SWINDON, UK – Phoenix’s Tony Hand became the first EPL player to break the hundred-point tape coming to rest at 104, and way ahead of the next nearest proving once again that playing with guys half his age high mileage, at least in his case, is not much of a problem. I t also was great to see a Brit climb into the top ten of the EPL Points Scorers’ Chart which is where Jets’ Slava Koulikov now finds himself, and something rarely achieved.
The Lightning are in the enviable position of not just having two netminders in the goalie top ten, but occupying two of the top three places.
The Phoenix, still without Andrew Sharp because of his slash injury now has company on the sick bench with Ladislav Harabin who, having had surgery on his slashed arm, was able to watch his side suffer a quite humiliating defeat by a rampant Bison in EPL Cup second leg in Manchester. Bison coach Steve Moria had expressed displeasure with the winning Manchester goal the club carried into the second leg saying his Slovakian forward Ondrej Lauko was taken out of the game immediately before. “It was a clear interference call,” Moria complained, “but the referee hadn’t seen it.”
However, what was clearly seen in the second leg of the cup semi-final was the Bison wiping out the goal advantage in the second minute and then simply not allowing the Phoenix to settle into the game keeping them under pressure in their own zone for most of the game although a nail-biting climax saw the Phoenix inch closer to overtime while five on three, but it wasn’t to be and after going down 8-7 on aggregate Coach Hand acknowledge the Bison deserved to go through to the final after what was a great night for hockey.
After such a strong performance, Moria must now sleep dreaming of some silverware under his pillow but confessed he felt the league title was now beyond the Bison’s reach, ‘but I definitely feel we can get second,’ he added.
The Bees released Czech D-man Vlademar Pelikovsky for ‘business reasons’ causing Coach Watkins at the Tigers to speculate the possibility the Bracknell club had relinquished their quest for a play-off place. With the Steeldogs some seven points above them in the league table and with games in hand, it would certainly make sense with just about ten games to go.
Saturday, and the Jets went to Swindon. Coach Russell was buoyant after the recent run of good results including wins against the Flames and Phoenix and a first leg win over the Flames in the EPL Cup. ‘There not many teams can take four points off the top two teams,’ he said. Against the Wildcats, though, the Jets looked quite ordinary compared to recent form and the first period could have gone either way. But the Swindon side threw away far too many excellent chances, while the Jets didn’t, and after about half an hour with a hat-trick from Darius Pliskauskas and Greg Rockman solid at the back, the Jets went home with a 7-0 shut-out.
Also not putting up a threatening display was the Bees who hosted the Phoenix and found themselves a goal down in under a minute thanks to Curtis Huppe, who added a second minutes later. His hat-trick came early in the third by which time the Bees were 6-1 down, but Michal Pinc managed to add a couple more in the last five minutes to keep things respectable.
The Tigers also fell foul to a much stronger team in Milton Keynes where they found themselves 3-0 down at the first break and it wasn’t until seconds before the second break when they were on the score sheet. But the Lightning added more in the final twenty with Martin Clarkson facing a fifty-one shot peppering to just 23 shots on Alex Mettam at the other end who waits an average of nearly half an hour between conceding goals, twice as long as the hard-working Clarkson.
The Flames got off to a good start at Peterborough with a short-handed goal in the sixth minute, and then all of a sudden early in the second period it looked like the wheel fell off as the Phantoms went into overdrive with three goals in three minutes. But the period ended as it began only now the skate was on the other boot as the Flames came back with three of their own in less than a minute transversing the break. Nathan Rempel made sure of the win seconds into the third, and had the Phantoms made better use of their seven power-plays it might have been closer than 6-4 as everyone one the ice was trying hard to get on the score sheet.
The Bison hosted the new-style rufty-tufty Steeldogs, although Grand Wizard Andre Payette was missing due to a game ban. But that didn’t deter the visitors even though Viktor Kubenko and Nicky Chinn had the home team two up by the end of the first. The Steeldogs, though, made a good attempt at preventing the Bison getting into their stride especially with Kriss Grundmanis enthusiastically adapting to Payette’s physical approach and was lucky not to collect more minutes although Chinn tried to put him in his place. In the end the 3-1 scoreline was probably fair enough.
Sunday and the Flames continued their merry way against the Steeldogs scoring what was the game-winning-goal before the first period had expired. Although Edgars Bebris pulled one back half way through the second, the Flames reinstated the two goal lead seconds later and then piled on the pressure to come out 5-1 winners, so no four-point weekend for Andre Payette this weekend.
Also Sunday and the Wildcats didn’t continue their merry way with the second of a double-header against the Jets in Slough. Once again it was Pliskauskas who started on the warpath and the Wildcats were scalped by three goals in the first ten minutes. Then Coach Aldridge called a time out and the resulting pow-wow worked awhile because the Wildcats started to fight back with a goal from Jonus Hoog and a much closer second. But the Jets had the edge and it was enough to keep the Swindon side at bay.
The Phantoms looked like they might jump on the Bison train and gave the Phoenix another fright by first going into the lead through Maris Ziedins, and although back equal five minutes later, Darius Lelenas then had a goal not called by the judge which was not only suspiciously over the line, but shown to be later proving once again simple technology and a few pounds could end this sort of fiasco. To rub salt into the would, Curtis Huppe completed a hat-trick and more but the Phantoms to their credit didn’t give up with Lelenas eventually putting them into the lead three-quarters of the way through, only for Huppe to force the game into overtime where the Phoenix won 6-5 but with a five on three.
The Bees were finally back in the points with a 6-1 win in Telford despite the home team easily outshooting the visitors. Jaroslav Cesky claimed a pair of goals in just eight seconds putting the home side four goals up by the end of the first period. Ten minutes from time and the Bees must have been thinking a shut-out was possible until Carl Ambler was unlucky enough to deflect a puck into the path of Scott McKenzie who potted the black that ended that hope.
Basingstoke went to Milton Keynes for what was the culmination of a hectic six games in nine days, and the home team must have been expecting to see some tired legs but it took them until seconds from the end of the first period to start the scoring. Three minutes later they had a second but minutes later the Bison eventually got onto the score sheet. Five minutes from time it was all to play for with the Bison equaliser but an amazing eight seconds further on the Lightning were back in the lead. But not for long and the period ended three-apiece with the Lightning clinching it on penalties.
The main thing after this weekend seems to be the neck-and-neck race between the Jets who are just a point behind the Bison who dropped a point following the penalty shoot-out against the Lightning. And while the Phoenix may still be firmly in place at the top of the table, the Bison has shown this week they can’t relax. Not that they will, of course. For more EPL facts and figures, results and news why not try our mailing list by clicking the link on www.iceman-epl.com contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com
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