LONDON, UK – With Halloween celebrated across the UK, there was plenty of ghoulish and ghastly news to report on in NIHL South. Well not quite, but it was far from a slow news week.
Chelmsford left seeing Stars (Paul Foster)
The King is dead long live the King proclaimed Milton Keynes Thunder during the week as they unveiled their new netminder Villem-Henrik Koitmaa to replace the departed Damien King. Just for clarification King isn’t actually dead in case anyone is unfamiliar with the phrase.
The 25 year old Estonian international becomes the first import goalie in NIHL 1 since Oxford’s ill-fated experiment with Robin Lindva. Koitmaa’s arrival also meant the departure of Zsolt Mastaleriu as each team in the NIHL is only allowed one import on the ice at a time.
If anyone was in any doubt of the new Thunder stoppers credentials, Coach Paul Gore took a very deep breath and gave us a run down in the press release.
“Villem has been playing for the Estonian national team since 2007” said Gore.
“All together he has competed in two u18 world championships, three u20 world championships, seven men’s world championships and in 2 Olympic qualifications representing the Estonian national team.”
“He was named the best player of the tournament in 2008 and 2009 in the u20 world championships for team Estonia. He has had the lowest goals against average in two world championships in 2009 and 2012 and in Vancouver Olympics qualification tournament.”
“At club level he has won the Estonian championship twice. He has also played in Finland where he was named the MVP of HeKi junior system and best goalkeeper. The highest level he reached was Finnish men’s second tier where he played during 2011-2012.”
King Villem-Henrik I (John Scott)
“This November Koitmaa will once again be playing for team Estonia in the Olympic qualifications.”
Thank god for Elite Prospects at times like this!
Bracknell Hornets had a mixed week as they basked in the glow of a 2-1 win over Wightlink Raiders. Video evidence is always a welcome addition to NIHL South so it was great to see the well named ‘Deke Sports TV’ put up highlights of the game on YouTube that you can view HERE
The opening sequence is intriguing as it features an old style TV being smashed by a hammer, and one man who can sympathise is Hornets blue liner Matt Jordan who wins this week’s bruise of the week thanks to this cracker.
Video evidence was also causing a furore on the UK’s most popular hockey forum, namely ‘The Hockey Forum’. Incensed by Streatham’s Chris Wiggins during their 5-0 loss last Sunday, Invicta’s Media team posted up a thread labelled ‘Wiggins Watch’ with a breakdown of timings to show his actions with predictable reactions from all sides.
Not make-up on Jordan’s thigh
With 3.5k post views at the time of writing and 2k views of the actual video it’s fair to say that it may be the most viewed video of the season this year.
You can judge for yourself by clicking HERE
It hasn’t been the quietest start of the season for Oxford Coach Simon Anderson who was rocked by another high profile departure as marquee British signing Steven Osman departed the club.
In the latest random rationale for leaving the Stars, it was not a BBQ but this time unhappiness with team systems that was cited as the reason.
“I am obviously disappointed that Steve has decided to leave the Stars.” said Anderson.
“We had a conversation on Monday evening where he told me he wasn’t happy and was finding it hard to adapt to our style of play. Obviously with the team playing so well right now we can’t change our style to suit one player, so reluctantly I have accepted Steve’s wishes. It’s a shame as he is a top quality player at this level.”
By Friday Osman signed for Invicta, a good six hour round trip from his Bristol home and a commute that prompted his departure last time he played for the Mo’s.
Perhaps it was the systems of coaching duo Kev Parrish and Dmitri Rodin that tempted Osman back to Kent or indeed the newly resurfaced stretch of the M25 with high quality cats eyes to make the long drive smoother and safer?
One thing is for sure, the Mo’s forward line was in need of a boost of quality and Parrish was happy to add to his squad.
Room for one more ?(David Trevallion)
“I’m delighted Steve is back with the Mos and I know he’ll slot in perfectly with what we’ve built this year. Steve brings everything we’ve perhaps been lacking so far this season – his experience will be invaluable to the younger guys and he has that established quality in front of net that has made him one of the NIHL’s most prominent players.”
London Raiders were still smarting from the cancellation of the Halloween party, and were hit by further bad news when their game at Bracknell was also cancelled for Sunday due to a fault with the ice plant.
Emergency plans for a club fancy dress day out at Romford Toby on Sunday were hastily arranged to make up for the double disappointment.
The Great Britain under 20’s squad was announced during the week with a healthy contingent of players who play or have played in the NIHL South.
Milton Keynes had the largest number of representatives with Alex Whyte, Glen Billing, Luc Johnson and Ed Knaggs called up, plus former MK Thunder goalie Jordan Hedley.
Other former NIHL South players included were Callum Buglass who previously played for Cardiff, Thomas Relf, Ivan Antonov and Harvey Stead who all played for Bracknell Hornets at one stage and of course Cameron McGiffin.
Well done to all and good luck on making the final cut.
Saturday’s Hockey
It is fair to say that much has been made of Chelmsford’s unbeaten start to the season with this very column labelling them a juggernaut to the chagrin of some readers.
