EPL Week 18 round up

SWINDON, UK – 18th January and the stats following the weekend’s games show Lightning D-man Leigh Jamieson jumped into the top 10 PIM list at number four with impressive triple figures, and into third spot in the Brit chart. Doug MacIver, the recently acquired and more recently injured Phantoms defender with a penchant for tough playing, seems to be trying his hardest to reach the top 10 PIM chart by the end of the season and already has a six minute average, so well on course. Monir Kalgourm, the Swedish forward from MK Lightning , jumped to number five in the Assists chart while on the netminding front, Jets Greg Rockman moved up one place with his saving percentage to number six. In the overall team points scoring chart the Lightening overtook the Bees to go to number six, which belies their top position. Onto team news and Simon Anderson returned to the Wildcats from his post as head coach at Oxford for the remainder of the season as Ryan Aldrigdge’s assistant along with current assistant coach Gareth Endicott. Anderson, a Swindonian, has plenty of local ice experience having worked with previous Swindon coaches Daryl Lipsey and Ken Forshee (Who has replaced Anderson as head coach at the City Stars), and Endicott when he was at Wightlink Raiders.

Aldridge, meanwhile, was dealt an eight-game ban by a disciplinary hearing as a result of his tiff with Raiders Jozef Sladok last month, so will be out until the end of January. So, following his decision to give up skating, you might have thought that is the last we have seen of him on the ice, but not so according to a statement he made in the local press. Wildcats D-man Joe Baird returned following his two-game ban for a match penalty incurred the previous week against Guildford. Mid-week and the Raiders signed Lithuanian Darius Pliskaukas from cash-strapped Elite League Edinburgh Capitals embroiled in a cost-saving attempt which included reducing their eleven imports to 7. Pliskaukas, who had been sidelined with a broken finger for a month was replaced in his absence. Raiders also reported they had received an unexpected high number of applications for the vacanted Jesse Hammill coaching position despite the fact no formal advertisement for the post had been published. As a result, Erskine Douglas, a former player and coach, has taken up the position of coach, but only as caretaker until the end of the season. And talking of cost-cutting, Bracknell boss Claude Dumas said any new signings made before the end-of-the-month player signing deadline would not include imports, so obviously will be restricted to home grown talent. Romford Raiders took their lead from the Bees with the resigning of their former British defenceman Tyrone Miller from Basingstoke Bison where he has been playing for a short period, making it his tenth year with the club. Scimitars, continuing the shake and vacate trend, in releasing British forward Steven Wallace with immediate effect, but signed up three forwards from their junior academy team: Mark Turner, Andy Hurst and Chris Sykes. And talking of juniors Peterborough Phantoms boss Doug Irwin, suffering from serious player depletion due to injuries, called up four juniors from their development system as cover players.  Guildford Flames at this point had had eight straight wins, but have been hit with injury and illness problems worse than at any time in their history, and although Rick Plant returned to the bench last weekend, Vinny Zavoral, Rick Skene, Martin Masa, Lubomir Hurtaj, Nathan Rempel and Dave Savage didn’t. To help shore up the side coach Paul Dixon brought back Nick Cross, but into the breach also came new-signing Canadian forward Adrian Saul who has previous British and European experience most recently earlier in the current season. And did it work? Well, if you call a 9-2 drubbing of Manchester Phoenixx, then yes. But the result was also interesting because although not Guildford’s most serious thrashing dished out this season, that dubious honour goes to Bracknell who suffered a ten goal trouncing, it was way ahead of anything inflicted on a top team, and must have brought a wry smile to a few Flames faces for the revenge of a 5-1 defeat imposed by the Phoenix on their last encounter. Significantly, the win also put them above the Phoenix and into second place in the league, so with the Slough Jets having a game in hand the top is looking like a four-way battle. While on the subject of revenge, what on earth happened to the Jets? With two recent impressive away wins against both the Phoenix and Lightning, and having consolidated home advantage to a point where they have been almost unbeatable, they go down to Milton Keynes in a 4-2 loss. The game was marred by a post match brawl on the ice with fights breaking over the ice and only defused when Jets head coach Pete Russell came onto the ice and pulled his players away to start the handshakes. It always amuses me how one minute players can be knocking seven bells out of each other and the next shaking hands. So what else happened Saturday evening? Well, the Wildcats made a brave and determined recovery from four-nil down at Basingstoke and were unlucky not to have gained a point. Despite a staggering 28-9 shots on goal in the first period, and fifty-nine overall, Man-of-the-Match Geoff Woolhouse only conceded one goal, a Nicky Chinn long shot. With new assistant coach Simon Anderson on the bench and head-coach Ryan Aldridge still sidelined with his ban, you can’t help wondering what, if anything, this performance indicates. But, if gossip is to be believed, and why not because at least it makes amusing reading, then could Anderson be the next head coach at Swindon later this year if Aldridge takes up a rumoured recent job offer. Say no more. There was also a er, spirited game at Bracknell where Sheffield managed to take a point. Bracknell came back from 2-0 down with Jaroslov Cesky in stunning form and some unbelievable saves by Carl Ambler, although Adam Bicknell was ejected for kneeing causing the game to be stopped for a while while Scimitar Lloyd Gibson received ice treatment. Gloves were also removed as Carl Graham and James Archer did the tango. but Nicky Watt, who had earlier been boxed for roughing, adding to the games total 41 penalty minutes, equalised with seconds to spare taking the game into overtime and subsequently three wins in a row for the Bees. Sunday saw the Flames wrench yet another victory from the Phoenix, throwing away a 3-goal lead not once but twice to go on to win a sudden-death penalty shoot out with the winner coming from new-signing Adrian Saul, and so ending the weekend with the Guildford team in second place and Manchester now down to forth.  Peterborough are now on an eight-game winning run after not only beating Sheffield 4-2 but jumping above them in the league and despite losing James Ferrera who was clocked by a high stick. Wildcats hosting Slough saw netminder Geoff Woolhouse take a match penalty for head-butting, which has to be a rare occurrence, but perhaps not quite so rare for Ryan Watt who also went the same route later in the game in a 70 minute penalty game. So, as the weekend’s dust settles there is now a five-point spread over the top four with only the Jets with a game in hand, and although the Lightning are holding their own with a small buffer at the top,  both the Jets and Flames are looking strong and threatening, but the Phoenix is looking decidedly iffy. Can’t wait to see what next weekend brings! Comment on this story: Comment@Prohockeynews.com