Joy for Mo's and Stars, agony for Devils

LONDON, UK – It was Cup final weekend in the NIHL South as the two heavyweights of the league faced-off against each other over two legs.

Silverwear at Silverblades

Despite the cup fever, there were actually matters still to attend to in the league; not least the relegation battle at the bottom and the final jostling for play-off places.

Pro Hockey News published an in-depth preview of the cup final that you can read by clicking HERE

Before all that however there were other newsworthy items that caught the eye.

Clio cruises past Edwards

Ask anyone who travels on the M25 regularly how they would describe the experience, and most men would tell you they would rather have someone slam a car door shut on their nuts, than sit in the never ending traffic and average speed limits synonymous with the London Ring Road. We will spare our readers the analogy for women but you get our drift.

Indeed there are only a few things that can make the journey slightly less painful, for example a couple of hours of ‘Kisstory’ booming out of the radio, or a slavering Pug staring back at you through the window of a parallel car.

Equal to both of those is the joy of spotting a limited edition and out of date, Invicta Dynamos Ryan Giles back window replica kit bouncing along with the car suspension.

Oxford City Stars forward Joe Edwards was the lucky viewer this week and immediately shared his joy on Twitter. What he failed to grasp however was the fact the picture also highlighted him being overtaken by a Renault Clio.

No longer in Danger

Streatham Redskins GM Graham D’Anger underwent an operation during the week for a slipped disc, and luckily for us his wife Dawn was on hand to provide our bonus feature… namely hospitalisation of the week. For disappointed Bruise of the Week fans do not fear, there is a black and blue forearm on its way later in the column.

Despite Oxford completing their league fixtures last weekend, the City Stars were still relying on Cardiff failing to win at London Raiders to ensure their own survival.

In fact the London versus Cardiff game had many storylines regardless of Oxford’s interest. In truth it was a dead rubber game for the Raiders, but with former Cardiff boys Ricky Deacon and Phil Manny on the ice in their colours ready to relegate their hometown club the scene was set for a cracker.

Nightingale gets a early Easter present from Huska

Oxford made sure London didn’t ease off the gas and not only sent a number of fans to watch the game, but also a radio commentary team from BBC Oxford to cover the 60 minutes of action.

Many people raised eyebrows when Oxford announced a sponsorship deal with global games giant Sega but all became apparent this week as to their motivation.

The launch of Eastside Hockey Manager in the UK was announced on Pro Hockey News on Friday. Read all about it HERE

If the management simulation game is anywhere near as addictive as its football counterpart, there could be a spike in divorce rates within the hockey community very soon.

Throwback Mo’s

Bruise of the week has been a bit quiet recently so how about this beauty (above) from Invicta Dynamos goalie Steve Nightingale. No one likes to get in the way of a Juraj Huska slapshot but unfortunately for Steve, that is his training requirements.

This must have been sore for Steve but not as painful as the dancing on the following video featuring the likes of Grant Baxter, AJ Smith and the Lennon brothers Karl and Anthony. Watch the magic by clicking HERE

Saturday

The first leg of the cup final took place at the Riverside as Chelmsford and Invicta went head to head for the second trophy of the season.

Fans in attendance were left somewhat confused after the warm up as the number 11 jersey, vacated by the released Billy Phillips was spotted circling with the Dynamos pre-game.

Photo by Steve Sutherland

Once the puck dropped the action was fitting to the occasion with a 4-4 tie that left everyone in the arena on the edge of their seat.

Chelmsford scorers were Matt Turner, Martin Piecha, Ross Brears and Michael Ranby. Invicta’s goals came courtesy of a hat trick from club legend Andy Smith and a late equaliser from Captain Anthony Leone.

Any fans wondering if it was indeed Phillips making his return were left in no doubt it was him, as he laid out Chieftains goalie Euan King in the corner of the rink during the second period.

The Dynamos Twitter account diplomatically labelled it an accidental collision with a number of other witnesses claiming it was somewhat more underhand than that.

What was certain by the end of the evening, was that King spent it in A&E nursing a suspected concussion that ruled him out of the second leg in Gillingham. Let’s hope King can make a full recovery very soon.

At the bottom of the league, Cardiff travelled to London with over three lines of players in an effort to pull off a great escape.

By the end of the second period it looked as if they were about to pull off a famous victory, as they led 3-1 thanks to goals from talisman Jamie Hayes and an effort from Josh Haslam.

Cardiff go down fighting (John Scott)

At the start of the third period, London’s Grant Taylor added to an earlier goal from Bailey Wootton to give Cardiff a nervy finale to hold on, but 3 minutes from survival, Welshman Ricky Deacon popped up to score against his old club and break his former team mates hearts to tie the game 3-3.

The Oxford fans in attendance celebrated wildly along with those listening to the BBC commentary as the Stars escape was confirmed.

For Cardiff it marked the end of over a decade of hockey at this level and although external circumstances could dictate that they return to NIHL 1 next season, as it stands they face at least a year in NIHL2.

The Welsh side will be a miss to this league with their never say die spirit and conveyor belt of quality junior players, but things move quickly in hockey and we are sure they will bounce back stronger than ever, especially with their new rink on the horizon

Sunday

It has been a long wait for a trophy in Gillingham and so the near capacity crowd, including former World Darts Champion Andy Fordham, enjoyed every minute of their 5-3 win over Chelmsford.

The mercurial Callum Fowler showed just how important he is to the Mo’s with a hat trick, to add to a brace from his scoring partner Andy Smith. The pair are a devastating double act and Chelmsford just could not handle them.

Chelmsford’s goals came from Julian Smith, Matt Turner and Darren Brown.

Captain and the legend celebrate on the ice

It was a memorable night for all of those dedicated Mo’s fans who have come so close in recent years, yet so far to witnessing their team grab another trophy for that cabinet in Silverblades.

They, along with the players, staff and officials deserve their sweet moment and both teams did the NIHL proud with the quality of hockey over the two legs.

The Cup win means that both Invicta and Chelmsford have lifted silverware this season and now all that remains is the play-offs.

Aside from the Viking, the game also had other VIP’s on hand in case of emergency as the NIHLSTC otherwise known as the NIHL Sports Therapist Clique were in attendance.

Wightlink’s Victoria Coles, Streatham’s Tanya and Melanie Romans, plus freelance Chelmsford physio Erin Rose watched the game whilst discussing kinesio tape, hamstrings and hairy bums.

NIHLSTC on tour

The final league game of the season took place in Gosport as Milton Keynes Thunder aimed to move up a place in the standings in their game against Solent Devils.

The Thunder would face either Streatham or Wightlink as a result of the game and ended up facing the Londoners thanks to their 5-4 loss.

The Devils will face Invicta in the Play-Offs next week and they took the win thanks to a victory secured by a brace from Andrew Magee and lone efforts from George Norcliffe, Alex Murray and Alex Sampford.

MK goals came from Martyn Snape, Tom Mboya, Mathias Rugholm and Tom Castle.

Chico Cole had a rest for the evening and his replacement Sam Calder earned his man of the match award for the Devils posting a 92% save average.

The Play-Off match ups are now confirmed as Chelmsford v London, Invicta v Solent, Streatham v Milton Keynes and Bracknell v Wightlink.

Surely no one can call the winner of the final and most exciting stage of the season, and that’s the way we like it!