EPL Roundup – Week 9

SWINDON, UK – Netminders are a vulnerable but hardy breed so it is always good to hear like we did last week that Guildford’s Mark Lee had finally returned to the ice after surgery and six month’s rehabilitation. Lee himself must be feeling doubly jolly because he celebrated in goal for the Flames with a shut-out against the Steeldogs.
On the medical downside, though, the Steeldogs announced Canadian Peter Vaisenan had returned home with a shoulder injury and possible surgery.
With Week 9 came the announcement of the GB Under-18 squad to play in Belarus next month in the World Championship. As far as the EPL was concerned the names that mattered were netminder Ben Bowns of the Steeldogs, D-man James Griffin and goalie James Hadfield of the Wildcats, and Sam Waller D-man with the Bees. Also on the list was forwards Jack Watkins of the Tigers and Ciaran Long of the Bison.  
Week 9 also saw no change in the Top Ten Penalty Chart with just the Bees’ Michal Pinc remaining the only import and team-mate Nicky Watt at the top.
Phoenix ’s Tony Hand still rules the EPL Points Top Ten Chart although pulling away from team-mates, and is being chased by a gaggle of Flames’ players in the British Chart.
The Top Ten Goal Scorers’ Chart is becoming a much more cosmopolitan collection with only the Steeldogs and Lightning not represented, although Bison’s Ollie Bronnimann is the only Brit, while in the home chart the Phoenix and Flames dominate.
The EPL Assists Top Ten Chart is still headed by Hand with Brits and imports split evenly, but in the British Chart it is still the Flames who figure strongest.
The top D-man in the EPL is still Bison’s Viktor Kubenko with the Flames and Phoenix well represented while the Flames’ Paul Dixon still leads the British Chart which has more team variety.
Lightning’s Alex Mettam is still the top EPL goalie while the number of 90%-plus names has dropped from eight to six.
First comments of the week came from coaches on either end of the dramatic   Tigers/Phoenix penalty shoot-out game which saw the Manchester side struggle to beat the league’s bottom team. Tigers’ Coach Watkins was naturally overjoyed and praised his team: ‘The guys showed real grit and determination to come back from two goals down and take it to penalties.’ Meanwhile, Coach Hand said, ‘That was a very satisfying win, but we were made to work damned hard for it.’ Adding, ‘the Tigers played a very effective strategy against us and closed us down.’
With the Steeldogs and Wildcats in particular searching out players to bolster their sides, early in the week a couple of names popped up on the rumour radar. Canadian Sean McMorrow, recently dropped by the EIHL Dundee Stars, was whispered to be in talks with EPL coaches. Ryan Aldridge at the Wildcats, without mentioning any names, said he’d had a new import deal arranged only for it to flounder when the player in question received personal news that made it impossible for him to play abroad.
Steeldogs Coach Matt Darlow, however, happily confirmed he was talking to McMorrow and said if he could sort out the appropriate funding would be offering the forward a package. Darlow’s thinking is the Steeldogs are in need of more mettle and muscle to boost his sometimes-intimidated side.
Darlow could be sitting pretty because also popping up was another forward, Andre Payette who while currently teamless and only recently recovered from a quad bike accident in which he broke six ribs and punctured a lung, said he would love to play in the UK again. This Canadian last year saw action with the Phoenix and would have been a great addition to the Wildcats, although another rumour was the Phantoms were also interested.
However things pan out, the Wildcats desperately needed an import because Coach Aldridge also revealed that Slovakian forward Juraj Rusic, his fifth import whom he signed from nearby ENL Oxford Stars, had moved away from the town some time ago for work reasons which is why he had never iced and wasn’t called in to cover for Jozef Kohut’s absence.
In a surprise move, at least to Coach Cox at the Bees, Ashley Calvert quit to join the Tigers because, as he said himself, he didn’t get the ice time he wanted. Coach Cox commented the day after the allegiance change that he knew nothing of Calvert’s dissatisfaction, pointing out the loss was unlikely to make much difference to the team. ‘Ashley won’t make or break our season, ’as he put it.   
Tigers’ coach Tom Watkins, meanwhile, although admitting he had never seen his new addition in action, felt he would be a suitable replacement for the injured Joe Henry, but with fingers crossed just to be on the safe side also signed D-man James Goodman, previously with the Scimitars, and forward Richard Bentham from ENL Blackburn Hawks.
As it turned out later in the week the Wildcats went with veteran Lithuanian Egidjus Bauba from Latvia, and the Steeldogs confirmed Payette had been made an offer, although they still weren’t ruling out McMorrow
Also with replacement concerns was Coach Hand at the Phoenix who said he had been unable to find a successor to Dean Holland, who returned to Newcastle at the end of September. Hand complained, ‘There is no-one around, so we’ll make do with what we’ve got.’
