The Halloween weekend was full of tricks — hat tricks, that is — and also a lot of treats, as parents and fans were treated to some fantastic close hockey games.

U18 Avalanche

As the tiering process nears the end, most of the games become tighter matchups. Perfect example on Friday night when the U18 Avalanche hosted the visiting Provost Blades. The final score was 4 to 2 for the Blades. “Wild Wyatt” Fontaine scored both of the goals for the Avalanche. Assists going to Anton “A-Bomb” Braithwaite, Braylee “Free Willy” Lesyk, Cade “Easy Money” Elliot and Troy Grundman. Goalie Owen “Ollie the Goalie” Grykuliak faced 31 shots in this game. And the Avalanche were down a few players due to a few football players in their league finals, so this one may have been even a bit closer.

Another perfect example was on Sunday when the U18 Avalanche hosted the Cold Lake Ice, this game ending in a four-all tie. Goalie Drayden “The Wall” Skakun faced 32 shots, coming up huge in the final minutes with a big toe save. Free Willy scored a goal and assisted on two others. Jaxon “Magic” Marcoux and Jaxon “Smitty” Smith each scored a goal and added a helper. Remington “Steel” Reynolds also scored a goal. Easy Money, “Without a Trace” Morgan and Dominique “Domi” Krankowsky all on the scoresheet with an assist. I would have to say that these teams will likely face each other again and remain in tier two.

U13 Avalanche

The U13 Avalanche only played one game this past weekend, hosting the Lloydminster 541 Blazers in another very close match. The Avalanche lost this one by a score of 12 to 11. There’s a good chance these two teams will meet again.

Cohen “Big Horn” Brousseau scored four goals and added an assist. Tor “The Tornado” Aarbo scored a hat trick and also added an assist. Defenceman Christian “Bones 2.0” Yaremkevich scored two goals and did some great defensive work on the blue line, battling for the puck. Rayden “Sting-Ray” Quinney scored a goal and added an assist. Landon “Lights Out” St. Arnault also scored in this game. Defencemen Stetson “Shack” Reynolds and Blake “The Rattlesnake” Fontaine also both added an assist. Rugged defenceman Damian “Foghorn” Ockerman laid out some big body checks behind the scenes where the stripes couldn’t catch him. A great job by the big forwards Gabe “Dangerous” Dion and Jasper “The Bear” Hymanyk in front of the Blazers goalie, getting in position for a deflection.

U11 Avalanche

The U11 Avalanche travelled to Mannville on Friday night, losing this one 11 to 6. “The Mighty Casey” Younghans scored two goals. Aksel “Lightning” Aarbo scored a goal and added an assist. Gavin “The Badger” Brousseau, “Hard Knox” Mudryk and Mason “Mini-Wheels” Weir scored one goal each. Dakyo Jung also added an assist. Goaltender Tucker “The Puck Stops Here” Pankiw was bombarded with 72 shots.

On Sunday, the U11 had no trouble defeating the visiting Viking Gas Kings, winning this one 15 to 1. Must have been all the sugar the Avalanche team had eaten the evening before that gave them energy to score. Nothing was going to hold back these two snipers, The Badger and Mini-Wheels, both scoring a double hat trick and adding a few assists. Hard Knox, Lightning and William “Too Tall” Farrell each scored a goal and added a few assists. Dakyo Jung with two assists and a visit to the sin bin. Defenceman Jaxtyn “Jackhammer” Krankowsky got an assist and did some awesome backchecking. Gunner “The Roadrunner” Kelly and “Sir Winston” Ung both added an apple along with some terrific forechecking, creating turnovers.

U7 and U9 Avalanche

Both of our U7 and U9 Avalanche teams were out of town this past weekend. The schedule has not been released for this coming weekend, but I’m sure all our teams will have home and away games.