LONDON, UK – Regular readers will know that we are not averse to a typo or two here at Pro Hockey News, but with the racket our letterbox has been making today, you can forgive us this week at least.
Shutout for Wride (Rick Webb)
All eyes were on Wales during the week, as the new National Ice Arena opened in Cardiff with NIHL 2 side Cardiff Fire scheduled to be the first team to play there at the weekend.
Even the coolest of cats could not hide their enthusiasm with veterans Phil Manny, Ross Wilkinson, Alan Armour and Ricky Deacon all working themselves into a frenzy on social media culminating in a private visit to the venue on Friday evening.
Even the normally reserved Fire Coach Mark Cuddihy could barely hide his excitement claiming to be ‘Piss Ya Pants happy’ on Twitter.
A new venue can really boost everyone in a hockey town and Cardiff is sure to cement itself once again as a hotbed in future years.
What do you mean you thought I was retired?
MK Thunder’s Estonian International stopper Villem-Henrik Koitmaa was the pride of NIHL South as he headed off to the city of thermal baths, full contact strippers and reasonably priced alcohol to take advantage of none of those things.
Koitmaa was on international duty for his country in their Olympic qualifying group in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
At the time of writing he had helped Estonia beat Lithuania but had lost against both Hungary and Poland. In the Lithuania game his side were outshot 56 to 26 but still won 4-1 thanks to his performance.
Love was in the air in the NIHL with a number of clubs using Valentine’s Day as a marketing tool to boost the weekend crowd. Whilst most just referenced the occasion on social media, the Invicta Dynamos went a step further holding a competition for fans to win a pair of free tickets, plus a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates.
A Domaine Leflaive Montrachet Grand Cru vintage and a selection of Fortnum and Mason truffles were the rumoured goodies provided by the flashy Kent outfit, along with a signed topless pic of Harrison Lillis to get the fires of love burning.
Life can’t always smell of sweet roses of course, and in East London the mood was… well a little moody.
‘Looking at our fixture list we still have to play a lot of the teams around us’ said London Raiders blue liner David Oliver on his team’s 11 game streak without a win.
Tough times for Raiders (John Scott)
‘That is where we need to be showing what we can do and try and move up the table and get in a better place before the play-offs.’
‘We’re the only ones who can turn this around and as a team we are going to.’
London’s last win came the week before Christmas and with their roster it is something of a surprise they haven’t picked up a victory since.
An interesting clip was posted on You Tube from a 1995 fixture between Wightlink Raiders and Oxford City Stars.
Either the cameraman had been blazing it up with Johnny Hopkins and Sloan Kettering or it was a video of someone videoing the TV. It was probably the latter but one thing that stood out for us was the fact the referee was sponsored by Isostar.
This led us down memory lane when powdered sports drinks first hit the market and junior hockey players started playing like they had just eaten 2kg of Skittles before each game.
It also highlights that despite two decades passing by, both teams are still competing against each other and are relatively stable. The referees are no longer sponsored, both teams have changed their jersey colours and the Codfather now has to compete with Chicken Cottage and Subway for evening customers.
Was life better before you could munch a Big Beef Melt and fizzy drink for £5? Probably.
While most NIHL players were taking an executive workout at the gym on Friday night, or loading up on wholemeal pasta ahead of the weekend action, two players were icing for the Basingstoke Bison in the EPL.
Wightlink’s Alex Sampford and Invicta’s Jacob Ranson both spent their Friday night in Planet Ice Basingstoke helping the Bison to a 5-0 win over Swindon Wildcats.
Saturday’s Hockey
The big game of the day took place on the Isle of Wight with the Wightlink Raiders hoping to gain some ground on the Invicta Dynamos above them in the table.
The hosts tried every psychological trick in the book pre-game as they renamed Invicta’s league top scorer Steven Osman; ‘Steven Postman’ in the matchday programme.
Postman may have been a Raiders player once in the past, but it was a merciless snipe that no doubt unsettled the visitors as they lost 4-2.
