LONDON, UK – After snow decimated the fixtures the previous week, it typically melted straight after it unleashed its chaos and the NIHL Britton Conference fired up again for more action.
Watt and Galazzi festive spirit (Fusional)
All eyes were north of the border during the week as GB u20’s continued their quest for gold at the World Championships in Dumfries. Lots of familiar faces were in action from the NIHL Britton Conference as the youngsters beat Romania, Estonia and the Netherlands before a penalty shot loss to Korea and defeat to Japan.
A special shout out has to go to Peterborough Phantoms blueliner Ed Knaggs who seemed to be logging more minutes than a Westfield Santa over the week and must have been shattered.
Elsewhere in the league nothing was really going on as Christmas parties raged across the UK, and hockey was a long way from most minds. Bracknell Bees went to extra lengths to reverse their poor form by visiting the newly opened Go Perform centre in Reading for a fitness and training session. If you like watching sweaty hockey players in athletic gear doing gym stuff, check out the videos here.
Bullas loves a roast
Recently released Peterborough goalie Adam Long decided to break from the laid back life of East Anglia and secured a move to the city of culture and a gig with Hull Pirates.
In Swindon Sam Bullas continued to be the unofficial face of the town as he helped open the Franklins Roast Sandwich shop during the week. There was no official comment from Bullas on the food, however the media release stated the offerings range from homemade sandwiches to soups and daily specials. Simply lovely.
There was once a time when a Christmas outdoor rink would set the pulse racing of any hockey fan or player as they were hard to find in the UK. In 2017 however, you cannot move for them.
Heading to the garden centre for a plant? How about a skate. Heading to the shopping centre for gifts? How about a skate. Stumbling around the street on a 12 hour festive bender? How about a skate. All on death wellies!
Rooftop skating
And so while we are less enthused than before about such facilities, the PHN office did notice a show stopper whilst browsing the listings of our fine capital city. Step forward the Skylight facility in Tobacco dock, the only rooftop rink in the UK that we are aware of, unless Bradford’s roof has blown off unreported. Just to note we aren’t on commission for recommending the rink but it does look very cool.
Peterborough Phantoms decided to make up for the lack of a home game at the weekend, plus the cancellation of the previous Sunday home game, to set up a Christmas event at the rink offering up free mince pies, aimed at flogging their festive calendars, apparel and ‘Phantoms stockings’.
The players were in attendance to sign autographs and try and collect gifts for the Amazon Childrens Ward at Peterborough Hospital, which they will visit on Christmas Eve in a lovely gesture by all concerned. Still on a merchandise front, the Bracknell Bees announced they would be opening the new ‘Bees shop’ at the rink between 5pm and 8pm next Tuesday. Who will cut the ribbon on the new shop? We wait with bated breath.
Saturday action review
Streatham enjoyed a second consecutive win over Bracknell Bees as the RedHawks won 7-4 on home ice. Two goals from Adam Carr and one each for Ryan Webb, Ryan Watt, Andreas Siagris, Jacob Ranson and birthday boy Dan Rose extended the Bees losing streak to nine games.
Frankie Bakrlik scored a brace for the Bees with Jan Bendik and James Galazzi also on target. Galazzi also dropped the gloves with Watt in the first period and there were two ejections with Bees defenseman Carl Graham ejected for slashing and RedHawks Ben Paynter also handed an early shower for fighting.
Gray pulls out the limited edition Romford bodywarmer to celebrate
Basingstoke Bison and Milton Keynes Thunder played out a rare 0-0 tie in regulation in Hampshire with netminders Tom Annetts and Dean Skinns earning a 35 and 17 shot shut out respectively over sixty minutes. It took just 16 seconds of overtime for the Bison to finally break the deadlock as Dan Davies slotted home to take the points.
London Raiders continued their decent run of form with a 3-1 win over Invicta Dynamos. The victory was soured by a horrific facial injury to Alan Lack who took a puck to the face and needed 54 stitches and surgery to repair the damage – he is still in hospital at the time of writing. Best wishes to Alan and his family from everyone at Pro Hockey News.
During the win, the Raiders’ scorers were Jake Sylvester, Brandon Ayliffe and Marek Nahlik, with Mo’s stand in captain Ashley Jackson on target for the Kent side.
NIHL Media outlet 482 Days stated that they would be away for the weekend and not doing any live coverage. Instead they live tweeted the GB u20’s streamed game against Japan from a mystery unstated location.
Our sources believe a winter version of Flamefest was taking place in the Cotswolds over Saturday and Sunday with ‘high speed Wi-Fi coverage’ a key selling point. Maths is not our strong point at the best of times here at PHN and in fairness neither is it at 482 Days mansions where their weekly PIAMG competition regularly falls in to chaos due to Timmy Mallet style number crunching. Does 2+2 make 4? Only 482 Days can confirm if they were flaming whilst tweeting.
Sunday action review
When Peterborough Phantoms players saw the EPL collapse in front of their eyes and the team apply to play in the NIHL South, they may have been forgiven for giving a little fist pump at the thought of not having to travel to Sheffield on a Sunday night.
Instead they got a lunchtime trip to the Steel City and a Cup game with an early start. The league leading Phantoms went down 7-4 and look unlikely to get out of group B with both Hull and Sheffield in pole position for the Quarter finals in January.
Colclough shuts-out MK (Lucy McGill)
Darius Pliskauskas scored a brace for the Phantoms with Owen Griffiths and Tom Norton also on target. Milan Kolena scored two for Sheffield with Lewis Bell, James Spurr, Cameron Brownley, Liam Charnock and Ashley Calvert getting one each.
In Milton Keynes, the Thunder were shutout by a visiting Streatham side who made it a four point weekend with a 4-0 win.
Michael Farn, Ryan Watt, Dan Rose and Alex Sampford were on target for the RedHawks with Matt Colclough getting a 34 shot shut out. The crowd also saw a bout between Brandon Miles and Hallden Barnes-Garner who dropped the gloves in the 3rd period. The game was watched by a host of former MK Lightning faces in the crowd including Leigh Jamieson (fresh from Sheffield), Matt Towalski and the man himself, Phil Wooderson who had hired the VIP lounge in the rink for the night.
The final game of the day saw London Raiders make it a four point weekend with a 3-2 overtime win over Invicta in Kent.
Mason Webster and Ashley Jackson were on target for the Mo’s with Ziggy Beesley and Juarj Huska scoring for the Raiders before Marek Nahlik kind of sealed the points with what was seemingly an own goal. Given our sympathy with defensemen in these instances we will say no more.
Results
Saturday 16 December 2017
London Raiders 3 Invicta Dynamos 1
Streatham IHC 7 Bracknell Bees 4
Basingstoke Bison 0 MK Thunder 0 (Bison win in overtime)
Sunday 17 December 2017
MK Thunder 0 Streatham IHC 4
Sheffield Steeldogs 7 Peterborough Phantoms 4 (Cup)
Invicta Dynamos 2 London Raiders 2 – Raiders win in OT (Cup)
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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