Avalanche Record Losing Week

On January 2nd, the Monroe Avalanche Co-op hockey team traveled to play Milton at the Mandt Community Ice Arena. The Avalanche lost, 3-5.
Milton opened the scoring in the first period, and eight minutes later the Avalanche’s Travis Edmunds, assisted by Cade Martin, scored on a power play. The Avalanche wasted no time scoring their second goal right away in the second period when Tyler Johnson hit the back of the net. Milton went on to score three in a row and then the Avalanche’s Jared Cline, assisted by Tyler Johnson and Cade Martin, scored the team’s final goal of the game. With 32 seconds left in regulation, Milton scored to seal their victory. Goalie Heath Bear recorded 37 saves during the game.
“We played well tonight, in the end Milton’s goalie played well and we couldn’t quite capitalize on the power play opportunities when we needed to while Milton could when it counted,” commented Coach Josh Smith. “With a tie game going into the 3rd Milton put two up on the board. We pulled the goalie at about three minutes left in the game and managed to score, making it 3-4. We tried pulling the goalie again and unfortunately Milton put one in the empty net, making it 3-5 with less than a minute left on the clock. At times you could definitely tell that we hadn’t played a game since before Christmas, but over all we hustled well. As I said earlier, we just made a few too many mistakes and were unable to capitalize on the Power Play opportunities we were given.”
On January 7th, the Avalanche hosted Monona Grove at SLICE in Monroe. Monona Grove dominated the entire game and won, 4-0. Heath Bear recorded 43 saves for the night.
“Tonight we started off the night playing really well. The first period we were playing aggressive and beating MG to the puck. But once we started the second period we started hanging back and it killed us,” said Smith. “We also had a problem capitalizing on our power play opportunities. We are at the point where are doing things correct physically, we just need to be there mentally. It’s the only thing holding us back from winning games. On the other hand, Charlie Harris had a fantastic game playing center for the first time. Jake Ritschard also had a good night with some excellent hits. It’s time now to regroup and get ready for our away game against Viroqua Monday.”
The Avalanche will play Madison Edgewood home at SLICE on January 12th. The puck drops at 7:00 p.m.