You better be good

Pictured: Elk Point Atom Avalanche in action 

Tales from the Timebox: December 18th, 2018

Christmas came early for the Atom Avalanche, arriving this past Friday afternoon with the news, coming out of the Hockey Alberta headquarters in Red Deer, that Elk Point Minor Hockey has been awarded the Atom D Provincial Finals Tournament from March the 14th to the 17th 2019.

This is the third provincial tournament we have hosted in as many years, doing the Midget finals in 2017, the Bantam finals last March and now the Atoms. I must tell you, we have great volunteers and the feedback from participates about the quality of the tournaments we have hosted has always been exceptional. Otherwise we wouldn’t even be considered year after year.

Atom Avalanche

The Atom team players were  just a little excited about the news and showed it this past weekend winning a home and home series over the Cold Lake Ice. Winning 9-3 on Saturday in Cold Lake and a big 10-4 score on Sunday here at home.

Madden ‘Mad Dog’ Flamand putting the bite, like a vice, on the Ice, with five goals and two assists on Saturday. Kaysen ‘Dynamite’ DeMossiac, Braylee ‘Little Willy’ Lesyk, Raif ‘Rug Rat’ Evans Anderson and ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan all with one goal each.

On Sunday at home, the Mad Dog was chewing it up again with four more goals and one assist. Evett ‘Snoop Dog’ Smereka was off his chain too, scoring two goals and adding two assists. Snoop Dog streaking in all alone on the break-away nailing the top shelf on one of his goals. Dynamite blasting in two goals. Birthday boy Brendan ‘Buzzsaw’ Kadutski, who just happens to be celebrating his 9th birthday today, pounding a one timer into the webbing. He was in the perfect spot to score. Out front, stick on the ice taking one off the back wall from ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan. Without a Trace had two assists, including the one that ricochet off the back wall.

Riley ‘the Coyote’ Bourne watching that play develop did exactly the same thing getting in a great position and ready to score taking one off the back wall too. He also added an assist. Little Willy not sitting back while killing a penalty going coast to coast scoring one all alone while the team was short handed.

‘Boe Dog’ St. George brought in the largest number of fans through the gate. And they spent lots at the concession after they won the 50/50 in this game. He’s on the game sheet with an assist and two trips over to the sin bin. The Atoms coaching staff I’m sure will be searching for some tougher competition and will be working on the fine tuning their PP and PK in the next few months as they prepare to host the Provincial Finals.

Micro Novice Avalanche

The little Micro Novice hosted Bonnyville on Saturday morning. Lennox ‘All Out’ St. Arnault with some strong skating and stickhandling skills finding the cage with two goals. Clear the Track, here comes Shack! Stetson ‘Shack’ Reynolds is one of the more aggressive and focused player on the ice, he was going strong both ways and had an assist. ‘Tornado’ Aarbo, ‘Mount Everett’ Hahn and ‘General Lee’ Barstad with assists too.

Hudson ‘the Roadster’ Krankowski playing on defense with some really good shot blocking looked a lot like his uncle Jordan when he was a little guy. He did a really good job in net too considering they don’t have a goalie stick or big pads. Zander ‘Zorro’ Goertzen and Jaydn ‘Spectacular’ Sakowsky both doing a bang up job when it was their turn in net.

Novice Avalanche

Our Novice team traveled to Glendon, on Saturday, playing in a one day, nine team tournament. Every team played one 20 minute half ice period back-to-back against each other. Even though they don’t keep score at the Novice anymore, the Avalanche won seven out of eight games. Some little birdie told me. Who are they trying to kid? We all know the score. But the kids don’t care, they just want to have fun, coaches and parents maybe not so much.

Peewee Avalanche

The Peewee Avalanche filled the house on a rare Tuesday night game against Lac La Biche. The game originally scheduled for the weekend before Christmas was moved by a mutual agreement. The Clippers are one of the better teams in the league, but our guys managed to skate with them through out the game losing by a close 4-2. Would have been even closer, but one of those goals an empty netter when the Avalanche pulled the goalie for the extra attacker in the final minute. The idea and timing was great, but some times, as was the case in this one, it will backfire. A bouncing puck over the last man back and its game over. A strong game for Seth ‘ Motor Man’ Morton who scored the first goal. He was strong on the puck all night and skating hard in this one. Vaughn ‘ the Vulture’ Ockerman scoring the second goal on the power play. Both goals assisted by ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford.

