SPORTSHOUND: The Tale of Four Brothers

Tales from the Timekeeper November 1st.

What are the chances that if you had four boys playing on four different Avalanche teams, they would be all playing at home on the same day in back-to-back games? Not very likely I would say.  But it did happen this past Saturday when all four of the Brousseau brothers played a home game at the A. G. Ross Arena.

Gavin ’The Badger‘ Brousseau was the first one on the ice with the U7s at 8.30am against Dewberry. The Badger netted about 8 or 10 goals.  Not too many 5 years olds can raise the puck like him.  I bet he learned how from his three older brothers. Stripping the puck off the Dewberry player and scoring her first goal ever in her first game ever, on a breakaway, was Aksel Aarbo. Her proud father, Aaron, who happens to be the head coach of the U 11 team, saves the puck. I would too!

Ryker ‘Mini- Moose’ Ockerman’s playing in his first hockey game ever. It was quite exciting for his great-grandmother Vicki Brooker to watch him. Second-year player ‘Awesome Lawson’ Moneta just missed scoring by a fraction of an inch on his breakaway. His father Devin is the head coach of these youngsters in his second year too. First-year players Knox Mudryk and Taber Gadwa put lots of pressure on the Dewberry team with their forechecking. Jaxtyn ‘Jack Hammer’ Krankowski with some terrific plays on defense. Other first-year players include William Farrel, Rosaleigh Nepoose-Gadwa, Birdi Bowman, and Gunnar Kelly all getting the hang of it after the first few shifts. Starting a new trend in goaltending was another first-year player, Jacob Botstein, lying down across the goal crease. And it works. His grandpa Lynall Slywka was beaming watching him too!

Right after the U7s, the U9s hit the ice also against Dewberry. They also play half-ice but change every two minutes on the fly. Goalie Benjamin ‘Benny Boy’ Saddleback was busy but did a terrific job stopping the puck. We didn’t keep score on the scoreboard but we do know that Jase ‘the Jackal’ Malo scored about five goals and assisted on a number of others. Landon ‘Lights Out‘ St. Arnault and Cohen ‘Big Horn’ Brousseau with two goals each and some setups. Charlie ‘Chickadee’ Davis doing some great forechecking scored one from the slot.  Aspen ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly going coast to coast then buried one. Thomas ‘the C Train’ Morris and ‘Jumbo Jay‘ Large with a number of assists each. Dax Bowman, Christian ‘Bones’ Yaremkevich, Tytus Gadwa, Teraleigh Napoose-Gadea, and Elisabeth Page all with some great work on the forecheck creating turnovers.

What started out looking like the nightmare on 51^st street turned into a real treat for the team and parents. Things didn’t look very pretty for the first twenty minutes when the team was down 6-1 to Edgerton/Chauvin, who is also named the Avalanche. But after a brief talk in between periods, they pulled their socks up in the second and third periods coming up with a huge 12-11 win. Hudson ‘the Bull’ Brousseau with seven goals including the winner at the seven-minute mark of the third period. Goalie ‘General Lee‘ Barstad shut the door after that. Ava ‘The Red Baron’ Rawlake with four goals and two assists including one on the winner. Rookie Hunter Pankiw, looking really good out there, with a goal and an assist. Hudson ‘Hammer’ Krankowski with two goals. Vicki Brooker’s other great-grandson, Rylan ‘Freight Train’ Kryzanowski, also had an assist. I know for sure there were other assists that we missed, but these are all that were reported to the timekeepers.

The night before, the U11s had a game up in Bonnyville winning this one 11-8. The Bull, Red Baron, and Hammer with the goals. The defenseman with the best hockey hair of all our teams, Lennox ‘All Out’ St. Arnault with a couple of assists. Great corner work by Tor ‘The Tornado‘ Aarbo coming out with the puck time after time. Between the pipes, Stetson ’Shack’ Reynolds had a solid game.

The fourth game of the day on Saturday was the U13s with yet another Brousseau in the lineup. Defenseman Tristian ‘Bobcat’ Brousseau has been moved back on the point this year and is doing a really good job of keeping the puck in the zone. The Avalanche won 5-2 over the Hughenden Jets in the end. But this game was tense from start to finish.  The game was tied at two on goals early in the third period, by ‘Wild Wyatt’ Fontaine all alone and ‘Major Tom’ Melnyk, who was assisted by ‘Remington Steel’ Reynolds, and Liam’ Sledgehammer’ Swedgen. Then finally with 13 minutes left in the game, the Avalanche pulled ahead when Jackson ‘J.R.’ Rawlake found the twine on a nice one-timer, set up by William ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas and Jaxon ‘Magic‘ Marcoux. Still, with only a one-goal lead the Avalanche barely hung on until a minute and a half left in the game when ‘Remington Steel’ put the nail in the coffin with his goal, assisted by ‘Sledgehammer.’ Wild Wyatt added another with 20 seconds left. ‘Ollie The Goalie’ Owen Grykuliak had to be sharp to keep the game as close as it was in the early going when the team seemed a little sluggish out of the gate.

What a wild, wild west game the U18s played here on Sunday afternoon. Welcome to the jungle boys and you better keep your heads up. Lots of history and a ton of hits and penalties between the Avalanche and the Kitscoty Pitbulls who came calling on Sunday. The Avalanche boys were down by 3 to zip starting the third period, but all it took was a goal from ‘Saint Nick’ Penner to change the momentum. The boys kicked it into overdrive and before you knew it the game was tied three all.  We scored, then they scored, tied four all. Then again, they scored and we scored to tie it to five all the final. Goalie Vanden ‘Super Mario’ Moroziuk played outstanding. Facing 44 shots and lots of them from close range. ‘Mick Jagger’ Fontaine, Kade ’Kamikaze’ Fontaine, Gavin ‘Green Light’ Kadustski, and Josef ‘Big Red’ Therialt with the other goals. Two assists each for ‘Saint Nick’ and ‘ Mick Jagger’ the ‘Kamikaze Kid’ and Seth ‘Motorman’ Morton with the other assists.