SWINDON, UK – The Top Tens Chart changes – try saying that with a mouthful of porridge – this week saw Wildcats’ new signing Aaron Nell jump straight in as the top British Points Scorer by Game Average, and while obviously early days for the new forward he will be an interesting one to watch. Greg Wood of the Steeldogs became the top British Points Scorer while Ben Morgan also of the Steeldogs heads the British Penalty Takers Chart. The top British D-man is now Paul Dixon of the Flames and all other top placings remain unchanged. One point of interest, however, is that although Alex Mettam is still the league’s top netminder for the Lightning, and the two places below him have not changed, the Flames’ Mark Lee took a big leap up the chart from number nine to fourth.
The most interesting piece of news, if not the most cause for concern since Hitler invaded Poland, was the announcement the Flames had signed controversial ‘forward’ Andrew Sharp. Coach Dixon regurgitated some of the argument the Phoenix wanted us to swallow when they signed the fellow last season and then come renewal time didn’t bother because the experiment didn’t work. As Phoenix owner Neil Morris summed it up, these days you can’t afford the outlay for an old-fashioned enforcer who is going to spend his time warming the seat in the penalty box; you need something more from your players, a view adopted by the rest of the EPL years ago.
So what can the Flames be thinking? Dixon did put a new point forward in that in his view the Flames were finding it difficult to adapt to the style of play required to be effective in a smaller rink which was different to that employed on home ice rink size. Dixon said Sharp, ‘has a way of creating a bit more space for our guys.’
More space? Can it be the Flames are prepared to forfeit Sharp in the smaller rinks, especially if he can cause the removal of an opposing player, so that the remainder of the Flames will have more ice space while he sits in the box? A huge gamble especially if he is subjected to multi-game suspensions. What then?
For the moment the ‘what then’ is probably the best route as we wait and see what happens in his first expected game which will be against the Wildcats in early December. I just bet Cesky and Watt are already taking tranqualisers in Swindon while Sharp’s nemesis, Andre Payette, is probably tremblingly honing a new fine edge on his knuckles at this very moment.
Coach Dixon, who had also expressed concern at his sides ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ performances whereby their results on the road have been less than inspiring, said, ‘You cannot win a league title by only being good on home ice.’
Spookily, in recent weeks the Wildcats have been burdened by a similar problem, only in reverse, as their games against the Lightning and Jets, and prior to that the Bees, has shown. A few incredibly slow starts hasn’t helped which on occasions has made you wonder if half the team is still on the bus when the whistle is blown. Coach Aldridge, who says his ‘team defence’ works, qualified that with ‘Now it is my job to find a way of getting us playing on both days of the weekend.’
Returnee Aaron Nell might help, having whacked in four goals in his first weekend adding, ‘If we can stay with it early on in games we are capable of beating anyone.’ Coach Moria, whose side faces the Swindon forward shortly called Nell ‘a complete player, and will be a boost to Swindon.’
However, when the Flames visited Telford in mid-week they must have left their new coach Mr Edward Hyde at home because they took the Tigers apart, partly thanks to a hat-trick by Milos Melicherik, so Dixon was in a much jollier frame of mind afterwards declaring the result was a, ‘real confidence boosting win.’ The fact the Flames moved up the league table into second place just two points behind the Jets also probably had something to do with it. A contrary opinion was expressed by Tigers’ coach Tom Watkins who declared the Tigers performance was, ‘one of our worse matches this season…too many guys didn’t show up tonight.’ Sadly things could get worse because with Senko and Radmall injured, McKinney having gone over the wall, and both Watson himself, Declan Ryan and Ross Venus, Callum Bowley & Tom Soar all off to Germany in a few weeks on international duty, the Tigers’ bench is going to be mighty draughty.
Joining the GB Under 20 squad from the EPL will also be netminder James Hadfield (Flames), D-men Ross Green (Lightning), Zach Sullivan (Jets) and Paul Swindlehurst from the Wildcats. Forwards include Liam Chong (Bison) Aaron Connolly and Andrew Melachrino from the Jets, Andy Hirst and Chris Sykes both from the Steeldogs, Luke Ferrara (Phantoms) and Josh Ward of the Phoenix.