On Saturday at home Avalanche goalie ‘Kid Kade’ Fontaine played superb shutting the door on St, Paul the Avalanche winning this one 2-0. Brendon ‘Blueline’ Haesch playing up on the forward line with the first goal assisted by the Vulture and Top Gunner. Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand with the second one on a wide open break – away going upstairs on the Canadiens’ goalie.

Formula One has a great set of wheels, especially when he kicks it into overdrive. He is also one of the best penalty killers on the team known for blocking shorts and fore-checking . Blueline and Timmy ‘the Freight Train’ Cardinal assisting on the play. The Freight Train with his size does a great job of screening the goalie and is also a very smart player knowing all the rules of the game better than I do some of the time! ‘Bo Diddly’ Fontaine was another player who worked really hard in this game and killed a few penalties as well a fore-checking and back checking and working the corners.

Midget Avalanche

Coaching can be stressful at times and I’m sure the Midgets gave their coaching staff a few grey hairs on Friday night. On the road up in Boyle they took a huge 7-4 lead after 40 minutes. Then decided to sit back for a while in the third period as the Blazers caught up and actually took a 8-7 lead.

Fortunately for the Avalanche, they woke up just in time, scored a couple goals and won the game 9-8 . Otherwise it might have been a very quiet ride home or maybe not. A hat trick for Nick ‘Sparky’ Anderson including the game winning goal. Jaden ‘Jet Stream’ Van Maarion and Charlie ‘Chuckles’ Rogal with two goals each. Chase ‘Rink Rat’ Dorey and Tyler Jamieson with one goal each. Dustyn ‘Dusty’ Pankiw with a couple of assists, Jace ‘the Stafford Streak’ , ‘King Cole’ Bendixen , Dallas ‘Cowboy’ Bristow and Hayden ‘Hotwheels’ Ludlage all with a helper each.

On Saturday at home our old friends the Kitscoty Pitbulls came a howling looking to grab a bone and head home. The Avalanche with other plans sending them home with their tails between their legs. But not after a pretty intense game. The first two periods may have been the best midget game we have seen this year. Lots of speed, nice passing and shots, both teams laying out heavy clean hits and both goalies doing a tremendous job of keeping the puck out. The only goals scored by both teams were all on the power play in the first forty minutes. The Avalanche leading by 2-1 at that point.

Early in third period, the Avalanche would score another on the power play and then the flood gates would open up. As well as the penalty boxes, it was getting very crowded in the third period. The final 6-1 for the Avalanche. Jet Stream and Hot Wheels with two goals and two assists each. Sparky with a goal and two assists. Rink Rat adding one goal.  ‘Lightning Liam’ Ludlage with two assists. King Cole, Dusty and Evan ‘Batman’ Ockerman with one assist each. Colton ‘Colt 45’ Van Maarion between the pipes facing 29 shots and many of them deflections in front played outstanding… standing on his head.

Out of town players

Over in the AA Peewee league, playing for the Lakeland Panthers team Cash ‘Paycheque ‘ Capjack scored two goals and had one assist. ‘King Kong Konnor’ Poitras adding an assist in huge 9-4 win over the strong team from Lloydminster.

Former Storm player Jadey ‘the Lady’ Capjack who now plays for the Lakeland Jaguars Female Bantam team was one of three girls selected off her team to play in a fundraiser in Cold Lake on the weekend organized by four time Olympic gold medalist Hailey Wickinheiser.

Also in the Female Midget league another former Storm player, the speedy Jenna ‘Precious’ Poitras playing for the Dewberry Wild now, played her strongest two games of the year losing to St Paul 1 to 0 on Friday night and coming home with a four all tie up in Lac La Biche. The former Storm player Ashley ‘the Hacksaw’ Hunter scoring one up in Lac La Biche.

And now for the K.A. Campbell of the week . “Be Good, because Santa is watching!” – Doug the ‘Sportshound’ Bassett .