He shoots – he scores, Elk Point Minor Hockey opens its season

Another hockey season is upon us at the good old A.G. Ross arena. Our Avalanche teams played two preseason games this past weekend, from the U11 to the U18. Our U7s and U9 Avalanche teams are not in a league but also played. And unlike the Oilers, who started with three losses at home, our Avalanche teams, except one U 11 game, all won their home games, and most of them were by a landslide or, you could say, an Avalanche. Our teams also won their games on the road by a wide margin. It’s still early and only preseason, so the league will work for the next two weekends to put the teams in the correct tier. With the new provincial system, teams try to play in the lower tier to win the league and go on to provincials. There’s a whole lot of discussion on the matter that we will leave for another day.

Our U18 AVs won over Bonnyville on Friday night, 8 to 1, and Onion Lake, 13 to 4 on Saturday. The U15 Avs won in Edgerton on Friday night, 10 to 2, and at home over Bonnyville on Saturday, 15 to 1. The U13 AVs won in Lac La Biche Saturday 15 to 1 and back home on Sunday 6 to 3 over Mallaig. The U 11 AVs lost against Saddle Lake on Saturday, 8 to 6, but had a massive win over Onion Lake on Sunday, 25 to 3. There were way too many goals and assists to list here this week, but I’m sure next week’s games will be a little closer in score.

Our U7 AVs team was all up bright and early this past Saturday morning when Kitscoty came to visit. This was the first organised hockey game ever for many of these players. Two veterans from last year’s U7 AV team, ‘Motley Krew’ Mudryk and Axton ‘Ace’ Mackinnon, showed the new kids the ropes and lit up the brand-new score clock that was donated to the arena by the Aarbo family in memory of their great grandparents Thorald and Thea Aarbo. In theory, we don’t keep scores in the U7s or U9s, but I guarantee that all the proud parents, especially the grandparents, know when their little one has scored. Introducing the rest of the U7 Avalanche hockey team, we have Rylan Allen, Danko Jung, Bobbi Holthe, Declan Healey, Elijah Large, Jackson Wood, and Maverick Quinney.

On Saturday morning, we also had the U9 AVs hosting the visiting Bonnyville Pontiacs. Many of these players moved up from U 7, but we also have some new players in the system to keep an eye on in the next few weeks. The U9s play half-ice, four-on-four, and change on the fly. They also dress a goalie, so watching how the kids have developed is pretty exciting.