SWINDON, UK – Last week a glance at the Top Tens Chart changes shows Bison’s Chris Wiggins back at the top of all four penalty charts, so that’s EPL, Brits, totals and on game average.
There were a couple of other changes with Steeldogs’ Janis Ozolins knocking Jets’ Adam Calder off the top of the Top Ten EPL Goals Scorers Chart, while Phantoms’ Chris Allen becomes the top D-man by replacing Andre Payette. In the British Players Top Ten Charts the only alteration is Lightning’s Adam Carr replaces Nicky Watt as the top goal scorer.
A pretty quiet week as far as news went, but a couple of coach’s comments are worth looking at. First, and hardly surprising, then, Phantoms coach Chris Allen, after the drubbing by the Jets said, ‘We played the way Slough wanted us to play, and we got blown away out there – it was embarrassing.’ Well, I don’t suppose that was the first result a team was glad to see the back of, or will be the last, but Allen summed up his predicament by adding, ‘After what happened against the Jets for me the most important thing is that I get a 60-minute effort from my players in both games this weekend.’
Which means, of course, all eyes will be pointed towards Peterborough for the next two games at least. But, while the debate still rumbles on about whether or not the Phantoms should employ temporary cover while they wait for the arrival of Ondrej Lauko, it appears one of the problems is the availability of suitable players.
A player who did become available was the injured Ladislav Harabin who returned to the Phoenix side wearing a face cage following his injury and hospitalisation for a stick to the face. Jaroslav Spelda, however, remains sidelined.
Someone else with replacement problems is Coach Cox at the Bees, or perhaps not. Following the release of Sam Waller to the Jets Cox drafted in Lewis Turner of whom he said, ‘For us to bring someone in they will have to be better than Lewis. He is doing a good job.’ Cox’s problems were somewhat eased with the news that Michael Bowman was expected to return following several week’s absence with a knee injury.
The Tigers managed to find a player to help them out too in the shape of 17-year-old forward Ross Venus, who signed a 2-way deal with his club the EIHL Coventry Blaze. The Tigers, who will of course be trying to build on their recent success inspired coach Tom Watkins to point out when asked about how he viewed his side’s three penalty shoot-put wins said, ‘I’m not fussy how we win…any coach would take the two points right now.’ Too true. I mean, it isn’t as though you get a two-point-one for technical merit or artistic impression, is it?
Another ‘Ross’ in the limelight is Ross Green at the Lightning who has been selected for the GB Under 20 squad to play in the IIHF World Championships in Germany next month, a terrific achievement for any player, and we wish him success.
So on to Saturday which saw an early game in Sheffield as the visiting Phoenix took a quick lead and added to it with the period ending with some slapping and shoving between Payette and James Archer topped off with a goal by the Steeldogs. The Phoenix were even stronger from the second period on but the Steeldogs were no pushover and battled on, or off in the case of Lee Haywood who left the ice bleeding. A goal six minutes from time on the power play certainly still gave the visitors a shot at a point, but it was not to be.
Later the Bison were at home to the Phantoms, which was a game with some points to prove, or at least test. Could the home side build on their recent successes over the Phoenix and Wildcats with Harabin back, or were their problems deeper? Facing them was a Phantoms’ side desperate to erase the crushing defeat by their Jets last Sunday.
The Bison started well enough with three unanswered goals under their belts in the first period, although the Phantoms had their chances. Then, bish-bosh, two minutes into the second period and Maris Ziedins had the Phantoms back in it with a short, sharp wake-up call. While not a game that would be written about by the purists, I don’t suppose the Peterborough side gave a fig when Glowa found an equaliser two minutes from time and made sure they picked up a point for the overtime loss. But, with a total of eighty-eight shots on goal, sixty-one of them on the Phantoms’ net, chances missed or no, it was a game in which Steve Wall at least had not a moment to sit back and put his feet up with the newspaper.
Also probably not giving a great deal of thought to technical merit were the Wildcats hosting the in-form Jets where the game exploded in the first minute with an unassisted goal from the visitors thanks to Ryan Watt, and continued in an fairly intense manner for the remainder of the period. And that was about it because the Jets’ machine, already with a 2-goal advantage, ground out a few more to which the Wildcats really didn’t have much of an antidote.
In a game of three halves the Lightning, hoping for a better weekend than seven day’s ago, managed to secure the only goal of the first period. The second, however, went to the Flames with three goals in five minutes including a superb breakaway effort from Ben Campbell for his second. The third, which saw things equal for less than a minute, swung back to the Lightning, back as the Flames equalised, and then finally to the home side as Juraj Gracik snatched them the lead again and Leigh Jamieson finished off with an empty net goal.
But, if you wanted a match with as much to prove and fight for as anyone, then it had to be the Bees facing the Tigers in Bracknell. Before the first period had drawn to a close there were five goals with a brace for Thomas Soar and new-boy Ross Venus with a pair of points. Goals came thick and fast and at when Soar claimed his hat-trick and made it five-all there was still only three minutes of the final period gone and looking likely there would be more. But somehow the goal tap was turned off and it went into the shoot-out where Juraj Senko ended it in the Tigers’ favour.
The result of all this meant the Jets edged away at the top but incredibly there are only seven points separating the rest of the table. So what will Sunday bring? Well no game for the Phoenix so they won’t be going much further this weekend and a difficult return game for the Lightning facing the Flames on home ice. But what about the Tigers at home the Steeldogs, and Phantoms at home to the Bees? Oh, dear, so many possibilities.
As it turned out the Flames got revenge on the Lightning in their double-header but it took overtime to do it and not without its cost to both sides with over two hours of penalty minutes and three ejections. Which all goes to prove entering an affray as a third participant or leaving the bench to join a particularly heated discussion about the Greek economy is going to have a price, and it is probably better to ring my cousin Vinney in New Jersey.
In Peterborough where the Phantoms faced the Bees they found themselves with a respectable lead around the half-way mark when Richard Bentham leapt in the way of a shot and ended up being carried off with a damaged knee. Although the home side managed another goal just as the second period drew to a close, the third was all Bees with five unanswered goals and Lukas Smital completing his hat-trick leaving you wondering if the depleted home side can carry the pace for an hour.
So with a weekend double defeat, albeit with a fine fight back for a point against the Bison, the concerns of playing their waiting game are going to continue with fears that come Lauko’s appearance the gap for recovery may just be too difficult to breach.
Two sides that didn’t seem to have the stamina problem were the Steeldogs who visited Telford. In a shock opening, which goes to show you what the Tigers can do these days, the home side raced to a 3-goal lead after only ten minutes. Even on the half-hour they were still comfortably in control although Janis Ozolins was making his presence known and went on to complete a hat-trick as the Steeldogs fought back for the win.
Now, who would have put a few ‘bob’ on the Wildcats having been shown the door only twenty-four hours previously in their own domain by the Jets, to find in the second leg of a double-header not only did they halt the home side’s winning streak, but did so in a very convincing manner. With an unanswered goal in each period Tom Murdy gained his third shut-out to lead that particular chart. But, who’da thought it? It was enough to make my old Grand-Pappy quote his favourite sports commentator Murray Walker who said: ‘That just goes to show how important the car is to F1 racing.’ An analogy I am still working on.
So another mixed bag and while none of it unseated the Jets from the top of the table means the EPL firmly believes in equal opportunities as there are now three teams on seventeen points, two on sixteen and two on thirteen. In other words seven teams with just four points between them with about a quarter of the season behind us.
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Contact Bill.Collins@prohockeynews.com
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