Last weekend, the Monroe Pee Wee B Hockey team played a pair of away games and ended up splitting them with a loss against the Madison Patriots (3-0) and a rebound win over the Stoughton Vikings (4-2). Both contests had the Avalanche team short a few players due to injury, sickness or prior family engagements, which had Coach Josh Smith making the necessary adjustments to give his team the best chance possible to win being shorthanded. Unfortunately, during Saturday’s contest, the Avalanche were just not able to find a rhythm with the game plan at hand, ran out of steam with a short bench and fell to the Patriots 3-0. Avalanche Goaltender Heath Bear recorded 30 saves on the day.
The second game of the weekend, Sunday, December 15th versus Stoughton, fared a much better outcome. With a few minor adjustments to the lines due to being shorthanded once again, the same game plan from Coach Smith was on the table for the Avalanche and they were able to execute it perfectly, pulling out a win over Stoughton 4-2. The first period saw Stoughton putting the first goal in only five minutes into the game. However, Avalanche player Riley Jones was able to rebound with a goal by putting in a shot with a pass from Ty O’Connor to end the first period 1-1. The second period saw the Avalanche executing their dump and chase plan to a “T” to help them overcome their short bench that day. Coach Josh Smith said, “We needed to execute a plan that would make the other team skate more than us and tire them out.” During that second period, Avalanche player Colton O’Connor was able to get free with the puck and sneak a sweet unassisted goal in around the pads of Stoughton’s Goalie to give the Avalanche the lead, 2-1 heading into the third period. Shortly into the third period, with strong legs under them and the determination to pull out a win, Colton O’Connor was able to find the back of the net for the second time in the game on a perfect pass from Riley Jones giving the Avalanche a two goal lead (3-1) with only 11 minutes left to go in the game. However, that two goal lead was very short lived as Stoughton answered right back with a goal only 30 seconds later cutting the lead back to one again. As play went back and forth between both teams, the next ten minutes seemed like an eternity for the Avalanche team until Jones was able to light the lamp and put in a shot at the 2:38 mark and seal the win for the Avalanche ending the game 4-2. Goaltender Heath Bear recorded 15 saves. Coach Josh Smith had this to say following this weekend’s games, “We learned a lot this weekend being shorthanded. Iknow what the team can handle organization-wise, and how much confusion they can cope with. Unfortunately I wasn't able to figure that out without a loss. So the big tactical mistake this weekend was definitely mine. But we learned from it, the kids got a cause and effect lesson on how and why I asked them to play a certain way, and we got a win against a team that took us to a 0-0 tie last time. So a good weekend overall.” The Avalanche are now 4-5-2. They have this coming weekend off but will take to the ice again at home on December 28th at SLICE Arena against McFarland at 10:45am and then travel to Oregon on Sunday December 29th at 12:45pm.