Bare chests, silverware and silky passing

LONDON, UK – With pre-Christmas shopping and parties raging all around, the first silverware of the season was lifted, as were the spirits of some hockey fans across NIHL South.

Phantoms so excited… and they just can’t hide it

The best news of the week came out of Milton Keynes as the Thunder announced they had met their crowd funding target of £10,000 and will continue for the rest of the season. The news is welcome relief not only for the Thunder but all of the other teams in the league. The hockey community proving once again that when called upon, they are there to support teams when they hit trouble. Whilst this is fantastic news in the short term, most fans of the league will be fully aware that this only kicks the problems down the park, or more specifically to Spring 2019.

The management of Bluewater shopping centre in Kent often look enviously over the river to their rival Lakeside, wondering if one day they might attract a Taco Bell and an Ikea too. At Christmas time however, they always trump their Essex based competitors by inviting the Invicta Dynamos down for a skills session at their festive ice rink.

Mo’s at Bluewater

On Tuesday night the Mo’s led by Coach Kev Parrish entertained festive shoppers with couple of drills and some light hearted banter. You can watch the highlights video, including a smoother than silk drop pass from KP to Ryan Morgan, plus Harrison Lillis dropping the gloves with a kid here.

Swindon Wildcats set the pulse racing as they stripped off for a 2019 charity calendar, with all proceeds from sales going towards the U13 team of the Swindon Ice Hockey Academy and their journey to the prestigious International Tournament in Quebec, Canada in 2020.

The Cats featured topless in an array of poses ranging from the Ultimate Warrior stance – Max Birbraer, to Rocky Balboa – Edgars Bebris. The players also had red painted numbers smeared on them like sheep, although we presume this was a photoshop affect rather than the Cats media team going wild with a pack of felt tip pens.

Romford was a happy place during the week after a four point weekend gave the Raiders a big boost in the league. Coach Sean Easton pulled on a Christmas jumper with colleagues from the Sapphire Leisure Centre to get into the spirit of things, while forward JJ Pitchley told the Romford Recorder how happy he was after his team beat Bracknell and Swindon to move up to 5^th place in the league.

Swoon at Swindon

“For anyone that’s watched the league since it’s changed, with the teams that dropped out of the EPL a couple of years ago, the league has got far more competitive” said the 24 year old.

“Any team can beat anyone, as we’ve seen. There have been some close games more recently with the likes of Invicta and Milton Keynes. Unfortunately they’re not in the best position financially but they’ve both got good followings, I can’t imagine anything drastic is going to happen to them.

“I definitely think we can take three more wins to end 2018 on a high and see where we go from there. Our end goal hasn’t changed. We’re still after trophies and everyone in the room has got that in their head and that’s what we’re aiming for.”

At the opposite end of the mood spectrum was Streatham Coach Jeremy Cornish, whose side slipped down to 6^th position thanks to a zero point weekend and defeats to Basingstoke and MK.

“After starting the season with such hope and promise, we will need to turn the results around before it’s too late” admitted Cornish.

“This week in training we will be focusing on what I think that has been letting us down. I feel we have lacked grit and determination at times and the ability to play a full sixty minutes. So, in training this week we are going to focus on competition drills and making sure we are ready come Sunday night for a tough game against Basingstoke.

“It’s hard to write these comments when things aren’t going to plan, but this team has shown what they are capable of and it’s my job to help them get back to the level we all know they are capable of playing.”

Bracknell Bees Coach Dough Sheppard released non-British trained David Millner during the week after 11 games yielded 2 goals and 2 assists. Millner was announced as signing for lower league Chelmsford Chieftains a few hours later, but at the time of writing the Bees had yet to announce his replacement.

Interestingly the Bees face title rivals Swindon no less than four times over the festive period so anyone Sheppard can persuade to join at this stage better not have any plans for a relaxing Christmas time.

Friday review

Peterborough Phantoms lifted the first silverware of the season as they edged out the Sheffield Steeldogs 6-5 on aggregate in the Autumn Cup final.

