SPORTSHOUND: Weekend Roundup

Tales from the Timebox for January 17, 2023

U11 Avalanche

Even though the Elk Point Avalanche U11 team had to cancel their home tournament this past weekend due to a lack of teams interested, but they still managed to pick up an exhibition game against Lloydminster on Saturday. And the way the weather was that morning, it was surprising that they made the trip. But obviously, they wanted to play just as much as our guys did. And the word was, even though the Avalanche came out on top 11 to 8, the Blazers were a terrific bunch of players, parents, and coaches to play against. Everyone had fun and made the crappy weather all worthwhile.  This game wouldn’t count as far as our league stats go; but even so; the North East U 11 tier #3 league leading scorer, Hudson ‘the Bull’ Brousseau, added another ten notches to his stick. The Bull has been lighting the red lamp big time with goals and assists this year. You may say, “Red Bull gives you wings!”  He’s not the only one; Ava ‘the Red Baron’ Rawlake has some really fast wheels herself. She scored the other goal for the Avalanche. Two assists for the Bull’s rugged wingman, Hunter ‘ Hardrock’ Pankiw. Getting the green light, defensemen Hudson ‘Hammer’ Krankowski, Lennox’ All Out’ St. Arnault, and Stetson’ Shack’ Reynolds all with an assist. And an assist to   Victoria ‘Miss Vickie’ Page, who only started playing hockey this year but looks like she is going to be a real go-getter too.  Between the pipes this week, goalie ‘ General Lee’ Barstad stood his ground and never gave up an inch to the invading troops from the Border City.

Grayson ‘Big Bang’Koppang

U15 Avalanche

At the beginning of the season, the U 15 team struggled with injuries. They also had a bunch of first year players who moved up from U13, finding out that they needed to keep their heads up in contact hockey. Welcome to the jungle! Also, in order to ice a team, some new players joined the team from Frog Lake to fill the roster.  But that is all behind them now. Lately, they are really starting to gel and play some pretty darn good hockey. This past Friday night, for example, they hosted Mannville losing by a close 2 to 1 score. Nothing wrong with that; the game could have gone either way. Speedy winger,  Braylee ‘ Free Willy’ Lesyk with the goal, assisted by Quinton ‘ Rampage’ Dumont-Quinney and ‘ Without a Trace’ Morgan.

Saturday in Provost, the Avalanche team travelled with a short bench. Not only was the team down a few players, they were also down three to zip after the second period. But stormed right back to tie it up four all at the end of the game. ‘ Rampage’ with a goal and two assists.  Raif’ Rug Rat’ Evans Anderson with a goal and an assist. Hawke Cardinal with a goal and an assist. Rylan Quinney-Wapass with a goal. ‘ Without a Trace’ with two assists. ‘ Free Willy ‘ with a helper as well. On Sunday at home, the shots were almost equal, 33 to 34, but the Vermilion Tigers goalie stoned the Avalanche, who were unable to put anything past him and up on the board. The final 5 to 0, although the play was not indicative of the score. The Avalanche played well for the first two periods and into the third period. The wheels only fell off in the last 10 minutes; otherwise, it was very close.

U18 Avalanche

The U18 Avalanche is really having a tough time with injuries. They were already missing Everett DeChampe to an upper body injury. Then Kaleb ‘Formula One’ Flamand went down a few weeks ago with a broken collar bone. And now the team captain ‘Mick Jagger’ Fontaine, is out with a serious knee injury as of last weekend. Even though three of the top offensive players on the team are missing, they still managed to play a respectable game on Friday night in Kitscoty, only losing by a close  6 to 4 score. Two goals for the speedy no, fear winger ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine. The ‘Kamikaze Kid’ Kade Fontaine with a goal and two assists. Defenseman Sam ‘ Spiderman’ Rogal gets into the act with a goal. Two assists for the talented defenseman Brendon ‘ Blue Line’ Haesch.  St Nick Penner, Seth ‘Motorman’ Morton, Gavin ‘ Green Light’ Kadutski, and ‘Cyclone Cole’ Pierce all with assists. Goalie Alex ‘Mr. Plywood’ Patterson was solid in the cage.