SWINDON, UK – Week 6 began with more news of the injury to Phoenix’s netminder Steve Fone. It will be remembered he took a puck full on to his mask from a Jaroslav Cesky slapshot which somehow breached his mask causing an injury to his face. The press statement from Fone himself revealed he sustained a 3cm cut above his eyes which required eight stitches but luckily caused no bone damage and has him sidelined for at least one weekend.
But that wasn’t the only Phoenix injury and comes on top of Ben Wood’s colliding with the boards the previous week. In fact, the Lightning have their share with Monir Kalgoum still out and now Lewis Christie and Ross Green. In fact, in fact, it looks like most teams have personnel missing from action to some degree.
After last weekend’s displays Coach Russell at the Jets was more upbeat having recently been bemoaning the Jets’ lack of focus, silly personal errors and inability to relax. ‘I have been asking for focus, team defence to cut individual errors and to work our opponents’ he said. ‘In my view every player delivered those all weekend.’ So clearly my advice to hand out cans of lager on the line changes has had some beneficial effect. Surprisingly, my sports-mad, uncle ‘Galloping’ Gordon nodded approvingly when he edited these notes, as he insists, although I’d anticipated he might abhor me advocating the use of drugs in sport. Needful to be wary in his company I questioned his apparent agreement to which he replied quite seriously, ‘Not all chemicals are bad, son. Without hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient of beer.’
Last weekend’s Tigers-Steeldogs clash produced eleven goals, the highest combined total so far this season, and although the Tigers came away victors Coach Watkins had nothing but praise for both his netminders Declan Ryan and Martin Clarkson. ‘Both our goaltenders are performing outstandingly well,’ he enthused, ‘it is just unfortunate they are facing such a lot of rubber.’ Watkins makes a valid point because although Clarkson is a top ten netminder, and Ryan not far behind, he faces shots more frequently than any other goalie in the chart.
Also due praise, which he deservedly got was young Connor Stokes one of three Phantoms so-called ‘prospect players’. Coach Cruickshank gave the trio a shift in the final period against a beleaguered Wildcats and Stokes dutifully answered the call to arms with a debut goal. Not only that, but going beyond the call of duty he slotted in a second in the final minute. Look for him in the more expensive seats shortly, I would think.
Cruickshank must be making an impression because mid-week the Elite League Sheffield Steelers revealed they had been after two EPL players, one being Phantoms’ D-man Steve Duncombe, who perhaps surprisingly turned them down. Steelers’ bench coach Neil Abel said, ‘Steve is a decent lad and didn’t want to leave his current club, and that’s fair enough for us.’ While this may say something about loyalty over career, and let’s be honest no one is going to blame a player for wanting to enhance their prospects, it must also say something squidgy about Cruickshank who must himself be feeling warm and cuddly about netminder Stephen Wall for achieving a double shut-out for the first time in Phantom’s 29-year history with 1-0 against Steeldogs and 8-0 against the Wildcats.
So who was target number two for the Steelers? It was not too much of a surprise to learn it was Steeldogs’ forward Tom Squires who had signed although a previous request for the player on ‘loan’ was turned down. Coach Darlow explained that the club had no intention of stepping in the way of any player’s career but at the time of the request he was plagued by injuries and couldn’t afford to lose a player who sits in both the British Top Ten Points and Top Ten Goal Scoring Charts. Squires will undoubtedly be missed especially as Darlow said the move was at short notice and the Steeldogs hadn’t yet had time to find a replacement.
Surprisingly, Bees’ captain Terry Miles revealed the team were not following Coach Cox’s game plans and in fact had not played a single match according to his wishes. Most revealingly he said, ‘We know what we have got to do and we are just not doing it. Perhaps the 3 hat-tricks by Phoenix against the Bees last weekend was a manifestation of this problem. Miles did say he thought the team better and more talented than last season, that it worked hard and took their hockey seriously and had no problem with morale which, he claimed was surprisingly good. These comments are almost a repeat of last season’s when the Bees were in a similar position and have to be believed because you don’t get players like Cesky saying he would sooner stay with the Bees even if it meant less money.
The Wildcats were hit with the news top scoring import Jozef Kohut had quit to return to his native Czech Republic for ‘family reasons’ which, if rumours are to be believed, involve a financial issue. However, tails perked a little the day after when Jozef Liska, also a Wildcats’ top scorer, returned from the injured list.
Manchester jumped two places in the team penalty chart but what is noticeable is the disparity between the top of the table with the Bees on 262 pim and the bottom with the Flames and Phantom still in double figures. In bench penalties the top two, Bees and Phoenix, continue to race ahead while several teams notably the Flames have still to score.
In the Top Ten charts no real change in the Penalty Receivers either over all or British only players with Lightning’s Grant McPhearson ruling both roosts. But let’s don’t misunderstand the situation because apparently some media commentator has been taking pot-shots at McPhearson and Coach Poole has rushed to his defence. ‘Grant is a stand-up guy with tons of character,’ he claimed.’ He is 140 lbs dripping wet, and we are proud t have him on our team.’ Poole’s accompanying gripe was the pundit in question repeatedly referred to the Lightning by the misnomer ‘Kings’.
