EPL Roundup – A chart show at last

SWINDON, UK – As Week 4 got underway there were enough figures to start compiling the top ten charts, although it has to be said some clubs are better than others in publishing their player stats so you have to scout around and pester people which means it is difficult to be totally accurate. This delay strikes me as being a bit odd and something of a snub to their fans who naturally want to compare player’s achievements.   However, bearing in mind the charts were compiled before Week 4 games were played, our first top tenner is Bison’s Chris Wiggins who heads both the full EPL and the British players’ Top Ten Penalty Chart with 48 minutes, or eight minutes per game. Then there are a couple of faces you wouldn’t expect to see like Ciaran Long, also of the Bison, and Jason Stone of the Wildcats and Ashley Stanton from the Tigers. The highest import is Bracknell’s Czech forward Michael Pinc on 20 PiM with Sweden’s Marcus Kristoffersson from the Phoenix propping up the chart on 20 PiM. As you might expect, keeping Wiggins company are some of last year’s final top tenners, so making early appearances are Nicky Watt, Grant McPhearson, Joe Baird and Shane Moore.   Bees’ Jaroslav Cesky heads the EPL Top Ten Points Scorers Chart carrying on from where he left off last year with Michal Pinc close behind. Understandably, the Flames are well represented with Lukas Smital sharing the lead with Cesky and four teammates up there with him. It goes without saying Tony Hand is also there with Curtis Huppe also of the Phoenix. In the British Top Ten there is a similar representation only there Hand is already leading by a nose.   The Goal Scorers Top Ten Chart is more varied with Wildcats’ Jozef Kohut, Bison’s Ollie Bronnimann and Ondrej Lauko, and Tom Squires from the Steeldogs. In the British top ten line up, led by Bronnimann, you also have Phantoms’ Joe Miller.   In the Top Ten Assists Chart it is perhaps surprising to see just a single Phoenix player, Hand, while the Flames own half the places. Bracknell has the ‘dangerous bothers’ Cesky and Pinc, and the Bison Lauko and Nicky Chinn. In the British version Hand already has a buffer of three points at the top.   The most successful D-men so far are Bison’s Viktor Kubenko jointly with Flames’ Jez Lundin and Paul Dixon, with the Flames dominating the British chart too.   Onto the games and following their first win Coach Watkins said of his Tigers, ‘I’m really chuffed for the guys after four or five weeks of hard work.’ And so he should be because it is no mean feat to achieve what the club has so far, and great to see an underdog take a bite out of a bigger opponent. It is just a shame I didn’t have a bob-or-two on the outsider. But my sports’ mad uncle ‘Galloping’ Gordon disagrees. I remember he said after managing to tease that lovely old lady into changing her will in his favour just before her accident: ‘I’ve always bet on outsiders, and lost a fortune over the years, but money doesn’t make you happy. I am as happy now with three million as I was with just the one mill I had when she was still alive.’     However, Watkins also appeared chuffed with his captain Marek Hornak, saying, ‘I maybe hadn’t appreciated how good a player he is when I signed him.’ You can’t help wondering if he is equally as chuffed with Tomas Janak who received a two-game suspension for what was a really dumb check from behind against Wildcats Jozef Liska which must have not just knocked the wind out of him, but almost propelled his breakfast into the stands. As Bison’s Coach Moria observed, prior to facing the Tigers, losing Janak is a blow but the Brits will up their game, adding, ‘I think we caught them on an off day last time…I am expecting a hard game against a hard-working team.’   Coach Cox at the Bees happily signed Ben Austin from the Hornets who had also played for five years in Guildford and had his debut game for the Bees the previous week. Not so happily, Cox urged his team to work harder. ‘There are certain things we need to improve on,’ he said. ‘The experienced guys need to pick it up a bit and start leading by example. A win would be huge for us. What I would do for a win!’ You can’t help rooting for the Bees, though, with Cesky and Pinc featuring in all three scoring Top Ten Charts and a swathe of youngsters who really should have some reward for their hard work, even if it is just a point. Perhaps they need a pinch of what Coach Matt Darlow is feeding his boys in Sheffield. ‘Every time the guys go on the ice you can see their willingness to perform and give their all for the cause,’ he said, sneaking a furtive glance over his shoulder as he sprinkled a few more drops of his magic powder into the water bottles.’   So, it is sneakily refreshing when the big boys don’t get things quite their own way. Following the defeat by the Wildcats on penalties Phoenix’s Coach Hand said, ‘We didn’t play well in Swindon, even though we could have won the game.’ ‘Could have’? Surely what he meant to say was ‘should have.’? Coach Aldridge in Swindon saw it differently, of course. ‘It was a very good win against a strong Manchester team,’ he said. The following evening the Phoenix partook of the blood and mayhem that was the Lightning game with Hand himself joining the fray and then later complaining, ‘You could see it happening. Their guys were leaving the bench and trying to get our guys into trouble. It’s pretty poor, to be honest.’ Hmmm. And the Phoenix so squeaky clean with just two players in the Top Ten Penalty Chart to the Lightning’s one, and four teams not represented at all. Hmmm again.   Anyway, the future of the Phoenix’s Robert Farmer was decided following his less than successful Canadian sojourn with him signing for EIHL Coventry. Apparently he rang Blaze’s Coach Thompson and told him he didn’t want to play in the EPL, and the Phoenix, understandably, didn’t stand in his way.     On Saturday, Swindon heaved another sigh of relief as they managed to circumvent the local authority workers’ strike at the Link ice rink again and host the Steeldogs for the first time this season. Wildcats’ GM Steve Nell was over the moon in praising the support the Wildcats had received and pointed out the ‘Kidzone’ programme would also suffer if the strike took effect, which was a charity raising money for local community groups and youth sports’ teams. But, in a business-like performance the Wildcats secured their first shut-out of the season with a 3-0 win. Captain Lee Richardson opened the scoring at the start of the second period and fifteen minutes later acquired a ten-minute misconduct penalty. But it wasn’t until nine minutes from time that a Jozef Kohut power-play goal followed by a short-handed goal by Jan Melichar and ten minutes on Steeldogs’ Tom Squires, also for misconduct, that really sealed it.   In Basingstoke for two breath-holding periods the visiting Tigers maintained the lead, for much of the time by two goals. But the third period opened with a Bison equaliser and from then on it was their game with Chris Wiggins completing his first Bison hat-trick to end the game 6-4.   For a time when they were one-up it looked like the Flames might flicker when early in the second period the Phantoms equalised at Guildford, but they kept their composure and a gift goal by David Longstaff at the start of the third made it difficult for the Phantoms to get back in it, and the Flames maintained their unbeaten record by four goals to two.   In the first fifteen minutes in Milton Keynes the ref had almost filled the penalty boxes including a 5+game on Bees’ Nicky Watt for roughing in a skirmish with Andre Smulter and Gary Clarke. But the Lightning failed to capitalise on a five-on-three and it was Cesky who put the Bees into the lead. Going into the second break the Lightning went ahead and although Pinc clawed one back, the Lightning had the initiative and the 5-2 win.     In Manchester it was race-and-chase hockey for fifty-odd minutes and it really could have gone either way, but that was just the build up to the finale. Eight minutes from time a delayed penalty on the Jets and a Manchester power-play goal, then Rockman pulled and Koulikov scoring in the last minute, it was nip and tuck right to the wire and with the Phoenix clinching it 6-4, it was almost a shame to have a loser.   Saturday night saw no change in top five league places but lower down the Wildcats jumped two slots to seventh over the Steeldogs and Tigers.   On to Sunday and no game for the Lightning or Flames but what a goalfest it turned out to be at Bracknell against the Steeldogs after the half-hour skirmish when the 2+2s for roughing were dished out. The scramble in the Bees’ camp to get on the score sheet was led by Michal Pinc but despite the numbers the Steeldogs were no pushover and had the two late goals by Peter Vaisanen and Tom Squires come sooner, things might have been even closer. But the Bees must be over the moon because the two points got them off the bottom of the table.   Well, the Phoenix certainly had their revenge for losing to the Wildcats last week although for the first thirteen minutes it looked like it was going to be another nail-biter. By the time Kohut scored just after the first break it was to make it 6-2 and it was looking all over. But, had the penalty shot not been saved for the injury on Jozef Liska and Tovio Suursoo not limped off, the Wildcats might still have got back in it because, to their credit, they stepped up a gear and went down fighting right to the 7-3 end.   In Peterborough the Bison’s Chris Wiggins carried on where he left off the previous evening with a goal in just under eight minutes as the Bison pushed hard for a four-point weekend. But the Phantoms did some pushing of their own and in the final period fought back heroically with goals from Maris Ziedins, Joe Miller and Darius Lelenas to almost push the game into overtime instead of a 4-3 loss.     Are the Jets back on course yet? Well, Darius Pliskauskas must think so after scoring the first two goals and then bagging a hat-trick minutes into the third period. But sadly for the Tigers they were always chasing and the point drought over the weekend means they are now bottom of the table although, as Coach Darlow said, you can’t fault the commitment.   So another week over and Sunday evening saw a change at the top of the table with the Flames not playing and so the Phoenix now in the lead, but there was a more significant shift at the bottom where the Bees flew over the Steeldogs and Tigers, who all played. Fot more facts, stats, articles, news and a headline mailing list try my website – www.iceman-epl.com Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com