LONDON, UK – The Play-Offs finally arrived in the Britton Conference with the top four seeds taking on their lower ranked opposites.
Warwick Davis meets former Peterborough player Steve Wren
With most eyes on the upcoming Play-Offs, Swindon Wildcats bathed in the warm glow of league title glory and some personal achievements were noted by teams across the league.
Wildcats forward Max Birbraer basked in the joy of ending the season as league top points scorer with 12 goals and 55 assists, just one point ahead of Phantoms Captain James Ferrara.
Top goal scorer gong went to old silky paws Ales Padelek who notched 34 goals for the Phantoms with Streatham’s surprise package Alex Roberts right behind on 32. King of the playmakers after Birbraer and Ferrara were Basingstoke’s Ashley Tait and Peterborough’s Glenn Billing.
The netminding statistics threw up their usual weird rankings, summed up by the inclusion of Invicta Dynamos defenseman Harrison Lillis who ended up with a better save percentage than all starting goalies in the league with the exception of Swindon’s Renny Marr.
Leading the bad boys in minutes for the year were Raiders forward Blaho Novak, followed by Streatham’s Leigh Jamieson with 149 and 139 minutes respectively.
There are probably a lot more stats to crunch but to be honest we don’t have the time to analyse them. Added to the fact the numbers can often be as reliable as your average tinpot dictatorship voting totals.
Zosiak farewell (David Trevallion)
Cats put Mo’s out of their misery
Out of all the first round ties, this was the easiest to predict. Mo’s Coach Kevin Parrish must be wondering how many black cats he ran over last summer to deserve such a season. With a summer break just two games away, surely nothing more could go wrong for the Dynamos? Of course it could.
An 11-1 tonking at the Link Centre in the first leg was bad enough. However a social media spat followed, between goalie Conor Morris and forward Oskars Ancitis involving rumours too depressing for us to type out in a column that’s chief aim is to promote the league.
Sam Bullas celebrated getting a three year contract extension (unheard of at most levels of UK hockey) by bagging a hat trick to add to a brace from Captain Jan Kostal and lone goals from Sam Jones, Floyd Taylor, Loris Taylor, Elliot Randall and Aaron Nell. For the Mo’s it was Anthony Leone who got the consolation.
On Sunday Silverblades rink readied itself for the biggest locker room showdown since former Streatham legend Joe Johnston punched a spider ‘as big as his head’ to death in 2016, then the Dynamos Twitter announced that Morris would not be playing after all.
6 knuckle shuffle for Phil
With no back-up goalie to bring in, and the usually willing defenseman Harrison Lillis injured, the second leg was reduced to a farce as Wildcats back up Tyler Perre iced in Mo’s colours to make sure the game went ahead.
What was most disappointing was that the game was the final outing in Mo’s colours for excellent servant Ondrej Zosiak who is reported to be returning to Slovakia in the summer, and also the final game under long time owners Andy and Jackie Mason, who have been tireless in keeping the Mo’s going for years. All three deserve huge credit for their services to the Dynamos and deserved their ovation from those who went to the game.
On the ice, the second leg went largely as predicted with the Cats skating off with a 13-4 win on the night, which will probably be turned into a 5-0 forfeit by the middle of the week. Hat tricks from Toms Rutkis and Chris Jones the highlight for the visitors.
Happier times ahead for both teams beckon, with Mo’s Coach and fans already looking towards a fresh start in September. Another person perhaps looking ahead to the new season is linesman Phil O’Neill who wins this week’s bruise of the week and may have a broken hand after an incident during the game. Get well soon Phil.
Thunder clouds cleared (Lucy McGill)
Phantoms end emotional season for Thunder
After bagging both the autumn and NIHL Cups this season already, the Phantoms entered this match up as comfortable favourites against a Thunder side that have played with great heart all season.
Turbulent times in Milton Keynes suggest that the next time the Phantoms visit Milton Keynes it will be against their traditional rivals the Lightning, but the Thunder have at least given Peterborough a few good games this season.
The first leg in MK saw the attendance boosted by a few Lightning fans checking out the standard of the league their team will play in next season, like party organisers scouting a suitable boozer for a Christmas party. Well not really, because both teams play in the same rink, but you get the jist. Basically they need to know if the entertainment is more Bucks Fizz than Bucks Jizz, that the offering is Linkin rather than Stinkin Park.
Coach Lewis Clifford and his team did their best to be more Snoop than poop, but his merry band went down 7-3 on the night. Tom Norton, James White, Will Wheldon, Taylor Romeo, Martins Susters, Ales Padelek and Jarvis Hunt all scored for the Phantoms with Logan Prince, Trevor LeBlanc and Joe Edwards replying for the Thunder.
