Home of the Bottineau Storm

Girls Program Update (12-04-06, posted on 12-17)

The Bottineau Avalanche (Girls 14U Hockey Team) opened its season this past weekend on the winning track, going 2 wins against 1 loss for the weekend. The first win came on Saturday in Dickinson where the Girls beat the Dickinson Girls 14U 5-4. In the game, Bottineau dominated play outshooting their opponent 55-12. All the girls did a stand out job both on offense as well as defence. Ashley Blue showed off her hockey skills recording her 1st hat trick of the year. Also scoring for Bottineau
were Jennifer Cote (1st goal of her career) and Trista Bjerk.

The 2nd game of the weekend, had the girls traveling to Williston to play their 16U team. Bottineau got off to a fast start and never looked back. When all was said and done, the Girls had a very impressive showing winning the game 6-0 and in the process getting goalie Tiffany Schuster the 1st shutout of her career.

In the 3rd and final game of the weekend. Bottineau traveled up to Crosby to play their 16/19U team. In the game, the girls gave the Crosby team all they could handle. It was the 5 minute mark of the 2nd period before Crosby could manage their 1st goal. Crosby went on to score 3 more before the end of the 2nd. In the 3rd period however, the Bottineau Girls came out hard, with Trista Bjerk scoring 5 minutes into the peroid and really put the pressure on the Crosby team for the rest of the game. Even though the Bottineau Girls lost, it was a fantastic game to watch and the girls should be very proud of their effort. It was quit impressive to see our girls (just starting their 3rd year of hockey) skate with and compete with a program that has been going for 5-6 years.

The Bottineau Girls travel to Bismark next weekend before opening their season in Bottineau on Sunday Dec 17 @ 10:45 am against Bismarck.

The Girls will be playing an 18-game schedule this year in the ND Girls 14U hockey league. Their are a total of 9-14U Girls teams in the state this year - 4 in the East and 5 in the West. West Teams include - Bottineau, Minot, Bismarck, Dickinson and Glasgow Mt. Under new directives put forth by the ND Amature Hockey Assoc. the girls will be required to play a 18-game schedule in order to qualify for State Tournament play, held in Devils Lake on March 9-11, 2007. To accomadate the schedule, the girls will be playing home and away games with each of the teams in their league as well as pick-up games with teams from Williston, Crosby, Watford City, Langdon and Devils Lake.

The Bottineau Avalanche are very excited about their upcoming season and hope that everyone in the community gets the chance to come out and see the Avalance in action.

Storm Conclude Season at State Tournament (2-27-06)

The Bottineau Storm concluded their season last weekend at the ND Girls 12U tournament in Valley City. The Storm lost all three games, but could easily have won two of the three.

The Storm completely dominated most aspects of their first game against Minot. They lost that game 4-3 in overtime. In the second round, Dickinson shut out the Storm 6-0, but the girls rallied in the the third game against Mandan, losing a tight race 5-4. Many fans thought the game-tieing goal was in the net, but quick action by the Mandan goalie may have prevented the referees from seeing the puck in net.

The Bottineau Storm completed only their second season and showed much improvement over their inaugural 2004-05 season. The girls look forward to competing again next season.