Step forward the Oxford City Stars, who like a stubborn Moose on an Amtrak line, stood up and derailed the Chieftains Express.
Happy Stars (Paul Foster)
Star of the show was former Chelmsford man Alan Green with an energetic display that reaped two goals. Oxford’s other goals were scored by Josh Florey, Josh Oliver, Ben Ealey-Newman and Boris Ruzicka.
Chelmsford pulled the goalie with two minutes to go to no avail, and scored through a brace from the in-form Cameron Bartlett and a goal each from Grant Bartlett and Darren Brown.
Oxford’s Connor Ranby put in a good performance in between the pipes for the Stars facing 51 shots in total.
Hot on the heels for the contender of performance of the weekend were Cardiff NIHL Devils, who managed to pull off a stunning road victory in Gillingham with a 1-1 tie with the Invicta Dynamos.
Despite having only two lines and a spare, the Welsh side grabbed a point from the misfiring Mo’s who had given All-Star goalie Damien King, and new signing Steven Osman their debuts.
Eriks Ozollapa had opened the scoring after only 12 minutes for the Mo’s but they failed to add any more and with five minutes left, Thomas Stuart-Dant popped up with the equaliser.
Gray takes every effort to keep his shutout (John Scott)
For the second week running the Mo’s iced all three Wootton brothers in Haydn, Taylor and Bailey to become the first NIHL team since Oxford iced the Oliver trio to ice three siblings at once.
Cardiff goalie Michael Crisp had a great game turning away forty shots in between the pipes.
London Raiders made use of their one game of the weekend with a hard fought 2-0 win at home to MK Thunder. The Estonian international put in a man of the match performance for the Thunder saving 25 shots and conceding only one.
Sadly he had to sit his own minor penalty in the first four minutes and young back up Chris Jenkins had to stand in and conceded also.
Marek Nahlik scored two goals for the Raiders whose goalie Michael Gray earned a shut out with a stunning 44 shot shut out.
Streatham fans send the grim reaper down to ice level for the anthems
Wightlink Raiders bounced back from a disappointing weekend seven days prior to beat Streatham Redskins 8-2 on the Cube.
Wightlink welcomed back influential defenseman Damon Larter for the game and he put in a man of the match performance with a goal and three assists.
Raiders other goals came from Jaroslav Cesky with two and a goal each from Kieran Annis, Aaron Edwards, Danny Rose, Corey Watkins and Ryan Webb. Streatham’s goals came from Kamil Kinkor and Joe Johnston.
The Raiders now qualify for the semi-final of the NIHL South Cup from their group with Streatham and Solent.
Streatham’s band of fans were in halloween costume for the game, but it was the team that ended up being spooked as the Raiders took revenge for the 2-0 defeat the previous weekend in South London.
Sunday Hockey
Solent Devils hosted Invicta Dynamos at Gosport Ice Arena in a bid to bounce back from the home defeat against Chelmsford the previous weekend.
Invicta were leading 2-1 with fifteen minutes to go before Richard Facey popped up to equalise for Solent, whose earlier goal came from Ben Lock. Invicta scorers were Conor Redmond and Arran Strawson.
Lee and Gosett go for it (Tom Barnett Photography)
Invicta’s Jack Lee and Solent’s Steve Gosset dropped the gloves in the third to provide an extra talking point for those present.
Cardiff NIHL Devils aimed to end their weekend on a high as they hosted Wightlink Raiders.
Raiders star forward Jaroslav Cesky stole the show with a hat trick for the visitors to add to a lone effort from Chris Cooke in a 4-2 win.
Jon Nash and Thomas Stuart-Dant scored the goals for the hosts who now sit at the bottom of the table.
Chelmsford Chieftains survived a scare at home to MK Thunder as they edged the visitors 5-4.
The score was actually tied 1-1 going into the final twenty minutes of the game before Chelmsford eventually took the win.
Matt Turner scored two for the hosts with Sean Barry, Juraj Huska and Danny Hammond also on target. The Thunder iced just over two lines and their goals came from Alex Whyte, Ross Bowers, Harrison Goode and Josh Nicklin.
The final game of the evening saw a short benched Streatham Redskins survive a late fightback by Oxford City Stars to stay top of the table.
Wood and Ikin tangle (Rick Webb)
Joe Johnston scored two goals for the Londoners in a 5-3 win, with Adam Wood, Kamil Kinkor and Dom Hopkins also on target. Oxford scorers were Josh Florey, Ben Ealey-Newman and Ondrej Pekarik.
Adam Wood was ejected after dropping the gloves with Jason Ikin and as a result Streatham managed to kill off a seven minute Stars powerplay to hold on for the win.
Results
Saturday 31 October 2015
Invicta Dynamos 1-1 Cardiff Devils NL
Oxford City Stars 6-4 Chelmsford Chieftains
London Raiders 2-0 MK Thunder
Wightlink Raiders 8-2 Streatham Redskins (Cup)
Sunday 1 November 2015
Streatham Redskins 5-3 Oxford City Stars
Cardiff Devils NL 2-4 Wightlink Raiders
Chelmsford Chieftains 5-4 MK Thunder
Solent Devils 2-2 Invicta Dynamos
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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