EPL Roundup – Who will blink first Flames or Phoenix?

SWINDON , UK –  With the dust having settled from the first weekend and the Flames and Phoenix being the main points beneficiaries with four each, it really is too early and futile to draw any conclusions. But we will anyway because that’s one of the reasons we follow the sport. So without wishing to take anything away from those two teams because after all a win is a win is a point, er, points, as it transpired the Phoenix’s opposition of the Bison and Jets was, on the face of it, more of a challenge and therefore a more impressive pair of results so it will the Manchester side who win the league, marry the princess and live happily ever after..
 
Or will it? The Flames’ first win was over the Bees who had only four days before also beaten the Bison, Manchester’s first victims, and it should not be forgotten the Flames were actually three goals down against second opponent, the Steeldogs, in the first eleven minutes so to fight back and win shows a certain resolve and determination.     
 
Coach Dixon of the Flames said of this opening double: ‘I think we have a lot of guys just getting settled in so there’s a lot of scope for improvement as we move deeper into the season.’ A LOT of scope for improvement? Hmmm. If that’s how he sees it, and why not he is afterall the boss, then the Flames are far from being the bridesmaid.  
 
Coach Cox at the Bees said of his team’s weekend defeats, ‘We are a young team and still learning. Nobody said it was going to be easy, but we’ve got to get ourselves up and it will all come together.’ Excellent stuff, but there’s good news and bad news. The good news is Matt Darlow, coach with another young team, the Sheffield Steeldogs, said, ‘For me Cesky is the best import in the league without a doubt. You sometimes wonder why guys like that are not playing at a higher level.’ You have to remember the Czech was the second highest points and goal scorer in the league last season and fellow Bees’ forward Michal Pinc was close behind, although he did pip him at the post by one on assists. What more good news do you want?
 
And the bad news? Bees’ top scoring British forward Nicky Watt was thrown out of the Wildcats game for ‘accidental high sticks’ because it produced a blood injury. Regardless of any blood, this was an appalling decision because Watt’s stick was barely above waist height and Melichar, with whom he collided, was leaning forward in decline when the contact occurred.   But, it gets worse because as Cox pointed out the appeals procedure is such that it just isn’t worth the expense and trouble. ‘It’s the worst rule ever,’ he complained, and rightly so because had this been cricket, for example, and a batsman struck a close-in fielder and drew blood, or football where a ball in the face caused a bloody nose, the instigator would not be treated like some frenzied assailant the way ice hockey treats its guiltless. Interestingly Bees owner Katie Eleftheriou posed the teasing possibility she could ‘make a number of comments about refereeing’ but tantalisingly left it at one: ‘consistency.’
 
It’s not even as though Cox is bleating about some rare incident that by bad luck merely acted to the detriment of his team because you only have to go back to the previous night, also involving the Wildcats only this time against the Steeldogs, to find their D-man Ashley Stanton was another victim of this purposeless regulation. And the week before that it was Bison’s Tony Redmond, and there’s probably more.
 
The Bees, who also lost Richard Facey a few weeks back before firing a shot in anger because he said he couldn’t meet his travelling costs, rejoined ENL Wightlink.
 
Peterborough didn’t play in the league in the opening week but had a tremendous two-game aggregate victory over last year’s table toppers Milton Keynes. Bison’s Coach Moria, for one, pondering this weekend’s clash with the Phantoms recognised them and new coach Curtis Cruickshank as a force to be reckoned and said, ‘Peterborough are a strong team. They did not have a good season last year…but they have recruited well with key players who will do well this year.’
 
And didn’t they do well? On Saturday they travelled to Basingstoke who took just over a period to go one up but the Phantoms equalised early in the third. Another goal apiece and then Jeff Glowa put Phantoms ahead ten minutes from time and this time it was Ollie Bronniman who equalised for the Bison two minutes later. So it was into overtime we go, and then the shoot out and the Bison had it 4-3, but full credit to the Phantoms.
 
