Hockey action hits the ice in Lethbridge County

The Coaldale Copperheads, following two home games this past weekend, find themselves back on track.
A successful much-needed four points was secured for the Snakes on home ice. Saturday night the team hosted the Banff Academy Bears.
Nearing the end of the second period, the Copperheads were down 3-0. A few line combination changes were made bringing the Lyon, Gross, Swier line to change the tempo.
With forty-nine seconds left in the second, Lyon secured the Copperheads’ first goal of the game. The match up was on a role as 27.6 seconds Lyon scored again, putting them down only 3-2 after two. The Snakes were all business after the second, scoring five more unanswered goals.
Single goals came from James Price, Connor Gross ( 1 G, 4A) Ryan Swier ( 1 G, 3A) and two more for Craig Lyon. (4 G ) Final victory score ended at 7-3 for the first two league points for the weekend.
Featuring an afternoon game on Sunday against competitive Blackfalds, it was almost a similar scenario. The Snakes fell behind 2-0 and found themselves needing to regroup.
A two-on-one break-away with Gross/Lyon is not a good thing for the opposition. Gross dominated and scored two in a row to tie the game 2-2. Newcomer Ryan Swier followed with another goal and the Snakes took the lead.
Blackfalds ended up coming back one more time to tie the game 3-3 forcing the Copperheads into overtime — second time this season for these teams when meeting.
It was an exciting entertaining weekend for fans, as a shot from defenceman Matt Johnson captured the win in overtime.
Following the past weekend, the Copperheads’ current league stats are 11-7 for a total of 22 points. This weekend they visit High River on Friday night and on Saturday, the Copperheads will be hosting the Cochrane Generals at 8:30 p.m.
Cochrane currently is sitting first in the south (12-7 total points of 25) — therefore, it’s an extremely important game for the Copperheads.
The Picture Butte Novice Blades were home this weekend playing host to the Irvine Bulldogs on Friday night.
The Blades played hard but fell 13-7 against the Bulldogs. Braxton Hanna scored three goals, while Leeland Fraser added two more goals, Carson Konynenbelt had one goal and Riley Van Zeggelaar scored one goal.
The Blades were at their home rink again on Saturday morning hosting the Taber “R” Oil Kings. The Blades led the game for the first two periods but the wheels fell off in the third, when Taber came out flying and scored seven goals. The final score was 13-12 for the Oil Kings.
Braxton Hanna led the scoring with four goals. Leeland Fraser added three goals. Luka Rudelich scored three goals and Carson Konynenbelt added two more goals.
Come on out to the North County Recreation Centre in Picture Butte next weekend to watch some great Novice hockey.
The Novice Blades are hosting their home tournament with seven teams from across southern Alberta competing all weekend long.
The Blades open the tournament at 6 p.m. Friday night against the Lethbridge Novice Hurricanes.
The Picture Butte Atom Blades had a great weekend to open their regular season at home.
Saturday morning the Blades faced off against the Irvine Bulldogs in a hard fought game. The Blades fell 4-1 to the Bulldogs but the calibre of hockey was exciting to watch.
Riley Hillaby scored the single
Blades goal.
The Atom Blades were back at home on Sunday morning playing host to the Pincher Creek Chinooks.
The Blades skated to victory with a 14-7 win over the Chinooks.
Riley Hillaby led the scoring with five goals for the Blades. Karsen Haney scored four goals, Connor O’ Donnell scored two goals and Rhett Serfas, Treven Stroeve and Cameron Hillaby each added a single goal.
The Atom Blades host the Raymond Ice today at 5:40 p.m.
This past Saturday, the Picture Butte Jim Juris Knights of Columbus Initiation 2 saw action against Raymond 2.
The Blades came out ahead with a true team effort.
Big congratulations to Kale Okubo who got his first and second career goal and also it was a game to remember for Matthew Van Zeggelaar, who scored his first goal.
The game saw Jesse Klingenberg, Liam Slomp, Bridget Gellrich and Issac Medina adding one a piece.
It was a two-goal night for Colton VanRootselaar and hat tricks for Walker Schooten, Gracen Schooten and Max Okubo.
On a rare Saturday evening match, the Picture Butte Shimek Service Inititation 1 Blades took on the Taber Oil Kings (2). The two teams came out with a tie of 8-8.
Scoring for Butte was Devin Groenenboom and Ryan Serfas with three each and Tate Serfas with two.
Strong in net for the Blades were Luke Serfas, Jayden Quinn and Devin Groenenboom.
Sunday morning the team travelled to Vulcan, where they came out with a 19-1 victory.
Scoring for the Blades with three each were Devin Groenenboom, Ryan Serfas, Tate Serfas, Luke Serfas and Jayden Quinn.
Netting two were Emma Groenenboom and scoring his first and second goals of his hockey career was Pierce Medve.
A big shout out to Ryder Johnson and Liam Campmans for trying their hardest.
The team is back in action Nov. 21 when they travel to Magrath.

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