The two teams began the second leg in Peterborough level at 2-2 following last week’s encounter in the Steel City. In front of a packed rink the pair battled out another 60 minutes, with a third period winner from Tom Norton sealing the 4-3 win on the night.

Phantoms other scorers were Glenn Billing, Petr Stepanek and Will Weldon, Steeldogs goals came thanks to a brace from Cameron Brownley and a lone effort from Duncan Spiers.

Making a return to the internet to cover the final was NIHL media outlet 482 Days who had been struck down with illness the previous weekend. The infamous yellow laptop was given VIP access to the game, which included a seat in the media gantry and a Rollover hot dog that lasted 15 seconds. 482 days also live-tweeted the trophy lift that featured EIHA rep Richard Carpenter minus infamous blazer – one in the eye for the haters!

Congratulations to the Phantoms from everyone at Pro Hockey News.

Saturday review

The Phantoms only had a few hours to enjoy their trophy win before travelling down to Basingstoke to face the resurgent Bison. Any worries of a Cup winning hangover were blown away within four minutes of puck drop as James White and Petr Stepanek put the Phantoms 2-0 up before Nathan Pollard extended the lead to 3-0 giving the Bison just the final period to salvage anything.

Sampford scores

Not for the first time this season, Ashley Tait’s men battled back to 3-3 in regulation thanks to goals from Alex Sampford, George Norcliffe and Dr Russ Cowley.

The Bison then completed the job in penalty shots as Ales Padelek put his shot wide and who else but Tait scored the winner.

In Swindon, Renny Marr and Tyler Perre shared a 16 shot shut out as the Cats beat Invicta 5-0 at the Link Centre. Edgar Bebris channelled his inner-Rocky with a brace, adding to goals from Toms Rutkis, Tyler Plews and Sam Bullas. It was Plews first goal in a Cats jersey since his move down from Scotland in the summer, and no doubt toasted by father Scott, who was a tough player himself with Fife, Dundee, Paisley and Murrayfield.

Sunday review

Basingstoke made it a 4 point weekend with a road win in South London against Streatham. The Bison took the lead and never looked back with three third period goals giving them a 6-1 win on the night.

Former RedHawk George Norcliffe scored a brace to add to efforts from Michal Klejna, Richard Bordowski, Paul Petts and an empty netter from Adam Jones. The RedHawks lone goal came from Scott Bailey.

Bracknell put the Mo’s to the sword with a 9-2 road win in Kent. Roman Malinik proved that sometimes one import is enough as he bagged a hat trick to add to a brace from James Galazzi and lone efforts from Josh Smith, Josh Martin, Stuart Mogg and Harvey Stead.

Louis Colvin and Jake Stedman replied for the Dynamos.

The main talking point of the match occurred in the second period as Ondrej Zosiak and Harrison Lillis were involved in a melee with Shaun Thompson and Scott Spearing, some of which you can view here.

Jordan Marr enjoyed a 22 shot shut out in the Peterborough Phantoms net as his side beat MK Thunder 3-0 at Bretton Way.

The Autumn Cup champions scored a goal in each period to take the points with Petr Stepanek, James Ferrara and Ales Padelek all on target.

Raiders snipe against Swindon (Matthew Udall)

Raiders’ goalie Michael Gray continued his strong season between the pipes as his side were outshot 53 to 27 at home to Swindon yet stunned the Cats 6-4 to take the points.

Brandon Ayliffe, JJ Pitchley, Ollie Baldock, Jake Sylvester, Filip Sedivy and Ashley Jackson got the goals for the hosts in Romford, with a double from Floyd Taylor and lone efforts from Max Birbraer and Sam Jones completing the Swindon scoring.

The game was not without controversy as Swindon’s Sam Bullas got a game misconduct for slashing at the end of the first, and Raiders Blaho Novak went one better at the end of the second with a match penalty for roughing!

The results mean that the Raiders are now the form team in the league with 5 wins in their last 5 games.

The big winners of the weekend however are the Phantoms who not only won the Autumn Cup but are also 3 points ahead at the top of the table with two games in hand over Swindon in second place.