LONDON, UK – It was another exciting weekend of hockey in the NIHL with players, fans and officials all getting their mojo’s for hockey back with drama all over the place.
69 is the magic number for Annetts
Debate raged online as to what punishment Frantisek Bakrlik should receive for his check to the head of Mason Webster during the previous weekend’s game between Invicta Dynamos and Bracknell Bees.
Opinions ranged from a two game ban to deportation but after a week of frantic refreshing of the EIHA website from observers across the league, the news finally arrived on Thursday that a six game ban was the sanction.
Dynamos Coach Kev Parrish branded the decision as ‘disgusting’ on Twitter and a fair number of NIHL fans agreed with him. Others felt six games was sufficient in a scenario straight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Six is about right, four is not enough, and ten is way out.Those spoiling for a lifetime ban or deportation were left disgruntled.
Back to more serious matters and it was all going off in Basingstoke as the Bison spent Wednesday night at Zizzi’s restaurant. The kind hearted Bison players spent the evening as waiters to help fundraise money for the Ark Cancer Centre Charity. Hats off to Dough Sheppard and all the Basingstoke boys for getting involved.
Bison boys serve up a feast
London Raiders prepared to say farewell to forward JJ McGrath who announced that he was playing his last weekend of NIHL hockey before moving to Canada. The Raiders headed into their game against Streatham off the back of a four point weekend, something that Sean Easton was pleased about.
“It’s been a culture change for myself and I keep hammering into the team a winning mentality. To perform every shift, every game is a must, not an option” he admitted to the Romford Recorder.
Streatham Captain Adam Carr gave an interview to the South London Press after the RedHawks posted a four point weekend themselves with wins over Invicta and Cardiff.
“A big part of the game is having belief and confidence in yourself, which has been building in the last few weeks” said Carr in the article HERE. “We should be excited about the challenges ahead, both in the cup and league.”
The NIHL podcast came out again from Oxfordshire Sports Online and featured interviews with Oxford City Stars coach Kenny Redmond and NIHL North correspondent Michael Black, plus of course your very own columnist droning on about the latest news in the South. Check it out HERE
Saturday action review
The biggest result of the day came at Bretton Way where MK Thunder became the latest NIHL stalwart to beat one of the ex-EPL sides. Peterborough Phantoms posted an incredible 70 shots at Tom Annetts in the Thunder goal but could only beat the star stopper once in an intriguing encounter.
Rio Grinell-Parke opened the scoring for the Thunder while former MK man Glenn Billing equalised for the Phantoms. Overtime couldn’t separate the two teams and it was down to Ross Bowers again to work his magic in the showdown to seal a famous win for Lewis Clifford’s men.
JJ preps for the final shower at the Valley
At Lee Valley the London Raiders sent JJ McGrath off to the land of Tim Hortons with a 4-2 win over Streatham. Olegs Lascenko scored twice for the Raiders with Ollie Baldock and Marek Nahlik also on target. Michael Farn scored two for the RedHawks.
The usually placid James Warman dropped the gloves with John Connolly to add to the entertainment for the fans. McGrath ended the game with a lap of honour and was said to be distraught that he will no longer be able to shower in the capital’s most temperamental shower unit each week.
Bracknell Bees hosted Telford Tigers in the NIHL Cup missing their star man but still took the Shropshire side to overtime before going down to a Rick Plant winner.
Shaun Thompson had opened the scoring for the Bees, with Jason Silverthorn getting the equaliser. It was a low shot game with neither Tigers goalie Denis Bell nor his opposite number Alex Mettam facing over thirty shots.
Swindon raced into a 3-0 first period lead and killed off the Basingstoke Bison in the evenings other cup match of group D. The Bison did get a consolation through Dan Scott, however the earlier Wildcats efforts by Chris Jones, Max Birbraer and Jordan Kelsall sealed the points.
It topped an eventful few days for Kelsall who iced with the Nottingham Panthers in their CHL match against Swiss side ZSC Lions during the week and saw some ice time late in the game.
Eagle eyed readers (the very few of you) will notice that 482 Days did not attend any fixtures as they were taking ‘a night off’. The rumour mill was that their media team had secretly bunked off to watch the NHL game in Stockholm, but this was later debunked when they were spotted at the Toby Carvery in Banbury splashing out on the ‘large’ option and allegedly filling a 2 litre bottle of Pepsi Max at the refillable drink station.
Sunday action review
Streatham bounced back with a 4-2 win over Invicta Dynamos in Kent. The RedHawks topped their cup group as a result and took the points thanks to goals from Ryan Webb, Michael Farn, Aidan Doughty and Jamie Hayes. Callum Fowler scored both goals for the Dynamos who were missing import forward Adam Rehak again.
Invicta and Streatham continue to make friends (Rick Webb)
The Invicta fans did get some joy as notable Streatham bad boy Jacob Ranson was ejected from the game on a misconduct in the third, but nowhere near as much joy as injured team mate Jordan Gregory who had been locked inside the visitors’ locker room since the period break with no signal to call for help.
Gregory had foolishly, and some would say bravely opted to visit the toilet for a deposit and Sports Therapist Tanya Romans had locked him in the room believing it was empty (or that’s what she claimed anyway).
Peterborough Phantoms capped off a rare one point weekend with a 2-1 loss in the City of Culture to Hull Pirates.
Cain Taylor and Lee Bonner got the goals for the Pirates with Will Weldon on target for the Phantoms. The Pirates disciplinary record still managed to rack up the PIMs despite the win as Jordan Fisher picked up a match penalty for fighting.
Basingstoke overcame a potentially tricky hurdle in Milton Keynes with a 6-0 win over the Thunder.
Piper at Bees v Tigers (Kev Slyfield)
Tomas Karpov and Roman Malinik stepped up to the plate with a brace each, with the Bison’s other goals coming from Dan Scott and Ivan Antonov. Goalie Dean Skinns celebrated a 14 shot shut out.
The Thunder were clearly in no mood for niceties in the third as Ross Bowers, Lewis Christie and Gareth O’Flaherty all received ten minute misconduct penalties to add to their woes.
The final game of the weekend was up in Shropshire as Bracknell suffered their second defeat to Telford in 48 hours with a 4-3 reverse.
Joe Miller, Dale White, Jason Silverthorn and Adam Taylor scored for Telford while Steve Osman, Jan Bendik and Alex Barker replied for the Bees.
Results
Saturday 11 November 2017
London Raiders 4 Streatham IHC 2
Peterborough Phantoms 1 MK Thunder 1 (Thunder win on penalty shots)
Bracknell Bees 1 Telford Tigers 2 (in OT) (Cup)
Basingstoke Bison 1 Swindon Wildcats 3 (Cup)
Sunday 12 November 2017
Telford Tigers 4 Bracknell Bees 3 (Cup)
Invicta Dynamos 2 Streatham IHC 4 (Cup)
MK Thunder 0 Basingstoke Bison 6
Hull Pirates 2 Peterborough Phantoms 1 (Cup)
*Dough Sheppard was a deliberate typo and an attempt at humour, please don’t email in.
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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