Happy New Year, all the best to you and yours  in 2020. I hope that you can see clearly now after the big celebrations. Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes from all my friends and family and fans! My phone was dinging most of the day.  And Merry Ukrainian Christmas (yesterday) going out to many of our friends. After today we usually shut off our Christmas lights at home. The Christmas tree seldom makes it this long at our house. It’s been down since the day after New Years.

Not a lot of hockey action over the holidays although the A.G. Ross Arena was open almost every day for public skating and shinny. This is the best place to hone your skills shooting and stick handling. Too bad a few more kids don’t get out there and use it.

Two of our teams did see action this past weekend, the bantams and the atoms.

The Bantam Avalanche started the year off on the right foot winning two games this past weekend. Heading up north on the road Friday night  they won 6 to 0 in Plamondon. Shut out number four on the season for goaltender Vanden ‘Super Mario’ Moroziuk who totally shut the door on the Cougars.  This team is really starting to gel now and get offence from everyone on the team. Whether it be a goal, an assist or just plain fore checking and creating turnovers. A number of players have gained some confidence now that it is half way through the season. Some of them just needed a bit of time to adjust to body contact.

Seth ‘Motorman’ Morton is one of them who gets  into the gritty areas in front of the net. He scored the first goal of the game. He also assisted on the next two goals. Talented  ‘Mick Jager’ Fontaine of course dancing and dangling with the puck scored a hat trick and added a helper. His trusty deputy, kid brother, the hard nosed ‘Kid Kade’ getting into the corners routing out the puck with three assists.

The cousins getting into the act, Josef ‘Big Red’ Theriault and Sam ‘Spiderman’ Rogal with one goal each. Defenseman Landon ‘the Magnificent’ Malachowski who doesn’t like to take any guff form anyone on the opposition team,  and the seriously fast forechecking winger  Wyatt ‘Wild Man’ Pavoll providing assists.

Most of the team stayed in Lac La Biche for that  night, saving gas money because they were facing the Clippers the next day.

On Saturday the Bantam won 8 to 2 over the Clippers. Motorman opening the scoring once again in this game. He scored another late in the third period as well as adding an assist. Grinder Dean ‘the Machine’ Ockerman with a goal and some heavy duty body checks. .  Cea Jay ‘Quick Draw’ Quinney pulling the trigger with a goal and an assist. ‘Mick Jager’ with three goals and two assists. His kid brother Kade with a goal . Big Red, the Wild Man, the Spiderman  and Ryan ‘Ram Rod’ Cameron  all getting on the scoresheet with assists.

The Atom Avalanche also played Saturday in Lac La Biche. A few of the parents have players on both teams so it worked out really well for them. The Atoms played really well and were leading the game 1 to 0 until half way through the second period. The Clippers would tie the game and add another to make it 2 to 1 after forty minutes. The last Clipper goal scored with only two minutes left in the game so the Avalanche were in it all the way. Braylee ‘Free Willy’ Lesyk scoring the only marker for the Avalanche unassisted.

A big happy birthday going out today to the steady stay at home Peewee Avalanche defense woman ‘Hurricane Kayl’ Warawa. Her big sister Rylee ‘the Rocket’ Warawa was the player of the game in a tournament in Prince Albert where her team the Bantam Jaguars won the Silver medal losing in a shoot out after 5 minutes of sudden death overtime.