Strange but true

Tales from the Timebox : November 20th, 2018

This sounds a bit like one of those Tim Horton’s commercials. Do you realize somewhere in Canada this past weekend, some parent is tying skates for their child’s very first hockey game and in about 15 years from now that same player will be playing hockey in the NHL. Crazy but it’s true.

Micro-Novice

Our very own little Micro Novice all-stars played in their very first minor hockey game this past Saturday morning and the stands were full of fans. Parents, grandparents, other siblings and friends, all up early and down at the rink for the 8:30 am start taking all kinds of pictures of their little hero.

Out of eight little Avalanche players, there’s only one veteran from last year’s team. Lennox ‘All Out’ St. Arnault and he plays all out.  He was buzzing around and around, along with the first timers, Tor Aarbo, the ‘General Lee’ Barstad, Zander Goertzen , Everett Hahn, Hudson Krankowsky, Stetson Reynolds, and Jaydn Sakowsky.

Next week this team has another early start, same time, but this time over in St Paul. I bet there’s going to be a few grandparents stopping at Timmy’s along the way.

Novice

The Novice Hurricanes played against Mallaig at home right after the Micro Novice on Saturday. This worked out well, setting up the half ice boards and play back to back games. Lots of scoring in this one, the Avalanche winning 11-8 .

‘Wild Wyatt’ Fontaine with a hat trick. Remington ‘Steel’ Reynolds with two goals and three assists. Jaxon ‘Smitty’ Smith with two goals and two assists. ‘Jesse James’ Penner with one goal. Kestyn Quinney with one goal and two assists. William ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas with one goal and one assist. Jackson ‘J.R.’ Rawlake with an assist . Denys ‘the Menace’ Kuba with a goal, Jaxon ‘Magic’ Marcoux with an assist. Theo ‘Longhorn’ Loughran with some end to end rushes, Ryder ‘Rhino’ Malo with some great defensive shot blocks.

On Sunday the Novice team traveled to Bonnyville to play on the full ice game against the Pontiac’s second year players. Although they were beaten on the score board, the Avalanche never threw in the towel. They had some terrific goaltending by ‘Major Tom’ Melnyk held their own for most of the game. Remington ‘Steel’ Reynolds with a goal, ‘Wild Wyatt’ with two goals and an assist.

Atom & Peewee

Avalanche Atom and Peewee teams played back to back games in St. Paul this past Saturday. This works out really well for a large number of the parents who happen to have players on both teams. First up was the Atoms who after starting the game down by one goal, stormed back in the second and third period and won this one 5 to 1. Madden ‘Mad Dog’ Flamand with two goals, the first one to tie the game at one just before the end of the first period, then added an insurance goal late in the third period. Evett ‘Snoop Dog’ Smereka with two goals, Kaysen ‘Dynamite’ DeMossiac blasting one into the cage. Helping out the cause and not only defensively on the blue line, the D-Men ‘Boe Dog’ St. George, ‘Notorious Nolan’ Ballas and Rhyley Kozicky all with the assists.

Next up was the Peewee game that turned into a real nail biter right to the bitter end, the Avalanche victorious with a 3 to 2 win at the final buzzer. ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford with the first goal assisted by Seth ‘Motor Man’ Morton, and then the Motor Man would score assisted by Top Gunner. Two all was the score after the first period. Back and forth in the second period the teams were still deadlocked at two after forty minutes.

Halfway through the third period, with a strong determined effort , the hero of the day, Ryan ‘Ram Rod’ Cameron would finally find the twine with one, assisted by Top Gunner and Sam ‘the Spiderman’ Rogal.

The Avalanche now taking the one goal lead and holding on to it for the remainder of the game. But not without some pretty big timely saves by the goalie ‘Kid Kade’ Fontaine and some extra help from ‘Stellar Ella’ Ballas who blocked a shot in the dying minutes then cleared the puck out of the zone. Otherwise the Canadiens would have had clear sailing right in on top of the Kid and who knows what may have happened. And we also would like to mention this hard working trio who kept the pressure on , for-checking, back checking and working the corners by Brayden ‘Pinball’ Pinette, Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand and ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine.

Midget

Sometimes you squeak a win in these tight games and some times you come up with the short straw. As was the case with the Midget Avalanche who lost a real close battle with the Marwayne Sled Dogs here at home on Sunday afternoon 5-4. On a tear and doing his part, Nick ‘Sparky’ Anderson lighting the lamp with a hat trick. He also added an assist on the goal by Jace ‘the Stafford Streak’ who hammered one home and dedicated it to his recently deceased Pappa Leo. Chase ‘the Rink Rat’ Dorey, Hank ‘the Tank’ Rogal and Hayden ‘Hot Wheels’ Ludlage all with two assists each, ‘Danny Boy’ Cardinal also adding a helper. Goalie Colton ‘Colt 45’ Van Maarion was busy with 36 shot on goal, the Avalanche replied with only 28.

Not to use this as an excuse, but it should be mentioned that the Avalanche were down two players due to suspensions and another who was sick. And what is really weird, they only had one two minute penalty in this whole game for tripping. Strange but true!

Lions head to Provincial Finals

Some really great news coming out of St Paul on Saturday, the Lions Football team defeated Stetter 20 to 10 and will now advance to the provincial final this coming weekend in Ft Mac Murray . Good luck to our local boys Danny Boy Cardinal , Hank the Tank and Chuckles Rogal, Odin ‘the Wall’ Smith and Ty Cobb Smereka.

 

And now for the K. A. Campbell quote of the week. ” The bigger you dream, the bigger you play. ” -Constance Vaughn