SPORTSHOUND: Friday Night Lights!

Tales From the Timebox

Today’s story is dedicated to the memory of Victor Ringuette who passed away last Monday. Victor was a dear friend and my boss for the past 35 years. He was without a doubt the most brilliant man I knew. From the first time I met him, on the day he said, ‘You should come work for me’  I liked him instantly. Smart, strong, generous, kind but firm.  You always knew where I stood with him. And I know he accepted me as I was. Best of all, he let me do my own thing. He would always tell me. ‘You do what you do’ and ‘Don’t weaken son!’ 

Rest in peace Victor.

It’s very rare for a U9 team to play at the A.G. Ross Arena on a Friday night. In fact, I don’t think I can ever remember it ever happening. Usually Friday nights are reserved for the older teams, like the Senior Elks team or U15, U18 teams. But this past Friday because the kids didn’t have school that day, and no other team booked the ice, the Avalanche U9 manager invited Paradise Valley to come up for a little game of hockey.  With a short bench of only 7 players in the line-up, the U9 called up Landon ‘Lights Out’ St. Arnault from the U7 team to play in this game. ‘Lights Out’ had no problem keeping up with the pace and in fact scored a goal. Jase ‘the Jackal’ Malo scoring two goals, Jaydn ‘the Shark’ Sakowski with one as well. Benjamin ‘Benny Boy’ Saddleback in net made some huge saves. He looks like a natural goalie for sure.  

On Saturday morning, the U9 group travelled to Mallaig playing with a few more players in the lineup than the night before winning this one. Benny Boy in net again stopping all the shots except two. ‘Jumbo Jay’ Large scored his first goal of the season. Multiple goals for Tor ‘the Tornado’ Aarbo and his linemates, the Jackal, the Shark and Aspyn ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly. 

The U7 group had the weekend off and will be playing in Glendon next Saturday.  

The U11 group had a home game Saturday at noon against Edgerton/Chauvin. The last time these two teams met it didn’t turn out very well for the Avalanche losing by a dozen goals. One player scored them all. This one was slightly better on the score sheet and at least they didn’t have to travel over two hours.  But one player on the Edgerton/ Chauvin team accounted for 9 of their 12 goals one again. Need to somehow shut him down! Theo ‘ Long Horn’ Loughran- Quinney with a natural hat trick. William ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas found the twine with only 7 seconds left on the clock. Billy Bob also had an assist. Goalie ‘Major Tom’ Melnyk faced about 50 shots on net and had a good workout. He did make some big saves on their scoring ace.  Ava ‘the Red Baron’ Rawlake, Hudson ‘the Hammer’ Krankowski and Lennox ‘All Out’ St. Arnault worked their butts off in this game trying to stop their slippery number 16 . Liam ‘Dobbie‘ Dumont was strong on the forecheck and caused a number of turnovers. Hudson ‘the Bull’ Brousseau, seeing red, charged a few times but was halted in his tracks. First time players Derrace Kitchemokaman and Kendall Morin’s skating is improving week by week. 

On Sunday the U11 travelled to St Paul for an early match with the Canadiens losing this one by quite a few too. But the Longhorn was really on a roll again and up to his old tricks pulling another one out of his hat scoring three goals. His sidekick Billy Bob with all three of the helpers. Two of these goals scored on the power play.   

Sometimes when you come back to tie a game it feels like you won. The opposite is true when you lose a lead late in the game, it can feel like a loss. But a point is a point. The U13 team travelled south to Irma on Saturday afternoon coming back late in the game to tie it up at six all. Brendan ‘Buzzsaw’ Kadutski cutting a path through the Aces scoring four goals, including the one late in the third period to tie it up. ‘Without a Trace’ Morgan with a goal and an assist. Wild ‘Wyatt’ Fontaine with one goal as well.  Three assists for the big blueliner ‘Boe Dog’ St. George and Remington ‘Steel’ Reynolds on the sheet as well with an apple. 

The U15 team travelled to the Border City to take on the Blazers on Sunday afternoon, the game ending in a two all tie. Another game where we came from behind to tie it up. Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand putting the hammer down and opening up the turbo speeding around the track with a goal. Timmy ‘the Tank’ Cardinal parking his big unit in front of the cage with the second one to tie the game. Trayden ‘the Great’ Gadwa, Raif ‘Rug Rat’ Evans-Anderson, Madden ‘Mad Dog’ Flamand and the money man Clayton ‘Cha-ching’ Toews with the assists. They say a tie is like kissing your sister. But by looking at the penalties on the game sheet, I can tell these guys don’t like each other that much. 

Talk about not liking each other. The U18 team hosted the Wainwright Bisons on Sunday afternoon. Ninety-six total minutes in penalties between the two teams in this one. The scorekeeper had a writer’s cramp by the end and her pens almost ran out of ink. The Avalanche holding on coming out on top 7-4 after leading 6-0 to start the third period. ‘Mick Jager’ Fontaine and Jordy ‘Foxy’ Feland with two goals each. ‘Wild Thing’ Wyatt Pavol the team captain stripped the puck off a player at center ice and put it into overdrive on a break-away scoring a beauty of a goal all alone going top shelf. The Wild Thing has only one gear and its full speed ahead. Usually no brakes! ‘Saint Nic’ Penner with a beauty of a tip in for a goal plus an assist. ‘Kamikaze Kid’ Kade Fontaine with a goal and two assists. Logan ‘Leo’ Lemay with a goal while three assists for set-up man Seth ‘Motorman’ Morton. Owen ‘Fonzie’ Fontaine, Josef ‘Big Red Machine’ Theriault and Ceajay ‘Quickdraw’ Quinney all with assists. And just a little side note. Three of the Bisons goals were scored by Kade Cusack, whose father Derrick played with the Midget Thunder back in the glory days of the late 90’s.