Replacement problems of another kind affected the Bison, who were heading for a double header-against the Phoenix at the weekend. Coach Steve Moria, who blamed the referee for his team’s two previous losses to the Phoenix by preventing the games to flow, said in anticipation, ‘I hope we have a referee who allows the game to be played. That never happened last time.’   Sadly this is a regular complaint from all quarters of the sport, so you can’t just put it down to a loser’s whinge.
Equally miffed was Coach Cruickshank at the Phantoms who despite winning 11-6 against the Tigers was appalled to have given so many goals away. He has a point, of course, with Telford at the foot of the league and lamented the result as ‘the low point of our season.’ But fair play to Telford for a spirited performance and we can only hope someone has hidden the medicine cabinet for Cruickshank’s sake in case the Phantoms win again in an even bigger goal bonanza.
Someone else in danger of suffering health-wise was Bees’ netminder Carl Ambler who, when team-mate Jaroslav Cesky clocked him during training with a helmet-splitting shot to the head, must have had visions of Steve Fone as he cleared the ringing from his ears. Don’t they say misfortune comes in threes? So, looking at the fixtures for the weekend on top of Cesky saying this week, ‘Every game I play I want to win, and everybody’s beatable in this league,’ I wonder if Flames’ goalie Miroslav Hala should buy a bigger helmet. My Uncle Sparky, however, advised asbestos gloves and safety matches for protection which, he claimed, always worked for him in his line of business.
In buoyant mood was Coach RUSSELL at the Jets who said, ‘There’s a good feeling around the team at the moment and everybody’s happy. They’re all getting points and everyone is chipping in with points this year.’ So he might not agree with Phoenix’s Swedish forward Marcus Kristoffersson who said of rivals Guildford, ‘There are other good teams but…We’ve played every team now and you can see that it’s us and them.’ While Kristoffersson might well be right, it did remind me for some reason that my old grand-pappy used to say, ‘Horse sense is what a horse has that keeps it from betting on people.’
On to Saturday and when Kristoffersson scored the first goal in the Phoenix’s game against the Bison he was probably not thinking about what he’d said, but when the Bison scored a short-handed goal before the first break, dominated the second, and then walked away with a pretty sound win it was suggesting maybe it wasn’t just a two-horse race.
The Flames, however, who in beating the Bees in a cracking fourteen-goal shooting match which started after just twenty seconds and was still four each at the end of the second, are reeling the Manchester side in at last. Bees Coach Cox must be chewing the furniture after another Bees high-scoring loss which actually saw the Bracknell side become the first team in the league to concede a hundred goals.
Also creeping closer to the Phoenix were the Jets who, as Coach Russell pointed out, are sharing the points around more than last season as eight more put their names on the list against a Tigers’ side that resisted admirably for two periods.
Still with a way to go, but also creeping up, are the Lightning without Barry Hollyhead, injured last week and who also spread the points around for their seven at home to the Steeldogs.
Further down the table the Wildcats, with new import Bauba grabbing his first point, also edged up in some good end-to-end hockey which saw the Phantoms score first. But the Wildcats, who don’t tend to share the points around and rely more on the magical Jozef Liska, didn’t look too threatened until the latter minutes.
Sunday, though, and dear, oh dear the Wildcats became not just the only team to lose to the Tigers, but to have done so twice. Although it was pretty even for half an hour until the Tigers went two up and Toivo Suursoo clawed one back seconds later, but then having a match penalty slapped on him on top of an injured Liska meant there just wasn’t the depth to fight back.
In a similar story I suppose Coach Cox might almost have got his way against the Phantoms because this was a more muted Bees and although they had a goal disallowed, it was still the defence that was too easily breached in the shu-out.
The Steeldogs, however, in what might have been their best performance this season scored first in a close-fought first period against the Jets, and it wasn’t until half way through that the Jets equalised and only in the final fifteen minutes really took control.
Once again the curse of the iffy start struck the Flames almost before anyone had blinked and for the first period were somewhat lucky to be only a goal down. On the half hour the Flames equalised through a penalty shot for a dubious ‘holding the puck in the crease call’ and even though Mettam took what appeared to be a nasty injury minutes from time, he played right through.
So that just leaves the Bison who went to Manchester and fought a much tighter game which was looking like Phoenix’s revenge when with seconds remaining Bison equalised short-handed then snapped up the win in overtime for what must be their best weekend of the season – and the Phoenix’s worst.
So, although the Flames didn’t get it all their own way at the weekend the Phoenix are now looking decidedly reachable as the chasing teams creep closer.
And while the Phoenix did manage a point, Sunday’s man-of-the-match Kristoffersson also picked up a Murray Walker Kiss of Death citation for his comment about the Flames being the only team to worry about.    For more EPL stats, facts, news including it all in a mailing list you could do worse than try my website. Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com