LONDON, UK – Defending was not on the agenda in the NIHL South this week as the goals flew in from all angles.
Solent celebrate (Tom Barnett Photography)
The Great One arrived in London during the week but instead of taking in a hockey game, he showed up at a Tottenham Hotspur football game, as they faced local rivals Arsenal in the Capital One Cup.
It says a lot about the standing of hockey in the UK that Gretzky’s appearance in the capital would have gone unnoticed, had it not been for a shirt presentation at White Hart Lane that misspelled his name.
Before anyone suggests that the faux pas was as a result of general ignorance about Canada’s greatest living star (alongside Alanis Morissette), it is worth remembering that a number of hockey teams suffer the same fate when simply ordering jerseys for their own players.
We never use ‘Z’ in the English Language..period
Step forward the renamed Jakub Kilima (Klima), Corey Watikins (Watkins) and Liam Raswussen (Rasmussen) to name just three jersey name bar errors in the NIHL.
One thing you don’t want to get wrong is a tattoo and after last week’s appeal for NIHL Tattoos of the week we have had quite a few entries. This week’s winners are Oxford’s Shannon Long with an amusing juiceboy graphic on his rear, and Streatham’s Adam Wood with a shark smoking a pipe and wearing a top hat.
When asked the reasoning behind Wood’s random effort, his reply was that the shark is the ‘king of the ocean and he does what he wants’.
Chelmsford Chieftains have got off to a good start this season with two league wins out of two and they appear to be runaway favourites for honours already this year.
The youthful Sean Easton is an experienced coach these days despite his age and he admitted expectation levels are high at the Riverside this year in an interview with the Essex Chronicle.
Move over Banksy, its the King of the Ocean on Adam Wood
“I’ve been told we need to try to win everything and from an owners’ point of view they’ve invested heavily and being one of the top clubs in the league we want to keep that reputation,” he said. “I don’t feel the pressure on me because I know what I can do, it’s just about the players buying into it.”
“I was obviously a little anxious going into the first league game but that was just general game-day nerves.”
“We want to go into games full of confidence and after last weekend I think it only builds our confidence knowing we can go into games thinking this is what we can do.”
One rink where expectations may be slightly lower this year is down at Silverblades, but one thing is for sure, their media team will continue to churnout high quality products all season again this campaign.
Second bum on PHN in seven days.. this time Shannon Long
Highlights of the Invicta’s opening night win over Bracknell Hornets were uploaded during the week and made for pleasant viewing if you are a Dynamos fan. You can watch them by clicking HERE.
Not content with having a full set of customised Invicta Dynamos Lego figures in their merchandise range, the Mo’s showed off their new team bike on Twitter and to the relief of everyone concerned it was an actual cycle and not a euphemism.
If the Mo’s were playing it safe on social media, Streatham were slightly less reserved as their Streatham Selfie competition started in earnest. With copies of NHL 16 for the XBOX or Playstation up for grabs, even the players got involved with power forward Chris Wiggins testing the boundaries of good taste with a dressing room selfie that owed its retweet to the fact he used the correct sized finger.
Two faced Tait
Bracknell Hornets announced that they would be selling jersey replicas for only £35 to fans including any name and number. Obviously there is not much chance of Gretzky appearing down at the Hive so no need to get a 99 made up, but it has to be said that not many clubs offer fans jerseys at such a great price so well done to the Hornets.
Modern medicine can often deliver some fantastic results so hats off to the plastic surgeon who patched up Bracknell’s Stewart Tait over the weekend. Poor Taity often manages to get his face in the way of stray sticks and pucks and is indeed a walking advertisement for mandatory face cages, but the pictorial difference between the actual cut before and after Mr Plastic’s intervention is truly amazing. Get well soon Mr Tait from everyone here at Pro Hockey News.
Saturday’s Hockey
Wightlink Raiders bounced back from the disappointing draw in Oxford last weekend with a solid 4-2 home win over Milton Keynes Thunder.
Jaroslav Cesky was a welcome returnee to the line up for the Raiders but it was youngster Alex Sampford who stole the headlines with a hat trick, with Ryan Webb getting the other goal for the home side.
#StreathamSelfies get a bit out of hand
MK scorers were Tom Mboya and Alex Whyte and they travelled without trio Ross Bowers, Luc Johnson and Glenn Billing.
