The Airdrie-Cochrane (AC) Avalanche couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas present as they stomped Red Deer Strata Energy Chiefs 6-2 at home in Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League action.
After losing two of their previous three encounters heading into the final league game of 2015, Avs had a point to prove and prove it they did.
Cole Reinhardt, Keenan McElroy, and Austin Wong all got on the score sheet as Avs ran up a 3-0 lead going into the second period. Ben Davison, Kyle Lappin, Kory Zinck, Josh Kroon, and Reinhardt all had helpers.
Chiefs looked to get back into the game early in the second as they scored a power-play goal through Wyatt Gelinas, but Avs shot down any chance of a comeback by adding three more goals through Wong, Kroon, and Eric Van Tetering. Justin Berube, Scott Shugg, Wong, and Reinhardt, racked up the assists.
The visitors added a second goal through Angus Macleod less than two minutes into the third period, but the result was never in doubt as Avs cruised to the finish line.
“We’ve gotten back to the way we were playing before December hit,” said Avs head coach Kenton Levesque. “We’ve stuck to our program, and we were relentless, which is one of the things that we’ve been trying to key on throughout the season. We’re quite happy with this result.”
Avs go into the Christmas break fifth in the South Division, and are only separated from third position by three points.
“We knew it was going to be a tight league, and we just wanted to worry about ourselves and try to claim points when we can,” Levesque said. “Our mindset going into January is to make sure we don’t leave any points on the table. If we can do that, then the standings will be in our favour and hopefully we can go on to a nice cup run.”
Now that the mid-point of the season has been reached, who does Levesque think have been some of his stand-out players?
“I’ve very proud of all my players,” he said. “They’ve come a long way, we rely on different players for different situations. It makes everyone valuable, but for sure our goaltending’s been solid all year long. We’ve had a couple blunders over the course of the season, but the goalies have a short memory and bounced back. They’ve been great.
“Cole Reinhardt, Austin Wong, and Eric Van Tetering have been our three studs up front. Reinhardt and Wong have been our team’s top scorers, so we rely on them for scoring and in the dressing room, but at the end of the day, everyone has been pulling their weight.”
Going into the second-half of the season, Levesque, is confident that his team has what it takes to go far into the post-season.
“We just need to keep working on team play,” he said. “If we keep moving the puck like we can and get all 19 players on the ice for every game, we’ll make a good run.
“We haven’t had any injuries yet, knock on wood. We’ve only had Ryan Reece who has only played one game for us this year. He’s coming back after Christmas, so we’re excited to see him in the lineup. He’s a good player that we’ve missed all year.
“We’re really looking forward to the New Year.”
