Hot Marashi cannot extinguish Flames

BRACKNELL, UK – A fantastic performance by Bracknell netminder Adam Marashi wasn’t enough to prevent Guildford taking the spoils in overtime at The Hive. Marashi had a brilliant game and was rightly named man of the match after being called into action 49 times. “Coming into this game my confidence was very low in all honesty but playing well against my old junior club picked my confidence up a massive amount. Hopefully I can continue this until the end of the season” he said. Bracknell thought they had the match won in regulation when Nicky Watt struck early on in the third period with a power play goal. However Lukas Smital tied up the game with less than four minutes left on the clock and Martin Masa won the game in overtime for the visitors.

Gary Clarke gave the visitors the lead scoring Guildford’s first of two power play goals. The Flames would have hoped to take their lead into the first intermission, but 41 seconds after going behind the Bees were on level terms. Jaroslav Cesky slotted the puck home after good work from Claude Dumas with a 5-on-3 advantage. Nathan Rempel restored Guildford’s advantage four minutes into the second period and looked as if they would try and control the rest of the game as they piled the pressure on Marashi. The Bees were in need of something special to break the Flames and it came with six minutes left in the second period. A brilliant piece of individual skill by Greg Martin brought Bracknell level for the second time. The visitors dominated the rest of the period but were frustrated by Marashi and some stern defending by The Bees. When Nicky Watt turned in the puck with less than two minutes gone of the third period it looked like it would be the Bees’ day. However, Shane Moore took a penalty for interference and Andrius Kaminskas was handed a match penalty, allowing Guildford to strike on the power play to force overtime. Overtime was evenly contested until Martin Masa forced the puck home. Masa had been a thorn in the Bees’ side throughout the game and had spent 8 minutes in the penalty box as a result. However, he struck when it mattered as the Flames continue their march up the English Premier League. The Bees will be disappointed they could not win the game, but the point could be extremely important come the end of the season as the race for the last playoff spot heats up. Without Marashi’s performance it could have been a different story, but confidence will be high heading into another crunch weekend. He added: “I faced a lot of rubber and just aimed to get rid of all rebounds and give them no second chances, I thought I did this well as none of the goals were on rebounds. So overall I had a good game.” Contact the author david.bol@prohockeynews.com