manage to win the third period scoring 5 goals in the third, while allowing only 3. ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan with a hat trick, two goals each for ‘Wyatt Earp’ Fontaine and Miles ‘the Millionare’ Koren. Jonathon McAlleeese and Remington ‘ Steel’ Reynolds adding the assists. Riley ‘Coyote’ Bourne between the pipes this week was busy, but he did a great job of keeping the puck out , especially in the third period when our guys finally started mounting a come back. Too little too late; but, I still think they played great!
It was quite the goaltending performance by the acrobatic ‘Good Time Charlie’ Lesyk this past Saturday. Facing 42 shots on goal, he kept our guys in the game. Brother ‘BJ’ Braylee was the only goal scorer for the Atom Avalanche, assisted by ‘Hurricane Kayl’ Warawa, the Avalanche losing 6 to 1 to Cold Lake. Anna ‘the Banana’ Henderson made two trips to the sin bin for playing a little aggressive, or maybe she was getting picked on by her big sister ‘Raging Paige’ and brother ‘Silent Sam’ who were the officials in this one. At home again on Sunda, against Bonnyville, defenseman ‘Cyclone Cole’ Pierce getting the green light a few times, he scored a hat trick. Hard working ‘BJ’ Lesyk with one goal and an assist, two assists for first year atom Kaysen ‘Dynamite’ De Moissac. An assist for Spencer ‘Goldie Locks’ Malachowski, who has become very aggressive on defense and improved her skating so much over last year that now no one was able to get past her. Brand new to organized hockey this year, Brayden ‘Pinball’ Pinette is picking up the game really fast and looked more confident every shift and especially on Sunday, when he carried the puck a number of times into the Pontiacs’ zone and attempted a couple of shots on net that went wide; but the effort was there for sure.
One of our strongest attributes this year, in our minor hockey system, seems to be our goaltending. Another terrific goaltending performance by Kade ‘the Kid’ Fontaine this week when the visiting Provost Blades. He came calling on Saturday to play the Peewee tier # 3 Avalanche team. ‘The Kid’ stood on his head facing 51 shots, allowing only four goals in the first two periods and completely shut down their offense in the third period. The Avalanche answered with two goals of their own on only six shots, the first one by the awesome hard working ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford, who, after receiving a past at center ice from the big D Man Dean ‘the Machine’ Ockerman, battled through three players who where hanging all over him and even after getting pulled down he still found the five hole. That’s what I call determination! Revving up his engine at the end zone, Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flammond went motoring coast to coast with no one even close to catching up to him to get the checkered flag and score one all alone. Some hard work on the fore check, poking the puck free by first year peewee Seth Morton, who’s father Darren volunteers as an assistant coach of this young team. Monster winger Brady ‘the Bionic Man’ Hymanyk has grown about six inches over the summer and is towering over most of the players. His dad Travis also volunteered as head coach this year, when the two peewee teams were formed. Gavin ‘Giver’ Kudutski is one of the smallest defenseman in all the peewee league; but has one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen. His dad Jon is also an assistant coach, his mom Lori is the team manager.
The Peewee tier #1 team is off to a very good start to the season. After splitting the last weekend with a win and a loss, they played Kitscoty this past Saturday here at home to a five all tie. They then travelled up to Lac La Biche on Sunday picking up two points winning 6 to 4. ‘Mick Jager’ Fontaine with two goals and an assist on Saturday, ‘King Kong Konnor’ Poitras, Landon ‘the Maginificant’ Malchowski, and Ryan ‘Ram Rod’ Cameron adding the other goals. Cash ‘Paycheque’ Capjack and Josef ‘Big Red’ Therialt with the other helpers.
On Sunday on the road up north, ‘Mick Jager’ with four goals, Vaughn ‘the Vulture’ Ockerman and ‘Ram Rod’ with one each, ‘Paycheque’ and Rylee’ the Rocket’ Warawa with assists.
I always say ‘Don’t mess with success!!’ The Vermilion Tigers girls bantam team coaching staff split up our ‘Storm Trooper Connection’ this past weekend to add a little more offence to the other two lines. If you remember last weekend the Storm girls connected for seven points and a big win. It didn’t work out as well as was expected. Back to the drawing board.
Not a lot of extra bodies on our Bantam Avalanche team this year, just ten skaters. That makes two compete lines when they are all there. Usually you like to have a few extras, just in case someone goes down with the flu or injury; but they sure did play well together on Sunday afternoon in their first game of the season defeating St. Paul quite easily 12 to 1. One thing I did notice was, how much these guys have grown over the summer, most of them, with the exception of a few, are all just about six feet tall now. Every one of them is recorded on the game sheet with a point or two except goalie ‘Sexy Slader’ Hardcastle who’s job was to stop the rubber. Jaden ‘Jet Stream’ Van Maarion with four goals, D Man Jace ‘the Stafford Streak’ with two wicked big slap shots from the point into the mesh. Dallas ‘Cowboy’ Bristow, Charlie ‘Chuckles’ Rogal, ‘King Cole’ Bendixen, Odin ‘the Wall’ Smith, Evan ‘Bat Man’ Ockerman and ‘Lightning Liam’ Ludlage with one goal each. The slippery set up man ‘Lightning Liam’ adding seven assists, ‘Danny Boy’ Cardinal and Matthew Quinney with a couple each.
In football news, over in St. Paul on Saturday afternoon the Bengals with all star Brett Halfe making some great plays defeated Lloydminster 13 to 8. It was a very close match that came right down to the final play, where the Bengals intercepted the ball saving a touch down that would have made for a very sad day for them. The Bengals will now go one to meet their arch enemies the Bonnyville Bandits this coming weekend in the league final in Bonnyville.
And now for the K. A. Campbell quote of the week. ” the moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else. ” – Paavo
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