SPORTSHOUND: Friday Night Lights

Tales from the Timebox: November 24th, 2020

 

I never remember ever getting out for a weeklong break from school for Remembrance Day. Mind you, we never went through anything quite like what is happening in the world today when we went to school. But we did have to walk a mile up hill through knee deep snow to get to the bus stop! haha

U15 Avalanche

With the extra time off from studying, the U15 manager scheduled a rare Monday night game against Kitscoty. It was the second game of their home and home series. The Knights had defeated the Avalanche by two goals here at home on the previous Saturday. So, the Avalanche team headed there on a mission to seek some kind restitution. The whole team was psyched up and ready for the rematch and played extremely well in both ends of the rink. The Avalanche winning the game by 5 to 3. And winning it right in the Kitscoty barn was the icing on the cake.

A hat trick for the super sniper ‘King Kong Konnor’ Poitras. Two goals for stocky centerman Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand. Formula One has really filled out over the summer and is now sporting some very big shoulders. And, it’s a good thing too, because he is often tasked with a big workload. Facing off against some of the top centermen in the league. Two assists for the smooth skating playmaker, Brendon ‘Blue Line‘ Haesch . Rugged corner man Kid Kade Fontaine and his little sidekick line mate, who has no fear, Gavin ‘Green Light’ Kadutski also with an assist.

Friday night is a great night for fighting. A great night for minor hockey too. Most years teams would fight for the opportunity to play a Friday night game in front off all their classmates and the younger kids and parents who come out to see their hockey heros. But now with the new 100 spectator rule implemented it isn’t quite the same atmosphere. But, it’s still far better than the alternative. Not playing at all like in the cities.

The U15 Avalanche team got booted around pretty darn good a week ago in Provost. They lost the first game of the two- game series 10 to 3. Kid Kade Fontaine has a good memory and never forgot the embarrassment. The Kid was determined not to let that happen again. He scored two goals in less than a minute in the first shift of the game. One of them assisted by King Kong Konnor and one assisted by Formula One. King Kong Konnor adding another goal 20 seconds later. His was unassisted. The Avalanche coming out of the gate flying here at home Friday night, and in the short span of less than a minute the Avalanche had scored three goals. All on the same shift. The Avalanche catching the Blades off guard had their number for sure in the first period of the game. Everyone on the team doing their job of back checking it looked like goalie Alex ‘Plywood’ Patterson would have a easy night off. But….hold on there a minute Boba Looey! There is still a lot of time left in this one.

Starting the second period the Avalanche were going to be short handed for the first four minutes. But it only took the Blades forty seconds to even the score at three goals apiece. Two of them scored on the power play and the third one scored even strength. The second period was all Provost who obviously sharpen their blades during the intermission and added another three more goals before the period was half over to take a 6 to 3 lead into the dressing room. The Blades scored one of the goals short handed to make matters even worse. You might say the Avalanche had a second period melt down to say the least. From my view point it in the time box it appeared that some of the Avalanche players should have even been paid by the Blades for giving out the nice blind to the Blades at center ice. The Blades picking up the freebee gifts taking off down the ice. Usually on a three on none break away. Goalie ‘Plywood’ Patterson doing his best was left helpless. He always stopped the first shot. Sometimes even the second shot. But the third shot would get by him before his troops would come coasting in. Or in some cases they headed to the box without even back checking at all. It sure would have been nice to be a fly on the wall in the dressing room for the motivating talk by head coach Conrad Pierce during the second intermission. The Avalanche came out to play great again in the third period. Picking up their man, checking in the corners, creating turn overs, the Avalanche added two goals to make it a respectable 7 to 5 game in the end. Kid Kade with another goal to give him a hat trick for the night. King Kong Konner scoring the last goal giving him two on the night. Rugged defenseman Sam ‘ Spiderman ‘ Rogal with an assist as well as a nasty body check laying out one of the Blades players flat against the boards in the third period. Take away the second period and the Avalanche would have won this game. Make all the excuses you want. But the fact is. You need to play a full sixty minutes of man on man hockey to play in this league no matter how you cut it. And the Avalanche only played that way for two thirds of the game.

U18 Avalanche

The U18 played up in Bonnyville on Thursday night winning the game 5 to 3. Winning two out of the three games in the three- game mini-series. The other game ending in a tie. Rookie Mick Jagger Fontaine looks like he hasn’t lost a beat with his smooth moves and slick stick work scoring a hat trick and adding an assist. Veteran team captain ‘Lightning Liam’ Ludlage, who has a tool box right full of moves himself, with a goal and an assist. Dallas ‘Cowboy’ Bristow getting on his horse roping in a goal too. Two assists for the big D Man with the monster size 13 skates, that look more like ski’s. Evan ‘Batman’ Ockerman And an assist to the talented defenseman Charlie ‘Chuckles’ Rogal. Between the pipes, goaltender ‘Sexy Slader’ Hardcastle had a fantastic night facing 39 shots he played an awesome game in the cage picking up the win for the boys.

 

U9 Avalanche

The U9 group played a very exciting game here at home against the Bonnyville Pontiacs Saturday morning. ‘General Lee’ Barstad getting the call to suit up for the goaltending duties was just about as excited as his daddy Arden, who is a goalie himself playing up in the big Beer League. The Pontiac’s bringing their heavy artillery to town fired 49 shots on the General who barricaded up the fort and made some big highlight reel saves.

The Avalanche bringing out their big guns too. Hudson the ‘ Bull’ Brousseau crashing the enemy lines scoring 5 goals. The Bull also adding a number of assists as well. Ava ‘Little Angel’ Rawlake flying in dropping 5 bombs into the fortress, celebrating after each one hit the target. She plays for keeps and was fantastic as well on the back check. Lennox ‘All Out’ St. Arnault putting his tank in high gear scoring four goals, including a really nice one timer. The cousins tandem of Stetson ‘Shack’ Reynolds and Tor ‘Tornado’ Aarbo, both getting in on the action, each of them scoring a hat trick. Hudson ‘Hammer’ Krankowski scored only once, but he saved about a dozen shots on net in the defensive zone blocking shots. Same thing for the ‘Mount Everett’ Hahn who had a strong game in both ends of the rink. He is credited with a whole bunch of assists. The three unsung soldiers Grayson ‘Big Bang’ Koppang, Jaydn ‘the Shark’ Sakowski and ‘Cool Hand Luke’ Osinchuk all played a terrific game fore checking and creating turnovers. The scored tied ( unofficially ) after two 30 minute periods, the coaches agreed to add another twenty minutes to the clock and give the crowd of parents and grand parents more bang for their buck. After the game, the most important part for the players grand parents is getting a treat for their little sweethearts.

Big happy birthday going out tomorrow to the new U13 forward , Trayden ‘the Great’ Gadwa.

 

K.A. Campbell quote of the week. ‘ If they can fit through the door , I don’t want them.” – Milt Schmidt, former coach of the Bruins