However, we mustn’t forget Friday’s hastily rearranged game between the Wildcats and Flames due to local industrial action by council workers. Steve Nell, GM with the Swindon side, said if the strike continued he didn’t see how the team could survive beyond October. ‘Every week the strike goes on is less income, and we still have to pay the running costs,’ he complained. ‘It’s a disaster. It’s not just the Wildcats but all levels of hockey.’ In the game, which turned out to be quite close despite the scoreline, the Wildcats came back from 3-1 down to equalise in the third period, but the final ten minutes sealed it for the Flames 6-3.
 
Back with Saturday’s games saw the Jets at home to the Tigers where Scott McKenzie gave the Telford team a shock goal in the opening seconds and then it took nearly half an hour for the Jets to equalise. Darius Pliskauskas added his second half way through the third but by then it was all over with the Jets outshooting the Tigers 52-22 and winning 5-1.
 
The Bees went to Sheffield and went down by two before equalising. Goals were traded in the second period which ended 4-4 and then it all kicked off with seven penalties dished out to both sides after a slash on Cesky who went on to get goal number five minutes from the end. But the Steeldogs snapped back with the equaliser and the game went into overtime without result and the Steeldogs grabbed the win in sudden death penalties.
 
It was bad from the get-go for the Lightning when the visiting Phoenix went ahead in the forth minute and added a second minutes later and eventually ending the period 3-0. On the half-hour the Lightning pulled one back, but then minutes later it was 4-1. Lukas Zatopek picked up a 2+10 for checking from behind on top of Poole’s two for tripping so Manchester got a 5 on 3 and the Lightning were further behind before back to full strength. Strangely the shots on goal were equal on 20 but after a defensive bungle in the third Huppe bagged his second and minutes later Andre Smulter scored a second, then third for the Lightning. So what happened to the Lightning? Was the loss against Peterborough in the pre-season ‘Ashes’ games a taste of things to come? On the other hand, they also lost their first game at home to the Phoenix last season and still managed to end up top then, and the following night wreaked revenge for the drubbing on the Bees 7-2 although Adam Marashi did manage to save a penalty shot called for covering the puck on the goal line and Cesky opened the scoring for the Bracknell side.
 
Which brings us on to Sunday and a full league programme with all ten teams called to arms.
 
The oddest game of the evening had to be the Phantoms against the Jets which was close enough up until the end of the second period when the scores were two-all. There was then a delay because a patch of iffy ice and eventually as the rules allow the score to stand after the mid-way point the game was abandoned a point apiece. There then followed a penalty shoot out for the extra point, which the home side won with Stephen Wall saving all three Jets penalty shots.
 
The Phoenix charged on to beat the Bison for the second time in eight days being two up by the first break including a short-handed goal by Tony Hand when they were two men short, so their second four point week end. Meanwhile the Flames destroyed the Wildcats for the second time in two days with seven different scorers even though a Flames’ early lead was quickly equalised, so another four point weekend for them also. It is now a matter of seeing who blinks first, Phoenix or Flames, and looking at the fixtures for next week, you would probably put your money on the Flames who have the more difficult passage.
 
And what a nerve racking two days for the Steeldogs. If one game over regulation time isn’t enough for a week-end they went and did it again the following evening by taking the Tigers into overtime before joining the big boys for a four-point weekend. Notable highs were Tigers’ Marek Hornak leaping in front of a slapshot with his face but retuning to the ice to score and netminder Martin Clarkson saving a penalty, and Steeldogs’ Tom Squires’s winning goal in overtime also completing his hat-trick.
 
So with the weekend over and with just the four games played for most it is still a bit too soon to take the stats very seriously, but one interesting figure that has arisen this weekend is that it has taken half the numbers of games this season to produce the same number of overtime games as last.
 
So onto week 3. Can’t wait!
 
 
 
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Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com