While all these call-ups are a great achievement and opportunity it must be causing Watkins a headache of titanic proportions. ‘I’m looking for guys to make the step up and play at EPL level,’ he said. ‘They won’t be coming here to warm the bench.’ I don’t suppose they will be static long enough for that, but the search is on and Watkins said he is interested in hearing from anyone for both short-term cover and longer-term prospects.
Another coach who is feeling the power of misfortune twofold is Gareth Cox at the Bees who said his side must be ‘cursed’ for having lost five shoot-outs so far this season, pointing out that total was more than most teams faced, win or lose, in a complete campaign. He is right, of course, perhaps not that the Bees have some ju-ju at work against them although you can understand his feeling, but the numbers to which he refers because the Bees partook in two games ending in overtime and one ending on penalties last season with an eventual league total of seventeen games. So far we have seen sixteen games beat the sixty-minute limit this season, so a massive difference and at this rate likely to be around fifty games come April.
The other horn of Cox’s dilemma is, as he explained, the loss of Sam Waller is taking its toll and that despite looking for a replacement, ‘There’s just no-one about at the moment.’ Mind you, perhaps there is something in what Cox says and could it be Phantoms’ coach Chris Allen has been hiding in a locker in Peterborough sticking pins in a Bees’s doll because his manning problems took a step in the opposite direction this week with the news that injured Shaun Yardley has been issued a temporary contract following a rapid recovery from a back injury. Yardley had been ruled out for the season with this long-term problem, but said his specialist told him a couple of good training sessions now would see him, as my old Grand-Pappy explained, ‘leaping over tall buildings with a single bound, be now more powerful than a locomotive, faster than a speeding bullet, be able to walk on water amid typhoons.’ Now, where have I heard that before?
Also, Warren Tait, a name that disappeared from the Phantoms’ roster in September in favour of the EIHL Steelers was announced as a ‘guest’ player for the coming Phoenix weekend with the later rumour it was a position to be made permanent.
But we leave the Phantoms with the bizarre denial by the club that it is not leaving the EPL this season, next or any other as far as they are concerned. ‘100% committed,’ as they put it. Clearly there were plenty who were not privy to the rumour, which raises an interesting point: What is the point of starting a rumour, if few hear of it? On the other hand, it is a typical politicians’ move to soften bad news, although far be it from me to imply that in this case. So I haven’t. Er.
So all this is refreshing news for the Peterborough side, but not so heartening for the Phoenix who lost Tony Hand to a rare injury when hit on the ankle by a puck and ended up hobbling around on crutches. ‘It’s swollen like a golf ball,’ he explained.
But it isn’t the Phoenix who seem to be victims to injury problems this season, as the Lightning lost Adam Carr with a fractured hand, and the Bison Viktor Kubenko to name a couple on a list that seems longer than last year. Interestingly, that isn’t the only difference. As Coach Cox pointed out in anticipation of the Bees’ hosting the Steeldogs, when they lost on penalties in Sheffield a week ago their five goals was the most any team had inflicted on the Steeldogs on their home ice. Ironically, it is the Tigers who with a four-goal win on penalties that are next, so Sheffield is not a place to go and expect to come away with a sack full of goals.
And it was a sackful of goals the Lightning didn’t get when they visited Sheffield on Saturday. With only an Janis Ozolins goal in it at the half-way stage, it was looking like it would be a close encounter throughout, but then an eight-minute burst saw the home side slot in three goals leaving the Lightning wandering around in a daze and a game that culminated in netminder Ben Bowns gliding gracefully the length of the ice to compare dressing technique with Alex Mettam, who had just been slashed by Craig Elliot who in turn was given a stiff talking to by Leigh Jamieson, and then gliding gracefully off with a game penalty.
