Elk Point Minor Hockey celebrates Christmas

Image: Atom Avalanche pre-Christmas players and parents skate 

Tales from the Timebox: December 26th, 2019

One of the best things about Christmas is family getting together. You can count on this. Grandparents, aunts and uncles and other family from miles away coming to stay over for the holidays.The bonus for them is getting to see their little darlings stars in action on the ice. This past week was rather hectic for most of the hockey and skating parents. Going to Christmas concerts during the days of school and hockey team parties in the evening… not to mention the last minute shopping. Santa has had a heck of a week too trying to fit it all in. A couple of our teams shut down after their Christmas party fun skate but three of them saw action.

Atom Avalanche

A funny thing happened Friday night, when the Atom Avalanche took a merry little trip over to Mannville to visit the Hawks. The first two periods were all Avalanche and the boys putting on a show for their families.

‘Notorious Nolan’ Ballas scoring the only goal in the first period assisted by Jaxon ‘Smitty’ Smith and ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan. One to zip for the Avalanche after twenty minutes.

Into the second frame, Remington ‘Steel’ Reynolds giving his parents a present scoring the second goal of the game. Assisted by Braylee ‘Free Willy’ Lesyk. Then as sneaky as Santa ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan floating on air scoring one all on his own.

All good after 40 minutes. Off to the dressing room we go where the boys with other excitement dancing in their heads figured they already put the Hawks to bed. Then out from the home dressing room comes Scrooge. The Hawks goalie decided to shut the doors on the Avalanche and give them nothing but coal in the third period. The ghost of Christmas present also showed up to play. The Hawks scoring five goals in the third period, of course one was an empty netter. No goals in the third for the Avalanche.

What lesson did we learn today? We must play a full 60 minutes to win a hockey game. But when your ten years old and Christmas is just around the corner, I think there might be others more important things on your mind.

Novice Avalanche

The Novice Avalanche hooked up the sled and traveled through the woods, across the river and over the hills on Saturday morning to Two Hills. Although this is not official, rumor has it one of Santa’s Elves was seen in the crowd at the game and was keeping track for Santa on the good little boys and girls.

Apparently they all played extremely well and showed good sportsmanship. Something that Santa really likes to hear. William ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas with five goals and one assist. ‘Major Tom’ Melnyk with two goals. Avree Lesyk with a goal and an assist. Jesse James Penner with a goal . Two assists each for Lennox ‘All Out’ St. Arnault and Ava Rawlake.

Peewee Avalanche

All I want for Christmas is two big points! The Peewee Avalanche parents and coaches were hoping for a win for Christmas. So off they went to Bonnyville on Saturday to meet the Pontiacs. Not as easy as it sounds.

One of the best games I’ve seen for defenseman Brendan ‘Blue Line’ Haesh. He is a terrific skater and seems to float on air. Not flashy but very effective with the puck he has a hard shot when he puts his weight into it. Not only that, he is not afraid to take one for the team and is a really strong shot blocker. He scored the first two goals by himself. Both times he had a hard shot on net then recovered his own rebound and scored.

‘Top Gunner’ Crawford must have dumped his hockey bag out a home after the last game and didn’t check it twice to see if his number 9 sweater was in there. Or perhaps the coaches decided to disguise him with a practise sweater on. Wouldn’t take to long for anyone to notice this guy no matter what he had on. Going coast to coast scoring a goal. Growing taller by the day, Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand revving up his engine back checking and stealing the puck a number of times. His brother Madden ‘Mad Dog’ setting up Formula One who buried it deep into the twine. T

he final score 4 to 2 for the Avalanche. But the game was a lot closer than the score would indicate, especially when it was only 3 to 2 for the longest time in the third period and the Pontiacs were putting on pressure.

Lots of penalties and both teams playing short handed a number of times. Evett ‘Snoop Dog’ Smereka was doing a fantastic job of fore checking on the penalty kill. Goalie ‘Goodyear Charlie’ Lesyk was on his game coming up with some big timely saves. Only 20 shots on goal but he saved the Avalanche butts a number of times when they left him out to dry. Didn’t happen when his steady stay at home defense woman ‘Hurricane Kayl’ Warawa was on the ice though. She played a strong game too. She managed to keep the front of the net cleared and tied up players in the corner a number of time plus getting the puck up over the line to the forwards.

The Peewee coaches got what they wanted. Two points!

K. A. Campbell quote of the week. ‘ Deke the halls with blades of hockey. fa la la la la la la la ‘ – unknown .