Quick Change

One thing that I notice from the timebox is how most kids will stay out on the ice way too long on a shift. Sometimes two or three minutes go by before the coaches can get their attention and have them make a line change. Quick changes still equal to the same amount of ice time.  As long as every player on the team does it. You can get a better pressure on the other team if you have fresh legs.  I can see it happen sometimes in the second period when the defense gets trapped in their own end. It’s a long way to the bench. Otherwise there’s no excuse!

The Novice Avalanche  have no choice in this matter. When the buzzer goes after a minute and a half they change lines and come out of the players box like gangbusters. It’s fun to watch how fast they make a line changes. Maybe in a few years when they get up to the older groups like Atom and Peewee they will do the same, make quick changes. Hopefully anyway.

The Novice Avalanche had a great game on Saturday against the Frog Lake T Birds. Quick changes was the name of the game and great goaltending at both ends of the ice. Theo ‘Long Horn’ Loughran suiting up for the Avalanche was terrific. A heck of a good game for smooth skating and sharp shooting Ryder ‘Rhino’ Malo who scored five goals in this one. Jesse James Penner pulling the trigger on three goals and two assists. Jaxon ‘Magic’ Marcoux with one goal setting up the other kids a number of times even if they didn’t always score. William ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas is also known for passing the puck. He scored two and assisted on three others.

Girls just want to have fun… not these two angels! Ava  the Angel’ Rawlake (not really a Angel but she has wings) with a hat trick and two assists. Avree ‘the Aggressor’ Lesyk  with one goal, two assists and some very aggressive forechecking. Ringing it off the post a few times but finding the mesh with his long stride was ‘Major Tom’ Melnyk. Hayden Badger and Hudson ‘Hammer ‘ Krankowsky each hammered one home. Lennox ‘All Out’ St. Arnault with a couple of assists. Still looking for his first goal Luke Osinchuk is getting into the play more and more every week and is starting to create turnovers.

The Atom Avalanche had a very rough weekend losing Friday night in Bonnyville and then again on Saturday at home against the Vermilion Tigers. Both of those teams the Atoms can normally keep pace with, but with some injuries and sick kids they did the best they could. Normally they have eleven skaters and a goalie. But  their number one goalie Brendan ‘Buzz’ Kadutski was out with an injury and therefore Jaxon ‘Smitty’ Smith  had to step in and strap on the big pads. No problem there, but it took away one of the teams stronger skaters,.Then big D Man ‘Boe Dog’ St. George and centerman ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan were both in bed sick and were scratched.

What to do? Call the farm team  Two rookies from the Novice farm team ‘Jesse James’ Penner and ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas getting the call to play right after their own game on Saturday. Both of them never looked out of place although they may have to work on the off side rule. The one disadvantage of the half ice is players not  learning about off sides or icing.  Birthday boy Jackson ‘ J.R. ” Rawlake who celebrated his 10th birthday on Saturday is starting to get really strong on his skates and handling the puck.

Two big wins for the Peewee Avalanche this past weekend at home. Saturday the Paradise Valley Jets flew into town with only ten skaters in the line up, but they still  gave the Avalanche one heck of a game. Our guys coming out on top 5 to 3 the last goal scored into an empty net when the Jets pulled the goalie for the extra attacker trying to tie the game. But this game could have went either way. Taking a couple of wacks at the puck Brendon ‘Blue Line’ Haesch with the first goal for the Avalanche  assisted by Everett  ‘Snoop Dog’ Smereka. Then a real  beauty of a goal by  ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine who was streaking down the wing and sniped one ‘Bar Down’.

The Avalanche leading 2 to 0 after the first period but the shots on goal were equal. In the second period the Jets would pull within one making a game of it. The shots very close. ‘Goodyear Charlie’ coming up with some sensational saves. The Avalanche turning on the heat in the third period. ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford would score two goals back to back. One on the power play assisted by Bo Diddley and Raif ‘Rug Rat’ Evans Anderson. The second one assisted by Kaysen ‘Dynamite’ DeMossiac. But the Jets would not go down easy pulling within one goal and pulling the goalie in the last minute to add some drama. But speedy defenseman Gavin ‘Green Light’ Kadutski potted  the empty netter assisted by Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand to take the wind out of their sails.

On Sunday the Avalanche not having any trouble collecting the two points winning 8 to 1 over  the St Paul Canadiens. Top Gunner and Formula One with two goals each. Spencer ‘Goldie Locks’ Malchowski with a goal and an assist. Green Light with a goal and an assist. ‘Stellar Ella’ Ballas with a goal and an assist. Brayden ‘Pin Ball’ Pinette with a goal. Bo Diddley and Cyclone Cole with two helpers each, Blue Line with one assist.

First year forward Trystn ‘Spectacular’ Sakowsky is showing great improvement every week. No problem at all for the big blue and white Bantam Avalanche machine on Sunday when  the Bonnyville Pontiacs came down from the north through the fog.  Shut out number six on the season for goalie Vanden ‘ Super Mario’ Moroziuk who never had very many shots thanks to the close checking of his forwards and D Men. Sometimes that can be worse though when you are cold and not expecting a tricky one. ‘Mick Jager’ Fontaine with four goals and four assists. His brother Kid Kade with two goals and an assist. Dean ‘the Machine’ Ockerman with a couple of tallies. The big bruiser Brady ‘Bionic Man’ Hymanyk with a goal and an assist. Cea Jay ‘Quick Draw’ Quinney with a goal and an assist. Wyatt ‘Wild Thing’ Pavoll  and Sam ‘Spiderman’ Rogal on the board with two assists each.

In out of town action this past weekend the Dewberry Wild Female Midget team with two of our local girls in the line up, Jenna ‘Precious’ Poitras and Sydnee ‘Sid the Kid’ Crawford hosted their home tournament. This was a awesome event with the local Chuckwagon drivers Vern Nolin and other wagon drivers hooking up their horses and doing sleigh rides between the games.  The Wild lost their first game Saturday morning to Onoway by a score of 3 to 1. Then won over  High Prairie  later that day 3 to 2 sending them to the A final against the Lakeland Jaguars. The girls played extremely well in the final game at noon on Sunday. They even out shot the Jaguars in the first period. But with a few too many penalties they powered out in the end to one of  their league rivals by a close 4 to 1 score.