Wildcats final week of the season in review

SWINDON, UK –



Monday 5th April 2010 and the Finals’ week begins.
The mood at the Link ice rink was one of quiet confidence, and who can blame them? In an interview with the Swindon Advertiser coach Ryan Aldridge expressed his confidence that the Wildcats would put up a good showing in the forthcoming finals weekend. “I am confident my team is the best in the league right now” he said “We know what we are capable of.” General Manager, Steve Nell, added to the upbeat air by telling BBC Wiltshire “We’ve beaten Slough, Manchester and Guildford recently, so we’re confident”.
As he rightly pointed out, once you get into the finals, anything can happen.
And, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Jets coach Peter Russell recently issued a statement apologising for his team’s poor performances, and Phoenix coach Tony Hand stated he couldn’t account for his team’s extraordinary lack of opposition to the Wildcats in their last game. As for the Flames, apart from a win against the Bison, they have had their weakest results of the season in the last few weeks, so it really is a pretty even playing field, er, rink, methinks.
But the big day came, Saturday 10^th April 2010, and the Playoff Semi-Finals.
First off was the Wildcats against the Flames and what a terrific atmosphere it was at the Skydome in Coventry with Wildcats fans well represented and making a lot of the noise. But sadly the Wildcats were simply outplayed by Guildford Flames, although once again the flying Chris Douglas won the man-of-the-match award, for the eighth time, with some tremendous acrobatics amongst the 57 shots he faced. This wasn’t a record, but not far off. At the start of the final period, and with the game-winning goal already in the bag for the Flames, Aaron Nell picked up the only two Wildcats goals in a two-minute burst. On both occasions Lee Richardson and Jozef Kohut provided the assists, and for a few minutes there was hope the game was changing in the Wildcats favour. But it was not to be and while Josh Oliver and Steve Whitfield were thrown in the deep end for the missing James Griffin and Loris Taylor, who were on GB duty, both the regulars were obviously missed.

   
So, as we all know by now, the victorious Flames went on to the final where they lost by a penalty shot in overtime to the Slough Jets, the new EPL Playoff Champions.     
Sunday 11^th April 2010 and the Playoff Final. Despite the absence of the Wildcats in the game for this coveted title, it had all the atmosphere and drama of a sporting event worthy of a ‘final’ appellation.   
On a local level, however, it is worthy to note a couple of records, other than the semi-final for the Wildcats in itself being a first. Nell equalled Kohut’s eight points best scoring run over two consecutive games, while Kohut himself set a new record of ten points for the best scoring run over three consecutive games. On the downside, the fourteen ‘rostered’ players (excluding Whitfield and Oliver) who iced was the shortest bench of the season.   
A few more figures to come out of the last games. Kohut pipped Jason Cassells at the post for leading assists scoring, but Cassells kept his better game average. Nell managed to touch the 1.3 point average per game, the leading Wildcats’ scorer, but Cassells and Kohut were right behind and all three players were the only ones to go over the magic one point per game average. But, it wouldn’t be fair not to acknowledge Jan Krajicek’s magnificent showing as a D-man with a tad under a point per game. Chris Douglas, unsurprisingly having picked up eight from 22 man-of-the-match awards, completed the season with a save rate comfortably above 91%, which means he was placed sixth in the netminders’ chart, but placed first if you consider he faced the highest average number of shots on goal per game.   
And talking of charts: Aaron Nell finished the regular season in the Top Ten British Points Scorers chart and overall Top Ten Goal Scorers chart, and higher in the Top Ten chart of British Goal Scorers.
The Wildcats also ended the season with the fewest number of bench penalties, and the highest number of games going beyond regular time.   
And now we have to look forward to doing it all again next season.
Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com