EPL Week 25 Round-up

SWINDON, UK –

Last weekend’s games and Bracknell Bee Jaroslav Cesky (CZE)(F) climbed into treble digits at the top of the Top Ten Points Scorers chart, otherwise there was little change, while in the British Points Top Ten Scimitars’ forward Matt Haywood(GBR) replaced Raiders’ captain Danny Marshall (GBR)(F). Manchester ’s Jaakko Hagelberg (FIN)(F) dropped out of the Top Ten Penalty Receivers chart while Joe Miller (GBR)(F) of the Phantoms and Lightning’s Grant Mc Pherson (GBR)(F) crept back in. Jez Lundin GBR)(D) of the Flames re-entered the British Top Ten Penalty chart at the expense of Ryan Aldridge (GBR)(F), player-coach with the Wildcats. In the Top Ten Goal Scorers chart Cesky is back on top there too and Joe Miller is back in to replace Bees forward Michal Pinc (CZE), while in the British Goal Scorers chart only the Raiders and Jets are not represented in the Top Ten. But the Jets make up for their omission in the Assists chart by sending a second and third player into the Top Ten in the form of Joe Greener(GBR)(F) and Peter Poljacek (SVK)(F) to join Blaz Emersic (SVK)(F). In the British Top Ten Assists chart Phoenix’s Tony Hand still rules an unchanged lineup. In team bench penalties the Wildcats are no longer the most consistently unpunished with the Scimitars taking over by a mere two minutes, although the difference is recorded on the original Wildcats’ gamesheet but not in the official league figures! The Wildcats do still lead, however, as the team having played the most games to go beyond regular time with a whopping eleven, three more than second place Sheffield and more than the lowest three teams put together. And so, with Jaroslav Cesky (CZE)(F) being the first player to hit the hundred points mark with his two points against the Phantoms last weekend, Bees boss Claude Dumas expressed his fear that Cesky and other top Czech import Michal Pinc will leave the Bees for a richer club at the end of the season, although Cesky has already stated he is happy playing for Bracknell. Last Saturday Basingstoke Bison may have made it eleven straight home wins, the best in the league, but then they had to face the Lightning on Wednesday. Yeah, so what? They made it twelve on the trot. Lightning were missing Andre Smulter and Ross Green but took the lead after three minutes, and were two-one up at the first break. At full time it was two apiece but then the Bison clinched it on penalties. Despite losing to the Bison, MK’s earlier defeat by the Flames last weekend ended a fourteen-game winning run, the best in the league so far this season. Mid-week and the EPL Cup second semi-final second leg saw the Flames visit the Jets with a 4-2 lead. You might think that a tiny bit too much to overcome even with Slough being on home ice and all, but the Jets bagged five to Guildford’s three, forcing the game into overtime and eventually won the penalty shoot-out to settle the aggregate tie and send the Flames to the final against Milton Keynes.

Saturday’s games and what a thrashing the Wildcats gave the Bees led by another Aaron Nell hat-trick. Bearing in mind the Bees had previously drubbed the Wildcats 10-2 in what was their biggest defeat of the season and the fact that the Wildcats have a less than impressive record against the struggling Bees team, the result was perhaps better than many expected, but more importantly it brings the Bees two points closer in the fight for the final play-off place.
Of the rest, although Manchester won easily at Romford, they are simply too far out of touch with the top to be a threat any more. Just to be silly for a moment to illustrate the point, if the Phoenix won all their remaining games, and the Lightning didn’t win a bean, they’d still not catch them. The Bison ended their magnificent winning home run of twelve games, which is better by far than the Lightning and Phoenix or in fact anyone, by crashing to the Jets. Again, it is now really a case of being out of touch. The Flames, meanwhile, who technically are still in contention for the top spot, did themselves no favours by losing quite convincingly to their hosts at Peterborough despite having won nine of their last eleven away games. That just leaves the Scimitars who were at home to the Lightning who, er, yes won again for the fifth of the six of this pair’s match ups this season.
So is it really now just a two-horse race with only four points separating the Jets and Lightning? Sunday night might make things clearer with the Jets at home to the Wildcats and the Lightning at home to the Flames. Well, Sunday came and the Jets must have spluttered a bit when the Wildcats took the lead, then retook the lead after the Jets’ equaliser. But in the end after what looked like a decent goal disallowed plus a tragic home goal, the Jets took the points. As did the Lightning winning by a goal at home to the Flames, thereby ensuring the gap at the top remains at four points.
Elsewhere Manchester, despite going a goal down, comfortably took the points against the Phantoms, including two short-handed goals in as many minutes, while the Bison took the points at Bracknell with a little help from four goals from Ondrej Lauko.  But for the Raiders it must seem like it is raining points in Romford with another ten goals past them, this time by the Scimitars making it twenty against for the weekend after losing 10-2 at home to the Phoenix on Saturday, and making their average nearly seven goals against per game.
Other news in the league was the somewhat otiose report that Jesse Hammill, great player that he was and former Raiders player-coach who resigned in January, has been voted toughest player ever in Peterborough history. Hmmm.
Comment on this article. Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com