While the sports world seemed to quiet down over the Christmas holiday, minor hockey roared its way into 2016, with teams hitting the ice to play games over the past weekend.
While the sports world seemed to quiet down over the Christmas holiday, minor hockey roared its way into 2016, with teams hitting the ice to play games over the past weekend. For the Lakeland Peewee AA Panthers, this meant starting 2016 off with a dominant 7 - 3 win over the Wetaskiwin Lions at the Clancy Richard arena on Saturday evening.
“This is the highest level of hockey for peewee,&” said assistant coach Yvan Beaudoin of the rep team, comprised of 11 and 12-year-old players from the Lakeland area, including St. Paul, Bonnvyille and Cold Lake.
Forty kids came to try out for the team in September, with 14 making the cut, he said, including Logan Gratton, Jayden Joly, Jacob Guitard, Nicholas Beaudoin, Liam Boyko and Owen Boucher from St. Paul, along with Treston Moisey of Mallaig and Haiden Harasem from Glendon.
Practices take place twice a week, once in Bonnyville and once in Glendon, with a third optional practice in Mallaig, with head coach Ryan Blocha, and assistant coaches Chad Cabana, Chad Emigh and Beaudoin working to establish team systems and team play in the group of players from across the region.
Games take place in Bonnyville, Cold Lake and St. Paul “just to give everyone a chance to play at home,&” explained Beaudoin.
For St. Paul's Saturday home game, the local boys contributed quite a bit to get the win over Wetaskiwin.
“I thought our boys started off with a lot of energy and played quite well,&” Beaudoin said of the first period.
The Panthers blew open the gates of the game with four goals in the first, with the first potted by Tyler Blocha, with an assist from Harasem, the second scored by Cam Emigh with an assist from Moisey, a third goal scored by Jayden Joly, assisted by Mike Ryan, and Grayson Dion scoring the fourth.
In the second, the boys lagged a bit, with Wetaskiwin closing the gap to 4 - 2, and scoring early in the third to make it 4 - 3.
“We're trying to get the boys to play 60 minutes, but that can be a challenge,&” said Beaudoin of the slightly more sluggish effort in the second period, adding the Christmas holiday and break from practice contributed to the challenge.
But the Panthers roared back in the third, with Beaudoin scoring off an assist from Joly, while Guitard and Ryan added two more goals to make the score 7 -3.
“It was a pretty complete team effort,&” Beaudoin said.
The team currently sits fourth out of eight teams in its division, with eight wins, five losses and one tie. Next up for the team is a game against Lloydminster, which Beaudoin called “one of the stronger teams in our division.&” Last December, Lloydminster beat the Panthers by a single goal, and the Panthers are looking to come out with the win this time, he said.
The game takes place next Sunday at the Energy Recreation Centre in Cold Lake, starting at noon.
