LONDON, UK – With the festive season well and truly underway, the Britton Conference had to lure away the Christmas shoppers with some top class puck whacking action, and so they did.
Streatham stun Bison (Fusional)
The elusive first win may have evaded the Cardiff Fire so far this season, but a recent improvement in performances has improved the spirit in South Wales. Head Coach Mark Cuddihy was in defiant mood in an interview with Y DDRAIG website (don’t ask us how to pronounce that).
“I’ve had people say to me are you going to stay in this league? And absolutely we are. What’s the point in going back to what we were doing? It was boring and what we’re doing now, everyone’s challenged” said Cuddihy.
Y DDRAIG also published an interview with Fire forward Josh Haslam, who revealed his nickname on the team is “Hazledazzle”. You can read it here.
For the third week running the EIHA administrators were busy as player movement continued. This week it was Peterborough Phantoms goalie Adam Long on the departure list from Bretton Way, and underrated forward Carl Thompson on the arrivals board at Bracknell international ice rink.
Thompson is of course no stranger to long time NIHL fans as a former Bracknell Hornet, and he arrives at the Bees on an interim basis thanks to an injury to his brother Shaun.
Basingstoke ice rink felt the wrath of the Bison fans as restrictions on food and drink being brought into the building on a match night were announced during the week. Complaints ranged from elderly fans being denied entry with their flasks, health conscious fans being faced with Hot Dogs for sustenance and the impatient suffering queues akin to the Coca Cola truck tour.
Swindon go down in Telford (Kat Medcroft)
Sam Zajac signed off his final column in the Swindon Advertiser with a thank you to the Wildcats fans and a big hint that he will be signing for the Whitley Warriors in the coming weeks.
Zajac cited his new job at Royal Mail as the primary reason for his departure although it is unclear whether he will be snuggled up in an office or out delivering the Northern Echo whilst avoiding aggressive whippets and horse punchers on the streets of Tyneside.
Streatham forward Alex Sampford was responsible for headline of the week in the South London Press as “Sampford chilled out with a beer” appeared on the sports pages of the newspaper.
“Afterwards the energy in the locker room was great, as it has been all year to be fair” said the 21 year old forward. “It’s a Sunday night, so most of the team headed for the post-game meal in The Earl Ferrer’s but I just enjoyed a cold beer and relaxed a little.”
Saturday action review
Cardiff Fire looked to break their duck with a home game against the London Raiders however the visitors were in no mood to hand over the points and won 6-1.
Juraj Huska was on target twice for the Raiders with Jack Cooper, Matt Turner, Alan Lack and Ollie Baldock also scoring. The Fire got a late consolation in the last minute through Tamas Elias. Elias had also dropped the gloves earlier with Cooper, as had Brandon Ayliffe and Sam Bryant who were both ejected by referee Matthew Rose.
Swindon Wildcats extended their five game winning streak to six with a convincing 7-1 win over the visiting Invicta Dynamos. Aaron Nell and Floyd Taylor top scored for the hosts with a brace each to add to efforts from Sam Bullas and Max Birbraer.
The Dynamos Webster brothers Brandon and Mason continued their glove dropping antics by taking on Sam Godfrey and Sam Bullas to warm up the Link Centre crowd further.
49 shot shut out for Colclough (Fusional)
Basingstoke Bison lost their 100% winning record in the league with a 2-0 home defeat to in-form Streatham. Goals from Alex Sampford and Adam Wood helped Streatham on their way to an impressive victory, but it was netminder Matt Colclough who stole the show with a 49 shot shut-out.
Colclough also denied the home support a Papa Johns Pizza and delayed their eagerly anticipated charity teddy bear toss until the end of the game to fully take the role as Christmas scrooge.
NIHL media outlet 482 Days attended the game despite earlier being denied entry by the Planet Ice security team for trying to smuggle in a hamper including Foie grois, sandwiches from the Yulin Dog meat festival and a whale meat platter sourced from a particularly savage Japanese fishing company.
On this occasion Pro Hockey News fully back the Basingstoke food police in denying our media friends entry.
Peterborough got revenge on the Sheffield Steeldogs in the Cup with a 6-1 win. The Phantoms goals came from Glenn Billing with two and lone efforts from Nathan Salem, Darius Pliskauskas, James Ferrara and Leigh Jamieson. Sheffield got a consolation through Cameron Brownley.
Phantoms Salem had to take a trip to hospital after taking a clearance straight in the face in a nasty looking incident. Lets all hope that he makes a speedy recovery.
Sunday action review
The game between London Raiders and Peterborough Phantoms was cancelled before face off after a large pool of red liquid appeared around the crease on the ice. Was it blood? pink diesel? weird mouthwash the dentist offers? or aliens landing in Lee Valley? Either way, the game was off, as was the charity teddy bear toss.
Bison hold off Thunder (Lucy McGill)
Basingstoke Bison bounced back in a tricky fixture in Milton Keynes with a 3-2 win over the resident Thunder. The attendance was boosted by a great offer from the Thunder to let all NHS staff in for free!
A brace from Aaron Connolly and a lone goal from Tomas Karpov sealed the points for the Bison who were missing star import Roman Malinik through injury. Gareth O’Flaherty and Ryan Handisides were on target for the Thunder who lost Rio Grinell-Parke on a match penalty for kicking.
The game was also the first in the NIHL so far this season to run with a four person system as Elite League official Tom Darnell appeared in the arm bands alongside Deana Cuglietta.
Streatham completed a memorable four point weekend with a 5-3 home win over Bracknell Bees. The Bees welcomed back Frankie Bakrlik after his six game suspension but left South London in defeat as former player Ryan Watt came back to haunt them with a brace, to add to lone goals from Michael Farn, Alex Sampford and an empty netter from another former Bee, Ryan Webb. For the Bees the impressive Bakrlik scored on his return, along with James Galazzi and former RedHawk George Norcliffe.
The four point weekend will arguably go down as the most impressive of Streatham’s recent history and is reward for all of the hard work that the team have put in so far this year.
Coned off at Lee Valley
Invicta Dynamos gave their fans something to smile about as they beat Cardiff Fire 7-2 in Kent. Ashley Jackson set off the brass band goal music three times with a hat trick, Jaroslav Cesky scored two and both Mason Webster and Callum Fowler lit the lamp once each. For the Fire it was Michael Stratford and Tamas Elias with the goals.
Invicta’s Josh Condren became the second player of the evening in the NIHL to be ejected for kicking but as yet there has been no video footage to clarify if it was more Beckham or Cantona! Either way it is certainly out of character for the Mo’s forward.
Swindon travelled up to Shropshire to take on the Telford Tigers in group D of the National Cup. The Tigers recent signing Scott Mackenzie bagged a brace in a 4-1 win for the hosts, who also had Jason Silverthorn and Joe Miller to thank for a goal each. The consolation for Swindon came from Chris Jones.
Results
Saturday 2 December 2017
Cardiff Fire 1 London Raiders 6
Swindon Wildcats 7 Invicta Dynamos 1
Basingstoke Bison 0 Streatham IHC 2
Peterborough Phantoms 6 Sheffield Steeldogs 1 (Cup)
Sunday 3 December 2017
Streatham IHC 5 Bracknell Bees 3
MK Thunder 2 Basingstoke Bison 3
Telford Tigers 4 Swindon Wildcats 1 (Cup)
Invicta Dynamos 7 Cardiff Fire 2
London Raiders v Peterborough Phantoms postponed
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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