SWINDON, UK – Two serious bits of news came to light this week, one local, which I begin with, and one with more far-reaching consequences to end on.
To start, the Phantoms announced the loss of Shaun Yardley for the rest of the season with a back injury that has been plaguing him for some time. Yardley has been a good servant of the Peterborough club having joined in 2002 and played in consecutive years since. Prior to that he made appearances for the England U20 and GBU20 teams. So while not wishing this to sound like an obituary, we can only hope the spell away from the sport will quicken his return at peak fitness because after all he is still under thirty.
So that’s another empty space on the Phantoms bench. Coach Allen said, ‘We are looking around to bring in new players, but we are restricted by budget.’ Of course, these days money is the nature of the beast but having already lost Warren Tait and Dean Tonks, which presumably freed up some cash, it makes you wonder just how long the Phantoms can afford to wait to plug the hole. It also brings back memories of last season and the financial crises when previous coach Curtis Cruikshank was given 24 hours to save money after owner Phil Wing said he was not prepared to fund a payroll that was producing poor results.
So on to Saturday and you can understand cats and bees won’t have a harmonious relationship in an enclosed space in a rural setting, so it is probably not surprising the Wildcats and Bees didn’t in an enclosed urban space either. The encounter started with claws and venom which saw Nicky Watt spring to the aid of Michal Pinc and then leap into his cage for a fourteen-minute spell.
With no goals on the board the second period started bizarrely with Jaroslav Cesky catching Rob Lamey in the mouth with an accidental high stick while almost simultaneously, that is to say before the whistle went, Martin Masa downed Steve Whitfield, who witnesses say received a blood injury. Both instigators received match penalties, presumably under the idiotic injury by accidental high-stick rule, or did they because Cesky walked and Masa came back?
In the end the Bees wrapped it up through ex-Wildcat Matt Foord in the last two minutes although with over an hour in penalty minutes on the clock, the Wildcats had played much of their 51 minute’s share a man short, and with Cesky missing, not such a bad display.
Wildcats’ coach Ryan Aldridge, prior to facing the Bees and his first line’s old employers said of Cesky, Pinc and Watt: ‘They are doing alright….outstanding in some games.’ Well, yes, all well and good, but the problem for Aldridge at the moment looks to be actually getting all three on the ice at the same time and, according to assistant coach Pete Russell, words, after the match, were had.
The Phantoms, who are having a start to the season about as unlucky as receiving an invite to tea with Jeffery Archer, went to Manchester with a woefully depleted crew. Phoenix’s coach Tony Hand had expressed some concern over his own defence when he said it was a ‘bit sloppy’ having cost them points last week. On the other hand Phantoms’ coach Chris Allen said he was happy with his squad but not with the way they were ‘gelling’ together. A couple more bodies might help too because in the first period the visitors lost captain Jeff Glowa to a high sticks call. The incident was what you might call the highlight of the period so indicative of its gripping power as a memorable event. But on the bright side for the visitors it took longer than a period for the Phoenix to score, and even at the half-way stage the Phantoms were only two goals down. But in the end, after Rick Skene was also lost to the Peterborough side with a puck in the head, the third was too much for the wary visitors, although not a dazzling display by the defending champions either.
After last weekend Coach Andre Payette of the Steeldogs said, ‘It has been a fantastic start to the season for our team and unbelievable we are still top of the league.’ Well, not any more because the Phoenix have moved up to occupy that spot, and thanks in part to the Flames.
In Guildford the team looked firmly settled into their comfort zone on home ice and took just half the first period to stamp their authority on the Steeldogs completing the stint with a shot rate of 14 to 2. The Flames third goal came just after half way and they ploughed on with Steeldogs’ netminder Ben Bowns eventually facing a shot rate more than double that which was dished out and resulting in Mark Lee recording the Flames first shut-out of the season.
The Lightning entertained the Tigers, although it wasn’t compulsive viewing being something of a scrappy affair. Tigers’ coach Tom Watkins had said earlier in the week, ‘We need to be tighter defensively. All the good teams I have played for have been tight defensively.’ So fair play to the Tigers for stifling a lot of the Lightning’s play and showing an improved defence and even coming away with a more than respectable shots on goal tally, and although another loss for the visitors they made the home side work for the points.
Jets’ coach Doug Sheppard said of the current campaign that he didn’t see, ‘one or two teams running away like last year.’ Like others he felt, ‘The league is going to be wide open this season.’ So, when his team journeyed to Basingstoke perhaps this was the sort of game he had in mind as typical of this belief that points were going to be hard fought over.