The second leg was a thumping however with the Phantoms winning 12-1 on home ice. Peterborough scorers were Petr Stepanek with four goals, Padelek with a hat trick, James Ferrara with a brace and a lone effort from Glenn Billing. For the Thunder it was Jamie Line with the consolation.
There was a celebrity guest in attendance as Warwick Davis turned up to soak in the Play-Off atmosphere and presented man of the match awards. Hopefully he wasn’t one of many who got a parking ticket on the road outside the rink as the local council boosted their coffers at the expense of hockey fans.
The Thunder now get to put on their swimming shorts for a well-earned rest by Willen Lake in the summer sunshine. Their season will be remembered for the horrific injury sustained by forward Ross Bowers, but also the heart and determination shown by their playing squad and loyal small core of fans and volunteers.
RedHawks depart (Fusional)
Cornish era ends in Bison land
In another match up heavily weighted towards the higher seeded team, the unpredictable 6th seeded Streatham team lined up against the fancied Basingstoke Bison.
An ill-tempered first leg ended 5-2 in the Bison’s favour thanks to a brace each from Alex Sampford and Danny Ingoldsby plus a lone goal from Jay King. Streatham’s goals both came from Alex Roberts.
The game sparked into life at the end of the second period as a mass brawl erupted involving players from both sides. As a result, Bison pair Ashley Tait and Jay King both had an early shower, as did RedHawk Adam Wood.
The feistiness bode well for an exciting 2nd leg but the three goal cushion for the favourites perhaps did not. Another 5-2 victory in Hampshire made it 10-4 on aggregate with Richard Bordowski scoring two and Michal Klejna, George Norcliffe and Ingoldsby getting one each. Rupe Quiney and Tom Soar replied for the South Londoners.
Butterfield and Streatham fan Jason Perrott
Another South London hero, former Crystal Palace footballer Danny Butterfield was in with the Streatham fans, to the delight of the many Eagles fans who follow the club.
The RedHawks now head into a summer without Jeremy Cornish at the helm and a new challenge in the new-look NIHL 1 South. It is likely that had the league changes not taken place two summers ago, Streatham may well have a long awaited trophy in their (not built) cabinet by now. Timing is of course everything and the big Canadian can be proud that while he didn’t capture any silverware, he did manage to get his side competing against the big boys every week, on a much smaller budget and at a rink with a junior system still recovering from the turmoil of rink issues in the past.
For Ashley Tait and the Bison, tougher tests await, but the former GB international and his squad will be quietly confident they can go all the way to Coventry with the Phantoms now the only barrier stood in their way.
Bees edge through
Bees bounce back to stop Raiders rampage
If the bookies got involved in the Britton Conference, this fixture would have been the toughest to call. Both teams could rightly fancy their chances ahead of face-off with the Bees under slightly more pressure given how their season had panned out so far.
The first leg at the Sapphire was everything a Play-Off 1st leg should be. Tense, low scoring and dramatic. The 1-1 score line underlined why the eventual winners had been hard to predict with Bees goalie Dean Skinns and his opposite number Michael Gray both in sparkling form between the pipes.
The only two players to light the lamp across the whole sixty minutes were Shaun Thompson and Aaron Connolly setting up a highly anticipated second leg at the Hive 24 hours later.
Backed by a noisy travelling support from Essex, the Raiders rallied late on but went down 5-2 on the night and had their season ended prematurely.
Goals for the Bees came from Roman Malinik, Tyler VanKleef, Scott Spearing and Stuart Mo. Young Raiders forward Jake Sylvester ended a fantastic season for himself with another goal to his tally, and Juraj Huska fired home the other.
Raiders Coach Sean Easton now has a summer to prepare for his team’s campaign in the new look second tier next season. The Raiders have a new rink, a resurgent junior programme and the ambition to step it up a level. The Bees now face a tough test against Swindon over two legs in what should be a great match up too close to call.
There will be no ‘Stars of the week’ feature this week however we would like to raise a virtual glass to all the players, officials, volunteers, sponsors and owners of the Milton Keynes Thunder, Streatham IHC, Everyone Active Raiders and Invicta Dynamos for keeping hockey burning bright. Not only in your own local areas and for yourselves, but for the greater good of the game. This has not been an easy couple of years, but you managed it, along with Cardiff Fire in the first year.
So sit back and enjoy the summer. For the Bees, Phantoms, Bison and Wildcats the show goes on. All four have a semi on and five days to wait for the action to start. Let’s hope the anticipation leads to a happy ending of high quality, pumping hockey action.
Results on aggregate
Swindon Wildcats 24 Invicta Dynamos 5
Basingstoke Bison 10 Streatham IHC 2
Raiders 2 Bracknell Bees 6
Peterborough Phantoms 19 MK Thunder 4
Contact the author: carrsy2@gmail.com
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