There was not much change either in the Top Ten Points Scorers’ chart with the Bees, Phoenix, Flames and Jets all occupying the places although Phoenix’s Tony Hand and David Longstaff of the Flames fly the flag for Britain. These two gentlemen head the British players’ chart which although more of a mixed bag, is weighted in favour of the Flames.
The Top Ten Goal Scorers’ chart is also a chequered affair with Manchester’s Curtis Huppe leading and Swindon’s Jozef Kohut now about to disappear with his return home. Similarly, Tom Squires will now slide from the British players’ goal scoring chart leaving that too dominated by the Flames led by Longstaff.
Both Assists charts are headed by Hand, as always, and while the Phoenix dominate the EPL chart, it is the Flames who again are strongest in the British Player’s Top Ten Chart.
As far as D-men-only goes the Bison are showing the strongest over all while the British chart is more varied and although the Flames are again best represented, James Morgan of the Phantoms is there Lloyd Gibson of the Steeldogs and Tom Watkins of the Tigers.
Saturday evening saw the Bees go to Swindon and when the hosts put one in the net after a few seconds Coach Cox must have rolled his eyes solemnly skyward and sensed his game plan had just dived out the window again. But, assuming his instructions hadn’t included an early rogue goal, then things rapidly got back on the rails with a reply minutes later and then three hard fought periods the last of which probably belonged to the Bees even though they went down in a record equalling twelve goal match 7-5.
The match of the evening must have been the Flames visit to Basingstoke in what turned out to be an EPL season’s record thirteen goal bonanza. The Bison were first on the board and were leading at the break which must have made Coach Paul DIXON rue his comments last week about no more shaky starts and having to come from behind. But then, as seems to be the case for the Flames, everything clicked into place and sweeping aside Andrej Lauko’s hat-trick eventually seven different scorers added their names to the goal list including a pair from Nathan Rempel and Matt Towe in just fourteen seconds giving the Flames an unbeaten ten-game run.
The Jets hosted Peterborough for the first encounter since their farcical ‘draw’ in week 2. After a pretty close first period with a goal apiece the Jets actually scored the game-winning goal on the half hour even though things remained fairly evenly balanced until Billy Phillips with his first goal of the season put it out of reach. Shots on goal were a combined hefty 90 with the lion’s share of 54 in favour of the Jets.
In Milton Keynes first blood went to the Lightning after three minutes and the Tigers’ reply seven minutes later was disallowed and the Lightning went two up after quarter of an hour. However, on the half-hour the Tigers were back in business thanks to Chris Allen until ten minutes from time when the Lightning made it 3-1. In the last couple of minutes Watkins and Wales dropped the gloves and after the blood break and a nice cup of tea the Lightning sneaked in another on an empty net with a second to spare. Netminder Martin Clarkson did well in the circumstances facing almost double the shots on Alex Mettam.
Steve Fone, not minding anything this evening other than a sore head, meant back-up Adam Summerfield took to the ice for the Phoenix, while the Steeldogs were minus Tom Squires, of course. The Phoenix scored first and ended period 2-1 up although a Edgar Bebris goal for the Steeldogs meant they were no pushover. And then, Andrew Hirst pulled them level, something which must have caused coach Hand some dismay especially as although the Phoenix pulled ahead again the clincher really didn’t come until the final period despite most of the possession. Hand said, ‘We were a bit wasteful around the net. We had a lot of chances but a lot of our shots didn’t find the target and when they did their goalie was in great form.’ On the other hand, Steeldogs’ coach Matt Darlow must be feeling fairly satisfied with his team’s performance.
Sunday, and what can you say? With the Jets obviously more focussed and the Flames still not having exterminated the iffy starts, could it be said the Jets would be up to the task of beating the Guildford side? Um, maybe. At home. Nah! So when it turned out they were three-one up at the end of the second period, it was looking more like a ‘maybe’ too. Then at fifty-two minutes the unthinkable happened with another goal and eight minutes later the magnificent ten-game winning run was over 4-2.
The Wildcats went into Sunday’s game at Sheffield knowing if they won in regular time they would end up on equal points to either the Lightning or Phantoms immediately above them, so in effect a move up the ladder. So, when things were equal minutes from end it was looking like a one-point game. But then two quick goals included one short-handed game them a four point weekend.
The Bees hosted the Bison and held them to one-all at the end of first and only 3-4 to the Bison at 45 mins, so quite within the Bees grasp although they finally ran out 3-5. I would think Coach Cox could take some comfort from the weekend’s performances as neither game had the disparity of the previous weekend, and the Bees appeared to be singing from the same sheet at last.
The Phantoms took on the Lightning but with last week’s hero Connor Stokes. Although they scored after two minutes, the reply came a minute later. Phantoms went up early in the second and again the reply was minutes later but they ended the second a goal up and sealed it at 54 minutes outshooting the Lightning in the final period 17-7.
The Phoenix were three goals up by the end of the first period and went on to a comfortable 8-2 win over the Steeldogs. Coach Hand said, ‘The great thing is our goals are coming from right through the team and that’s what you want as a coach.’
The Flames loss meant the Phoenix have pulled away at the top of the chart while lower down the Jets closed on the Bison and the Wildcats closed on the Lightning. But we don’t have to wait until next Saturday for further changes, do we, because there are three midweek games. Can’t wait!
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Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com
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