Postman
A brace each for Ryan Webb and Jaroslav Cesky did the business for the Raiders on the night with Steven Postman and Josh Condren getting the goals for the Dynamos.
Streatham continued their good form with a 6-0 win over an understrength MK Thunder in South London.
David Wride got the shut out for Streatham with Callum Best bagging a brace to add to efforts from Joe Allen, Steven Fisher, Jack Tarczycki and David Savage.
The result means Streatham have not lost a home game in the league since the end of November.
London Raiders woes continued as Solent Devils skated off with a 4-1 win at Lee Valley Ice Centre.
Despite losing defenseman Monty Gailer to concussion and a deep wound, the Devils secured much needed road points thanks to goals from Alex Murray, Mitch Murray, Ralfs Circenis and Richard Facey.
Gailer thumbs up for A&E and #OurNHS
Marek Nahlik got the goal for London who found Solent stopper Chico Cole in vintage form turning away 33 shots over the 60 minutes.
The final game of the evening in NIHL took place in Cardiff but sadly not the shiny new arena.
Bottom faced top as Cardiff NIHL Devils and Chelmsford Chieftains faced each other in a bad tempered clash at the Big Blue Tent, whilst the party went on over the road.
The Chieftains won 4-2 thanks to a brace from Matt Turner and lone goals for James Ayling and Olegs Lascenko.
Jamie Hayes and Joe Morris scored for Cardiff.
It was perhaps for the best that the opening game in the shiny new arena was not marred by scenes that saw Chieftains pair Billy and Charlie Phillips ejected for leaving the bench to fight and checking to the head respectively, plus Devils Lee Duance kicked out for fighting and Luke Merrick and Harri Taylor also sent for an early shower.
Sunday Hockey
Invicta thought they had finally found a way to topple the league leaders as they led Chelmsford 3-0 at the end of the first period at Silverblades, only to allow the visitors a stunning comeback to win 4-3 and effectively seal the title.
Ross Brears hit a brace for Chelmsford with Billy Phillips and Olegs Lascenko also on target.
Clements and Chelmo heading for a trophy (Steve Sutherland)
Arran Strawson scored twice for Invicta with Steven Osman getting the other goal.
Chieftains stopper Euan King claimed the crown this time round pipping his younger brother Damien in the Invicta net with a 1.41% better save average.
Solent made it an impressive four point weekend for them as they edged out Bracknell Hornets on the South Coast. It has been a tough few weeks for the Devils but they have quality in their ranks and they finally managed to click again.
Mitchell Murray, Richard Brown, Ralfs Circenis and Richard Facey scored for Solent with Josh Martin and Brad Watchorn getting the goals for Bracknell.
A healthier looking MK Thunder team including two way youngsters Luc Johnson and Glen Billing took to home ice against Wightlink Raiders and showed what a threat they will be come Play-Off time as they won 6-4.
A Ross Bowers hat trick added to goals from Tom Castle, Jamie Line and Tom Mboya to seal the points for the Thunder.
Wightlink goals came from Jeremy Cornish, Danny Ingoldsby, Damon Larter and Craig Tribe.
1.. 2.. 3.. Bowers Time (Claire Stanton Photography)
Streatham made it a four point weekend with a late night road win in Wales as they beat Cardiff 5-1.
Kamil Kinkor scored a brace for the Londoners with Jack Tarczycki, Steven Fisher and Dom Hopkins also on target.
Ben Brown got the consolation for the Devils, whose goalie Ross Miller turned away 52 shots in a busy evening between the pipes.
The results leave the league title a formality for Chelmsford but the Cup and Play-Offs looking like they could be incredibly exciting.
Results
Saturday 13 February 2016
Streatham Redskins 6-0 MK Thunder
London Raiders 1-4 Solent Devils
Cardiff Devils NL 2-4 Chelmsford Chieftains
Wightlink Raiders 4-2 Invicta Dynamos
Sunday 14 February 2016
MK Thunder 6-4 Wightlink Raiders
Solent Devils 4-2 Bracknell Hornets
Cardiff Devils 1-5 Streatham Redskins
Invicta Dynamos 3-4 Chelmsford Chieftains
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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