He shoots, he scores!

Tales from the Timebox: October 22nd, 2018

Young kids don’t play for money, they play for fun. For some of the young ones it’s all about the treats after the game. And no matter what people may say at every level, winning is a lot more fun than losing. But at least if you lose by only a few goals then it can still be fun.

The North East League, in which our teams play, are trying something new this year. The league itself is setting up the games and telling the teams who they must play before the league begins at the end of November.

Tiering is still the best way for the kids to have competitive fun. But in order to get into the proper tier a team must play two games a weekend for about 6 weeks or about 10 to 12 games against other teams to see where they stand. None of these games will actually count when playoff time comes along.

Some of these games can be very one sided and little painful to watch, let alone be on the ice; but it is a necessary evil.

The Midgets played Frog Lake and Saddle Lake this past weekend and walked all over both of those teams by double digits scores. They obviously don’t belong in the same tier. I don’t know if that means we have a very strong team of if these teams are very weak. Maybe next weekend it may be a whole different story.

Either way, there’s just way too many goals and assists to list. I will say this, we do have a very talented team, as our record shows, most of these boys have played in provincial finals for the last few years and should be at the very top of tier two or in the middle of tier one.

The Peewee and Atoms teams had fairly close games though. On Saturday morning the Atoms Avalanche traveled to Bonnyville to play a game against what was listed as their number three team. After watching this game and from the play on the ice & on the game sheet, it looks to me like the Pontiacs should end up in the same tier as the Avalanche.

The Avalanche the eventual winners 4 to 3. Braylee ‘Little Willy’ Lesyk scoring the first one on the power play to tie the game at one. Who let the dogs out? Riley ‘Coyote’ Bourne hammering one home in the back door on a nice set up by Evett ‘Snoopy’ Smereka to give the Avalanche the lead. Then Madden ‘Mad Dog’ Flamand going top shelf putting one up over the goalie the Avalanche leading 3 to 1 after forty minutes.

The Avalanche did a little bit of slacking off in the third and before they knew it, the game was tied up at three. Then with a three all tie game going into the dying seconds the Coyote would find the mesh with his second goal of the game and the eventual winner.

Some terrific saves by ‘Good Time Charlie’ Lesyk especially late in the third when the team sort of abandoned him leaving him out to dry a few times he would come up huge against the attacking Pontiacs.

On Sunday morning, the Atoms took on the Marwayne/ Dewberry Sled Dogs, winning that one much easier then the day before by a 10 to 2 score. Although after looking at the game sheet, seven of those goals were scored late in the third period, so I don’t really know what happened. Maybe the Avalanche finally woke up with such a early morning game time. Half of them may have stayed up late Saturday night to watch the Elks play!

Up to the third period the game was still very close, Mad Dog leading the charge with half the goals scoring five of them and assisting on another one. ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan with two goals and an assist, the Snoop Dog with a goal and an assist, Little Willy with one goal and an assist, Brendan ‘Buzz Saw’ Kadutski with a goal .

Up in the peewee division the Avalanche played at home on Saturday against the Frog Lake T Birds winning 7 to 3. This game was close for a while too. Vaughn ‘the Vulture’ Ockerman with the first one . ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine with the second one, he also assisted on one. Timmy ‘the Freight Train’ Cardinal was on the door step hammering home one to tie the game and then a few minutes later on the power play adding another one to give the Avalanche the 4 to 3 lead. Freight Train’s second goal would turn out to be the eventual winner.

‘Top Gunner’ Crawford not taking any chances that the T-Birds might come back and tie it again added three more goals for insurance. Top Gunner with a natural hat trick. He works really hard out there and is a real gamer for sure. So do a number of the other players on this team, including Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand who did a lot of the corner work digging out the puck, he set up three goals. And the little D Man Gavin ‘Giver’ Kadutski who never gives up no matter the size of the other guy, he assisted on one.

Another player to watch is forward Ella ‘Stellar’ Ballas, she started getting a little more aggressive as the game went on and finally assisted on one. Defenseman Brendon ‘Blue Line’ Haesch, who is one of the smoothest skaters on the team, also assisted on one. Seth ‘Motor Man’ Morton has really stepped up his game showing us his speed and skill out there, he’s also on the game sheet with an assist.

Goalie ‘Kid Kade’ Fontaine in the cage doing what he does best stopping the rubber at the most critical times. And two girls who we really should mention, they never got a single point, but the boys better look, out these gals can really skate and back check like crazy. Spencer ‘Goldie Locks’ Malchowski and Kaylee ‘Big Bird’ Radcliffe.

On Sunday the Peewee Avalanche traveled to Onion Lake the out come not so great. But not that bad either. The final score 4 to 1 for the Border Chiefs. The Vulture scoring the only goal assisted by Blue Line.

And now for the K.A. Campbell quote of the week. ” Call them pros, call them mercenaries, but in fact they are just grown up kids who have learned on the frozen creek or flooded corner lot that hockey is the greatest thrill of all. ” – Lester Patrick