A win is a win, but if the Flames were more than a little lucky to get the two points in Swindon. Against the run of play they scored the first goal against a Wildcats’ side much improved over recent home performances. The second period disintegrated and was punctuated by some questionable behaviour as Sam Bullas was sticked in the face by a manoeuvre that looked anything other than accidental, and then in a moment of overkill Shane Moore was given a match penalty for reacting to a dubious Curtis Huppe ploy who amazingly walked away scot free. But Mark Lee was tremendous in the Flames goal especially when Tom Murdy was pulled and right into the dying seconds it looked like the Wildcats were still in with a chance.
One side that strangely didn’t have the chance you would expect on Saturday evening was the Jets at home to the ever-improving Bison. The visitor’s first goal came after just three minutes and although the Jets equalised minutes after, and did again before the quarter-hour mark, although it stopped the flow for the rest of the period, that was about the extent of their resistance. The remainder saw Nicky Chinn go on to claim a hat-trick and a total of fifty-four shots on the Slough net.
The Bees in Telford scored first despite the home side being the stronger of the two sides but the Tigers equalised minutes from the end of the period. It was then all pretty close until seconds into the third when Watkins gave the Tigers the lead on a 5-on-3 only to see it lost to a short-handed reply a minute later. The Bees then dominated the final stint as the Tigers began to tire with Lukas Smital getting the winner with time to spare.
With what is probably a full squad at last the Phantoms were able to set out their stall and sell their wares as they saw fit, and although the Phoenix less Tony Hand were on the receiving end the presentation wasn’t as crispy clear as you might have expected. What was pretty clear, though, was Phantoms’ Robbie Brown becoming the victim of a high-stick injury which although left him spitting teeth was only acknowledged by a two-minute penalty. However, it was the Phoenix that started the scoring in the first minute of the second and while Stephen Wall prevented any increase, the home side equalised thanks to the fortunate presentation of a loose puck to Luke Ferrara in front of the goal as the session closed. Ferrara added his second early in the third and then Fone was unlucky when a shot by Glowa from behind the net hit the back of his pad and trickled in as he moved to dislodge it from under him, so the depleted Phoenix weren’t dispatched easily.
The return leg in Manchester on Sunday tipped in favour of the home team with James Archer grabbing the lead after a couple of minutes and the Phoenix staying much more in control for two periods. Although they didn’t score again, it didn’t matter because the Phantoms, apart from a goal from the much-improving Luke Ferrara, didn’t really have an answer.
Also without an answer were the Wildcats who in Basingstoke embraced their old ways warmly and wandered around looking for team mates while the home side slapped in four goals before the quarter-hour was up. For a period they almost recovered with at least the semblance of a defence and a goal by Nicky Watt, but seconds into the third the carnage continued and the Wildcats slid further down the table. The Bison, on the other hand, had a four-point weekend made up of no less than fourteen goals, and extended their winning run to six games.
The Jets, who went into the weekend leading the table ventured into Guildford to face the Flames for a game which would separate the top two placings conjoined by points after last night. On home ice the Flames were always going to be favourite, so it came as a surprise when the Jets went into a lead. But it didn’t last and within five minutes the Flames took over adding a third in the second and a forth in the third to sit clearly on top of the table having extended their home-winning run to eight games.
The Tigers, a few players short, visited Milton Keynes and did well to keep the Lightning in check for two periods and even opened the scoring through Tomas Janak. But while the Lightning were more in sync than Saturday, it was only in the last ten minutes a tired Tigers’ side were overpowered making it a shame you don’t get a point for work-rate. But in Bracknell the Bees welcomed the Steeldogs a bit like you would a piranha in your trousers and there followed a serious attempt by both to dispose of the other. As it turned out, the Bees took the lead and the Steeldogs managed to bite back half way through the final period and draw the Bees into yet another overtime game. But this time they came out winners in the shoot-out thereby removing the curse from Coach Cox who, just as a precaution, discretely threw a handful of salt over his shoulder before the penalties started which must have worked because the Bees had their first 4-point weekend and moved up the table.
The biggest surprise of the weekend, though, must have been the Jets losing so badly at home to the Bison which ultimately cost them the top slot, while the big losers have been the Wildcats as the table begins to spread a bit.
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Contact Bill.Collins@prohockeynews.com
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