The Monroe Youth Hockey Pee Wee B team played two games this past weekend. The first game, the Avalanche hosted Janesville on Saturday Nov. 30th in a non-league game losing in the last minute of the game, 3-2. The first period was dominated by Janesville who were able to get off 13 shots to the Avalanche’s only 2. Monroe had a hard time getting the puck in the offensive end and relied heavily on Goaltender Heath Bear who saved all 13 shots holding Janesville to zero goals in the first period to keep the game tied 0-0 at the end of one. The start of the second period, Janesville came out on fire and were finally able to sneak the puck past Bear twice in only the first two minutes of play, making the score 2-0 just like that. The Avalanche now down two goals had to figure out a way to get out of their slump. The rest of the second period went back and forth competitively leaving the score at the end of two, 2-0. At the start of the third period, with a zip in their stride, the Avalanche were able to get on the board with a one-timer by Ryan Molitor who received a nice centering pass from Ty O’Connor. Cutting the deficit to one, new life seemed to emerge from the Avalanche. With ten minutes to go in the game, the Monroe O’Connor brothers were able to connect with each other as Ty launched a shot past Janesville Goaltender by receiving a perfect pass from Colton. The remainder of the third period saw the action pick up by both teams. Unfortunately Janesville were the ones who came out on top flipping a shot past Bear with one minute left to play, ending the game 3-2. Goaltender Heath Bear recorded 41 saves.
On Sunday December 1st Monroe Pee Wee B traveled to Reedsburg for their second game of the weekend and redeemed their sluggish play from Saturday by coming full force right out of the gates and taking down Reedsburg 4-2. The first period may not have had any scoring, but the Avalanche controlled the game in the Reedsburg zone and were just not able to connect on any of their shots. In the second period, the Avalanche were able to put the first goal on the board with a wrap-around goal by Ryan Molitor, unassisted. Unfortunately, Reedsburg answered less than 90 seconds later to tie the game and ending the second period 1-1. The Avalanche were relentless and continued to put the pressure on despite the four penalties they received in the third period. Colton O’Connor scored all three goals for the Avalanche in the third, earning a Hat Trick for the game, with one of them being a short-handed goal. His first goal came two minutes into the game with a nice assist from Bryce Montgomery who kept the puck in the zone and O’Connor was able to find the back of the net. O’Connor’s second goal occurred five minutes later with great team play that pushed the puck up the ice by Kaiden Klitzke to Molitor who eventually found O’Connor on the right side of the net for a one-timer. The final Avalanche goal by O’Connor came with 4:00 minutes left in the game with a centering pass from behind the net from teammate Molitor. Reedsburg was only able to connect on one shot in the third period as Goaltender Bear was solid in net once again, ending the game 4-2 Avalanche. When Coach Smith of the Avalanche was asked why his players came out to play today and what did he say or do to get his players to turn it around this second game of the weekend, he replied, "I think the reason everyone came out to play right out of the gate had nothing to do with me. After Saturday's game I told the kids in the locker room that there was nothing that I as a coach could do because the only thing that beat them was themselves, and that they needed to decide for themselves if that was the best that they could do. It seems like to me, if I can quote the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "They chose wisely"."
With this win, Pee Wee B are now 3-3-1 and their next series of games will be this coming weekend hosting Stoughton on Saturday December 7th at SLICE Arena at 3:15pm and then travel to Dodgeville on Sunday December 8th to take on the Ice Wolves at 10:15am.