The Elks Avalanche are the 2023 BIOSTEEL Epic Shootout Champions!

The 2023 BIOSTEEL Epic Shootout is in the books, and WOW, was it ever a barn burner!!!

HUGE congratulations go out to the Elks Avalanche, our 2023 Champions! 

The 2023 edition of the Epic Shootout saw a record number of sudden death matchups, which was indicative of great performances all around by both shooters and goalies.  Bar down, post and in, glove saves and poke checks...you name it, we saw it!

The Elks Avalanche started their journey to the final by narrowly defeating the Westfort Rangers Blue 3-2 in the second match of the night, making for a long evening for the youngsters (and their coaches and families, as they just kept winning).  In the second round, they took on the Current River Comets, and emerged with a solid 5-2 win.  In the semifinals, the Avalanche met the Neebing Thunderhawks, and after multiple sudden death rounds, Elks would move on to the final with an exciting 4-3 win!

On the other side of the bracket, Westfort Rangers White started by taking on a strong U9 Fury team, who had won the "play-in" match (hard to make a bracket with 17 teams!)...the Rangers would go on to win 4-1.  Next up were the Neebing Wildhawks, who pushed the Rangers to sudden death overtime, with Westfort eking out a 4-3 win.  In the seminfinals, the Rangers met the PA Westfort Maroons in the "Battle For Westfort"...the Rangers benefitted from some great snipes and huge saves, and moved on to the finals with a 4-1 win.

On to the championship final we went, as the marathon evening neared the end...the Avalanche and Rangers White would go back and forth like a true heavyweight battle should.  Westfort jumped out to an early lead, but Elks clawed back to tie it 2-2, setting up yet another sudden death overtime battle.  The Avalanche got a key save and a huge goal to seal the win!

We'd like to extend our sincere congratulations to all the teams for providing the capacity crowd with a great night of entertainment.  Thank you to Dustin Wilson and NWO Biosteel Sales for supplying a case of Biosteel to each player on the winning team!  Mr. Sub stepped up with a free sub coupon for each player, and the Avalanche will also be treated to a Fighting Walleye game for the whole team!

Thanks to the U18 KC Sabres for doing a great job helping us by wrangling pucks and acting as goal judges and referees!  Thanks as well to Dave Reginato and the Thunder Bay Bandits for supplying the audio equipment for the evening, and to our DJ and announcer, Mike McGinnis, for keeping the crowd entertained.

We hope you all had a great night, and we look forward to seeing you back at the EPIC Shootout next year!