Atom Chinooks defeat Picture Butte's Blades in dramatic high scoring game

Atom Chinooks vs Blades
C. Davis photos and videos

What a game!

Chris Davis, Sports

Pincher Creek's Atom Chinooks hosted Picture Butte's Blades at the MCC arena on Sunday, December 8. Those in attendance were treated to a very fast paced game between two dynamic and well matched adversaries. Goals were frequent and often dramatic.

On his way to a hat trick, #17 Rylan Bruns scoring for Chinooks

The Chinooks ultimately won the game 14-11, but had to do their utmost throughout to achieve that victory.The score was tied 4-4 at the end of the first period. The Chinooks started to pull ahead in the first half of the second period, ahead 9-5 at one point before the Blades charged back to tie it up again 9-9 at the end of the period. The third period saw both teams continuing to pour it on. The Blades scored first, making it 10-9 in their favour, and then the Chinooks rallied, letting in only one more Blades goal while inexorably increasing their lead to the 14-11 finish.

Picture Butte's #19 Caden Heins proved to be a goalie's worst nightmare, scoring a total of 7 goals in the game, all of them unassisted.

Chinooks #6 Riley Potts came into his own during this game as well, scoring 6 goals, 5 of them unassisted. Talk about speed and an ability to spot and seize opportunities.  Again and again in this game he took that extra split second to spot where the hole was, and then put the puck right there.

Chinooks #17 Rylan Bruns scored the first goal of the game on his way to a hat trick. Bruns also got an assist during the game. The moment everyone present will remember is when Bruns unleashed his mighty slapshot, shattering Blades goalie #8 Jake Roggensack's visor. To Roggensack's credit, once the situation was rectified he was right back in his crease. Bruns got a little carried away after that, with every opportunity looking like a slapshot to him, but with the kind of power he's got it was worthwhile to see him working the bugs out. Terrific.

Let's talk goalies here for a minute. Roggensack is going to be a real challenge for opposing offencemen as he develops, because he's got the stuff great goalies are made of. That is also true of Atoms #30  Koltyn "Kipper" Kipling, who is rising to the challenge admirably. His moment came when he faced down Caden Heins, who took a penalty shot and came up empty, a vindicating moment for the Kipper that earned him a heartfelt cheer from the hometown crowd. One on one he took down the Blades' top scorer.

Also scoring for the Chinooks were Alex Comeau, Caleb Evans (who also got an assist), Cade Ames, Logan Deley (who also got an assist), and Corbin Litchfield (from well back, through all of the opposing team members). Nicolas Crook and Nico Charette both got assists as well. This victory was a real team effort for the Chinooks, so I feel compelled to mention team members Christian Berthiaume, Connor Stuckey, William Johnson Junior, Colton Kirkman, and Kieran Randall. Good show, Chinooks.

In addition to Heins' remarkable run, Blades goals also came from Riley McCloud (2), Brody Braun, and Hunter VanVaerenbergh. Logan Hillaby and Nicholas Rudelich picked up assists.

Penalties were almost nonexistent and largely for unintentional offences.

The Atom Chinooks are delivering the goods this season, a great team to watch. This sports fan was grinning ear to ear from beginning to end, considering it time well spent.

A tough call to have to make:

The Atom Chinooks played an away game against Foremost the day before the game above, losing 7-6.  Fans who were at that game tell me it was even more exciting than the Sunday game, with the Chinooks behind by one point and almost tying it up in the declining moments of the game.