Streatham were minus Nicky Chinn for their game against a resurgent Oxford, but the Stars were also without import Andrew Magee and Shane Moore. Streatham won convicingly with a rather surprising 10-3 score line boasting nine different scorers.
Kamil Kinkor got two for Streatham with Liam Rasmussen, Evander Grinnell, Adam Wood, Steven Fisher, Chris Wiggins, Dom Hopkins, Jack Tarczycki and Joe Allen all on target too.
Oxford goals came from Mike Whillock, Darren Elliott and Joe Edwards.
Bracknell Hornets season didn’t get any easier with a visit of Chelmsford, however they showed signs of improvement before going down 4-1 at the Hive.
Danny Milton returned in between the pipes for Bracknell but he could do little to stop a Juraj Huska hat trick and a lone goal from Grant Bartlett.
Huska in his office (Kev Slyfield)
Brandon Miles scored for Bracknell, who are now bottom of the league and without a win in five games.
Cardiff Devils and London Raiders faced off against each other in the final game of the day and the visitors skated off with a 10-6 win.
Marek Nahlik made the difference for London with four goals to his name, with Liam Chong, Rio Grinnell-Parke, Mason Webster, Tom Davis, Michal Oravec and Seb Downing all adding a goal each.
Jon Nash scored a hat trick for Cardiff with David Sadler, Owen Bradshaw and Thomas Stuart-Dant also on target.
The late face-off in Cardiff is only enjoyable if you manage to win, and London would have enjoyed their long trip home along the M4.
Sunday’s Hockey
It was the day of the cup in the NIHL with all three fixtures counting towards either the NIHL Cup or the South East Cup.
Chelmsford and Streatham were first to face off in the South East Cup at the Riverside with both sides going into the game in good form.
Streatham disappointingly turned up with a number of players missing and got their just desserts with a 9-1 thumping.
An impressive hat trick from Cameron Bartlett set the tone for Chelmsford with Ross Brears, Matt France, Juraj Huska, Grant Bartlett, Darren Brown and James Ayling all getting a goal each.
Smiley Ross Brears (Kev Slyfield)
Streatham’s evening got worse when Chris Wiggins was ejected in the first period after his hit on Grant Bartlett, drew blood from the bridge of his nose. Adam Wood scored the consolation for the Londoners.
Invicta Dynamos made it two wins out of two with a 7-4 win over London Raiders in Gillingham in the NIHL Cup.
In a bad tempered clash Invicta scored through a brace each from Bailey Wootton and Ondrej Zosiak plus lone goals from Conor Redmond, Nicky Lewis, Jacob Ranson and Eriks Ozollapa.
Marek Nahlik scored two for London with Michal Oravec and Frankie Harvey also on target.
Mason Webster and Brad Gutridge dropped the gloves centre ice to give the crowd something else to shout about.
The final game of the evening was also in the NIHL Cup as Solent Devils and Wightlink Raiders played out a 3-3 tie at Gosport Arena.
Solent led 2-1 only for Wightlink to go into a 3-2 lead before the home side scored an equaliser with ten minutes left thanks to former Raider Alex Murray.
Solents other goals came from George Norcliffe and Mason Wild, whilst Jaroslav Cesky converted a penalty shot for Wightlink and both Ryan Webb and Nick Compton added a goal each.
There was more action in the shape of Danny Ingoldsby dropping the gloves with Alex Trendall in the second period.
Both teams iced their back up goalies during the game with Sam Calder getting the start for Solent and Aaron Craft replacing Matt Colclough a few minutes into the second period. Both goalies posted +90% save averages making some decent stops along the way.
The final results mean that Streatham stay top of the league, but Invicta and Chelmsford face the dreaded midweek fixture on Thursday evening in the South East Cup.
Results
Saturday 26 September 2015
Streatham Redskins 10-3 Oxford City Stars
Bracknell Hornets 1-4 Chelmsford Chieftains
Wightlink Raiders 4-2 Milton Keynes Thunder
Cardiff Devils NL 6-10 London Raiders
Sunday 27th September 2015
Solent Devils 3-3 Wightlink Raiders (NIHL Cup)
Invicta Dynamos 7-4 London Raiders (NIHL Cup)
Chelmsford Chieftains 9-1 Streatham Redskins (South East Cup)
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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