SPORTSHOUND: U11 League Finals take over Elk Point

Hosting the North East Alberta U11 Tier 5/6 League finals is exciting. At the U11 level, they don’t have provincial finals anymore, so this is a big deal. The Elk Point Avalanche applied and was accepted back in January. The host site would automatically be in the tournament, regardless of whether they earned the spot or not. But the best news is they did earn their spot. Playing up in Lac La Biche this past weekend, the Avalanche won the East Division Championship.

Last Friday night, the Avalanche won their first game against St. Paul 7 to 3 up in Lac La Biche. Jase ‘the Jackal’ Malo with five goals and two assists. Aspyn ‘Machine Gun Kelly’ with a goal and two assists. ‘Jumbo Jay’ Large and Mikey ‘the Beast’ L’Heureux with two assists each. Jaydn ‘the Shark’ Sakowsky, Grayson ‘Big Bang’ Koppang, and ‘Dax My Boy’ Bowman all added an assist.

On Saturday morning, they would win over Tofield 5 to 4. The Jackal had another four-goal performance: Big Bang with a goal and an assist, Stetson ‘ Shack’ Reynolds with two assists, and Jumbo Jay and Machine Gun Kelly also added an assist.

After the dust had cleared Sunday morning, the Avalanche found themselves playing Tofield again. This time Tofield would win 5 to 4 in overtime. Machine Gun Kelly with two goals in this one.

The final was a double-knockout formula. This meant the Avalanche had to lose twice and would play Tofield, who had finished the season in the top spot once again for the third time. St. Paul, Mallaig, and Lac La Biche had all been eliminated in the round robin.

In the final game, goaltender ‘General Lee’ Barstad, who was awesome playing in all of the games, came up huge, holding down the fort and shutting the door on the Titans facing 35 shots.  The Avalanche winning this won 7 to 3. The veterans came to play in this one. Second-year players Shack, Big Bang, and the Jackal scored two goals each. Rookie Machine Gun Kelly fired one into the mesh.

The U 11 tier 5/6 is split into three divisions: east, west, and central. CNN (Crows Nest North) won the central division, and Drayton Valley won the west division, so they will be coming to Elk Point this weekend. The Avalanche will play Friday night against CNN at 530 p.m.

In other Avalanche hockey news, the undefeated U15  team won the league and will head to Delburne for the U15 Tier #3  Provincial finals in a few weeks. The U18 Avalanche won the east division and will play a best-of-three game series this coming weekend against Westlock.

The first game is in Elk Point on Friday night at 7:45 p.m. Come out early to watch the U11s play and then stay to cheer on the boys in the U18 game. The winner of this series will advance to the Tier #3 Provincial finals in Mallaig at the end of March.