Things were different this year, and in a very good way.

As players, coaches and families met at Lawrence Park for an end-of-season get together for Northwest Avalanche lacrosse last week, second-year head coach Domenic Alfieri had nothing but kind words to say. 

Who could blame him? 

In a season filled with new — new league, new opponents and most importantly: a new result — the Avalanche were there to celebrate not only each other, but a perfect season. 

“You can’t script a season any better,” Alfieri said. “You join a brand-new league, you go in and you beat 17 teams to win a quad-state championship, you can’t really write it any better than that.” 

Joining the Great West Lacrosse League in 2026, the Avalanche schedule changed from battles with Montana-based squads to teams from four states: Montana, Wyoming, Washington and Idaho. 

“It helped us to be in a position to play better competition,” Alfieri said. “As a coach you need your kids to see consequences happening on the field that are negative to help improve. If I tell someone that they need to be quicker in releasing their shot and we are up 15, they look at me and say ‘well, it’s working’. Well yeah, until we face a team with a fast defense and have to make faster decisions.” 

The increased talent kept Alfieri’s team sharp throughout the campaign and — after reaching the state championship the past two years, falling both times — winning wasn’t a surprise. 

The Avalanche finished the season 17-0, claiming the regular season conference championship as well as winning the North division tournament and the quad-state playoffs. 

Maybe the biggest result of the season though came in the playoff semifinals where the Avalanche met Bozeman, who handed them a loss in both aforementioned title games. 

The Avalanche rolled past Bozeman with a 9-6 victory, setting up a showdown with Jackson Hole, Wyo., in the final. They took that one 5-3 to claim the championship. 

“(The two losses to Bozeman) were sitting on our backs for the whole year, they were pretty hyped to play that game,” Alfieri said. “I think the kids felt pretty confident that they were going to go in and take care of business.” 

He likened the season to Glacier football’s 2025 season that culminated in a state championship over Billings West in November. The Avalanche feature multiple members of that Wolfpack team, including twins Grady and Weston Robinson. 

“We kind of followed suit and did that same thing,” Alfieri said. “It’s just having those kids that want to go out. They understand competition. They work hard.” 

Attacker Grady Robinson led the team with 21 goals and 32 points; his 11 assists were second to midfielder Weston, who tallied 12 helpers and scored 12 goals to lead the No. 1 scoring offense in the league. 

“After losing the last two years, we were really motivated to win this year,” Grady Robinson said. 

“It was pretty sweet to do it with my brother, its a special thing,” Weston Robinson said. “A lot of hard work from our coaches, teammates, but its especially fun to do it with your brother.” 

Another stalwart in the attack was Tucker Roberts with 17 goals.  

“Halfway through the season I started to realize that we are still really good,” Roberts said. “We can still win this, and then going into the playoffs as the No. 1 team and winning it felt really good.” 

Defense is where this Avalanche team rose to the occasion; opponents could not find a way past goaltender Conner Gall. The team allowed 4.8 goals per game for the season and held a lead at halftime in all but two of their games — one being the championship game which was tied at two. 

“We weren’t the same unit all season long due to injuries or just different things happening, but we have a system and the kids are bought into that system,” Alfieri said. “We have been running it now for three years as a team and we have seen now pretty much anything that people can throw at us. 

“I felt we had (Jackson Hole) right where we wanted them. We were wearing them down, which is a lot of what we were doing all year. We either came out and hammered teams or we would wear them down and in the fourth quarter we’d pull away.” 

Alfieri also shouted out Cruz Grace and Boston Stimac as the team’s faceoff midfielders. 

“If you can build your team around your goalie and your faceoff midfielder so you are controlling and possession and your goalie is taking care of business, you can build a championship caliber team and we had just that,” he said. 

Finally came the story of Oliver Buzzell, who attended on crutches following surgery on a torn ACL. 

Buzzell suffered the injury midway through the season but held off on surgery right away. After missing some time, he received clearance to play in the GWLL playoffs as long as he could manage. Not only did he manage, but he scored in the semifinal against Bozeman and provided yet another spark for this Avalanche team. 

So, as friends and families gathered on a sunny June evening, there was plenty to celebrate for the Northwest Avalanche. 

Reporter Jon Allen can be reached at 406-758-4426 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.