However, he must have been a mite shocked when the home side romped into the lead with two goals from Marcel Petran inside ten minutes. This was immediately followed by Ryan Watt receiving a one-way ticket to the box for a check to the head and both Tony Redmond and Adam Calder hitting the metalwork while a Darius Pliskauskas shot hit Matt Colclough in the mask. But two goals quick goals came late in the period and the Jets restored things to an equal footing.
The second period continued in a similar vein with a goal apiece as Calder notched up his second hat-trick of the season which was shortly matched by Petran as the Bison pulled away to a three-goal lead. Then came the third period and the Jets made a magnificent come-back taking the lead for the first time that could only be matched with Steve Moria hitting the post and the Bison having a goal disallowed and left wondering what the heck had gone wrong.
Sunday saw Bison’s hopes revive somewhat as they visited Sheffield and took the lead. But that was only until Janis Ozolins let fly at the end of an end-to-end period to restore the equilibrium. Then it was pretty much all downhill with Ozolins snatching a second and the Bison missing a couple of sitting ducks and Ben Bowns pulling off his usual high-wire summersault saves. The Steeldogs then ran away with the bone pausing just long enough for Bison’s Chris Wiggins to try to escape through the plexi glass with a friend in tow and Ozolins to receive ten minutes for misconduct.
In Bracknell things took a slightly different turn as the Wildcats followed the Bees home for a rematch. Although much of the game was as tight as the previous evening, the visitors still minus a full squad and now missing Cesky as well, fought well and managed to stay away from the box which probably went towards Pinc grabbing the winner at the half-way stage and reversing the Bee’s fortunes of the night before. So just two goals total over two games has to be the meagrest of results between these two sides for a long time, or any two sides for that matter.
Another tight game occurred in Slough where the Jets hosted the Lightning. The visitors took the lead in the opening minutes and while there was a break for Ryan Watt and Grant McPherson to settle a minor difference of opinion over their preferred holiday destinations, the Lightning never extended their lead until the last quarter-hour. Seconds later Dan Davies brought the Jets back into it and it was all out for the final minutes, and although the Jets might have made another brilliant come-back, they ran out of time.
Fresh from their almost nonchalant tour around the Steeldogs and with cruise control still engaged the Flames went to Peterborough and you can’t help feeling they may have been justified for expecting an opponent in a state of dwindling fortunes to have enabled them to get home early and put their feet up in front of the tele. But something astounding happened and it wasn’t just that a cable snapped on the Flames’ engine, but a gritty Phantoms took a shockingly early 2-goal lead and by the end of the hugely contested second period had it wrapped up with Maris Ziedins claiming a hat-trick to boot.
And if this wasn’t enough upset for one evening, then a visit to Telford by the Phoenix must have warmed the cockles of the coolest Tigers’ heart. Juraj Faith put the visitors ahead after twelve minutes only for Joe Henry to reply on the power-play minutes later. And that was how it stayed until the end of the third, so clearly a greatly improved Tigers’ defence. But there’s more. Not only was the deadlock carried through the overtime period but, swipe me, ‘guv, the Tigers are Wrekin the place and stole the penalty shoot-out.
So what an eventful weekend it turned out to be, and long may it continue.
Now to end I turn to a more sombre piece of news. I’ve gone on about it before, and I am likely to again but only because something needs to be done. The Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University in conjunction with the Sports Legacy Institute announced that former Buffalo Sabres seven times All-Star forward Rick Martin, who donated his brain for study on his death at fifty-nine, had suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated brain trauma.
What makes this case different is Martin was not an out-and-out fighter and had experienced only one identified concussion and that back in 1977 when his head hit the ice in the pre-helmet days.
There are still many who say head hit injuries are part of the game and everyone knows the risks. Wrong! They don’t! That is exactly the point. The common perception is the occasional concussion is inevitable but is no more than something a player might have to live with for a short time like a broken collar bone. Wrong again! The evidence is only now coming to light of the horrendous potential of such cranial trauma, even apparently ‘mild’ hits. So to claim a possibly fatal and, more tragically, easily avoidable injury is merely part of the game and is easily worked through is quite ignorant of the facts. Ask Sydney Crosby.
One day we will look back and be amazed that we regularly allowed people to hit others around the head often with what is effectively a weapon which is something that would simply not occur in almost any other circumstances without being called to account. And, like smoking we will say, well I thought it was OK because I only smoked a couple a day. One hit to the head is all it can take to put your name on a waiting list for a wheel chair.
Now have a nice day but spare a thought for your son or daughter or grandchildren and friends who might play our wonderful sport.
For more EPL facts and figures, headline mailing list, stats end stuff, why not try www.iceman-epl.com Contact Bill.Collins@prohockeynews.com
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