SPORTSHOUND: Bad Vibes

Tales from the Timebox for February 12, 2024

U13 Avalanche

I always get bad vibes when the visiting team is already on the ice for five minutes before our own home team gets out of the dressing room. This is exactly what happened last Saturday afternoon when the U13 Avalanche hosted the Hughenden Jets. The Jets were on the ice all warmed up, and our guys didn’t wake up until three-quarters of the way through the first period. Thankfully, the goaltender in this game ‘Major Tom’ Melnyk, bailed them out. At this point, the shots on goal were about sixteen to two in favor of the Jets, and the Avalanche team was only down by two goals. Major Tom played fantastic the whole game. In fact, he got my vote as the first star. He faced 46 shots by the end of the contest. The Avalanche finally woke up when the Jets took a penalty late in the first period, and the Avalanche scored to make it a one-goal game. The one thing that seemed to be working for the Avalanche was the power play. In fact, all three of their goals were scored on the power play. William ‘Billy Bob’ Ballas with the first one assisted by Hudson ‘The Bull’ Brousseau. Then, early in the second, the Bull scored, assisted by Billy Bob and Brody ‘The Thrasher’ Trach. The game was tied at two each at this point. But the Jets would score two more quick ones before the end of the second period to take the two-goal lead once again. 

 Into the third period, the Jets would take another penalty, and this time, the rugged D-Man Thrasher took things into his own hands; Thrasher would go coast to coast through the whole team all alone and bury the puck deep into the straw pile. By the way, the Thrasher gets my vote for the game’s second star. He played a solid two-way game, forechecking and backchecking. Four to three, now the score is in favor of the Jets. Another power play for the Avalanche. But this time they failed to score. The Jets added another goal with only a minute thirty left in the game to put the final nail in the coffin.  Final score 5 to 3 for the Jets. My third star is the big wingman ‘Fearless Frank’ Killiam, who has improved tremendously in skating and shooting. 

On Superbowl Sunday, the U13s traveled to Irma, and once again, the power play was clicking at 50 percent. Pretty darn good, I would say, and it certainly helped them in the end. The final score in this one is 10 to 9 for the Avalanche. A nice road trip win. Team captain Billy Bob with five goals and three assists. Jaxon ‘Magic’ Marcoux with two goals and two assists. The Bull with a goal and three assists. Ryder ‘Rhino’ Malo and the Thrasher with one goal each. Defenseman Hudson ‘Hammer’ Krankowski with an assist. Goaltender Theo ‘Long Horn’ Loughran- Quinney is facing 43 shots in this one.  

U18 Avalanche

One of the best U18 games this season was played right here this past Friday night when the visiting Mallaig Monarchs came to play our U18 Avalanche. The Monarchs will be hosting the U 18 tier # 3 provincial finals this year. So, of course, they wanted to prove that they belonged in it. The Avalanche, of course, need to win the league in order to play in the provincial final. Plus some of the Mallaig boys played here two years ago when they couldn’t ice a team.  So even though a lot of the players are still friends, there’s a lot of bragging rights on the line.

It was not your typical U18 game. There was lots of goal scoring in this one, and surprisingly, not a lot of penalties. More goal scoring makes it a more exciting game as long as the score is close and doesn’t become a blowout. 

The Avalanche and Monarchs tied at six all in the second period before the Avalanche would put the hammer down and pound in another three goals early in the third period to make it 9 to 6, But the Monarchs would not go away and answered with two of their own. Then with a couple of minutes left in the game, they would pull the goalie and put the heat on. The Avalanche just barely hung on for the 9 to 8 win. Gavin ‘Green Light’ Kadutski scored the game’s first goal and added two more for a hat trick. Green Light also added an assist. Kaleb ‘ Formula One’ Flamand and Kade ‘ Kamikaze Kid’ Fontaine with two goals each and three assists each. Everett Dechamps and Seth ‘ Motorman’ Morton each with a goal and an assist. Quinton ‘ Rampage’ Quinney, ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford, ‘Saint Nick’ Penner, ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine, and Kaysen’ Dynamite ‘ DeMossiac are all on the game sheet with a helper. Alexander ‘Mr Plywood’ Patterson came up huge in the final few minutes, facing 55 shots. 

This past weekend, the undefeated, lead-leading U15 Avalanche, who have now played 26 games without a loss, added another three wins.