This past Friday night, the U18 Avalanche held their annual Teddy Bear Toss just before they hosted the Wainwright Bisons. Over 70 teddy bears were donated to Santa’s Anonymous. The game turned out to be quite exciting, too. The Bisons took an early three-to-two goal lead at the end of the first period. The score was tied four all after forty minutes. Into the third period, the Bisons would run into some penalty problems, the Avalanche answering with three power play goals and one more. The final score was 8 to 4 for the Avalanche. ‘Wild Wyatt’ Fontaine with two goals and two assists. Braylee ‘Free Willy’ Lesyk with a goal and two assists. Brendan ‘Buzz Saw’ Kadutski, Bentley Looy, Evett ‘Snoop Dog’ Smereka, and Timmy ‘the Tank’ Cardinal all scored a goal and added an assist. Tristan ‘Bob Cat’ Brousseau is also scoring. Two assists for Odin St. Arnault. Anton ‘A-Bomb’ Braithwaite, Liam ‘Sledgehammer’ Swedgen, Dominique ‘Domi’ Krankowski and Dustin ‘Blowtorch’ Brind are all helping the cause with assists.

Missing out on all the Extravaganza activities in town, the U15 Avalanche travelled to Cold Lake on Friday night, coming home too late to catch the fireworks after losing 4 to 2. ‘Fearless Frank’ Killiam and Jaxon ‘Magic’ Marcoux scoring for the Avalanche, Cade ‘Eagle Eye’ Elliot and Ethan ‘the Big E’ Lorenson with the assists. Goaltender Reid Sayers faced 45 shots.

The U13 Avalanche split the weekend with one win and one loss. On Saturday, the Avalanche lost to Mallaig 9-3. Jase ‘the Jackal’ Malo with all three goals for the Avalanche. ‘Jumbo Jay’ Large with an assist.

On Sunday, the Avalanche fared much better, defeating the visiting St. Paul Canadiens 10-2. The Jackal with four goals and two assists. Up from the U11 farm team, Maximus ‘To the Max’ Laliberte added two goals. ‘Hurricane Kael’ Large with two goals. Grayson ‘Big Bang’ Koppang with a goal and an assist. Gabriel Dion also scored a goal. Christian ‘Bones 2.0’ Yaremkevich and Obrey John adding assists.

Our U11 Avalanche team is rolling along in the tier three north, sitting in second place after picking up two wins this past weekend. On Saturday, they defeated Bonnyville 12-6. Seven goals and one assist for Cohen ‘Big Horn’ Brousseau. Up from the U9 farm team ‘Hard Knox’ Mudryk with a goal and two assists. To the Max with two goals. Gavin ‘the Badger’ Brousseau with a goal and an assist. Brady ‘the Bulldozer’ Heathcote also scored. Three assists for Blake ‘the Rattlesnake’ Fontaine. Mason ‘Mini-wheels’ Weir with two assists. Jasper ‘Grizzly Bear’ Hymanyk also adding an assist.

On Sunday, the U11 team defeated St. Paul 14-6. Eight more goals for the league leading Big Horn Brousseau. To the Max with a hat trick and an assist. The Badger with a goal and two assists. Mya ‘the Magnificent’ Lorenson and farm hand Hard Knox each scoring a goal. Assists going to blueliners Damian ‘Fog Horn’ Ockerman, Landon ‘Lights Out’ St. Arnault and the two big power forwards, the Bulldozer and Grizzly Bear.

Special Guests at the A.G. Ross Arena

The female AA U13 Panthers hosted the Wood Buffalo Huskies on Saturday afternoon, the games booked at the AGR. The Panthers team is made up of players across the Lakeland, so they host games at the home arenas of their players. Elk Point is home to Aspyn ‘Machine Gun Kelly’, so a couple of games have been booked to be played here in Elk Point. A second game will be played in early January.

The Panthers obviously must have liked our old barn with the best ice in Lakeland, because they came out flying, picking up their third win of the year with a 7- 0 win over the Huskies. Panther’s goalie Jayvrie Houle with the shutout, including stoning the Huskies on a penalty shot in the second period. Vienna ‘Bug’ Colbourne scoring two goals, both of them going top shelf, where her gramma keeps the cookies. The second goal the Bug skated coast to coast. The Bug would also add an assist. Avery Doody and Tessianna Shirt both scored their first goals of the year. Grace Manson scored one short-handed. Morgan Ooman scored a goal and added an assist. Defence-woman Maja Pinch adds a goal. Two assists for ‘Mighty Mouse’ Brenna Brunet. Her sister, Baylee, with one helper. Kayleigha Dion with two assists. Mia Chappell also assisted on a goal, plus did solid work on the defence. Some terrific forechecking by Aubrey Scanie, Mila Moosewah-Littlechild and Jada Fineday.