LONDON, UK – With Cup semi-final spots up for grabs and the title race taking shape, it was another big weekend of NIHL South 1 action.
Mo’s rejoice (Andrew Day)
The mystery around missing Bracknell Bees forward Roman Malinik was revealed just in time to stop any rumours starting on The Hockey Forum that he had been poached by an Elite team, headed off on a Christmas tour with the Coca Cola truck or moved to Bhutan to live in a Himalayan monastery.
The EIHA’s disciplinary update revealed that a ten game ban had been quashed, albeit three games into it. This understandably led to questions why the decision was not reviewed earlier, especially given the Bees dropped points without their star player on the ice in those fixtures. Either way, he was back!
And that was Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell…
Raiders Coach Sean Easton was in defiant mood ahead of the weekend fixtures after claiming to have been “gutted” to have last Sunday off in an interview with the Romford Recorder.
“Five on five, I’ve said before, there’s no team that can match our intensity” said the 32 year old. “Bracknell struggled to hold us, we’ve just got to have that bit of belief in pushing harder and defending harder.
“We will beat them (Basingstoke). I guarantee we will beat them this year. There’s no way we can’t. If we play like that, week in, week out, there’s not a lot of teams that will touch us.”
In Peterborough, Coach Slava Koulikov and forward Corey McEwen sat in with presenter Steve Jackson on BBC Radio Cambridge to discuss the team’s brilliant run of form lately. This was just the beginning of a busy week for Koulikov who also attended a Sports Club Lunch courtesy of Peterborough Sports Aid with guest speaker, Cricketer Geoffrey Miller OBE.
Highlights of the Phantoms game against Swindon were also released here.
Cornish and Wood of Streatham meet Dom of NBT
The Phantoms were not the only hockey team thrust into the world of showbiz as a number of the Streatham team were guests at the sell-out Nothing But Thieves gig at Alexandra Palace, courtesy of U.S. music mogul (and long time Pro Hockey News reader/error spotter) Stefanie Reines. The RedHawks were spotted backstage and in the VIP lounge mingling with the band alongside Wes and Megan from Love Island plus former Crystal Palace defender Danny Butterfield.
There was excitement in Kent as local legend Andy Smith was announced as returning to the ice after a number of years out. Smith lit up the NIHL (or ENL as it was) for many years in Dynamos colours, however to the disappointment of Mo’s fans, his return is to the NIHL2 Mustangs side.
Interestingly Smith’s return hasn’t been the only eyebrow raiser in Gillingham recently as former team mates Kev Lake and Dan Fudger signed up to the Mustangs after time away.
Saturday review
Basingstoke Bison became the latest team to mount an unlikely comeback against the Raiders after recovering from 5-1 down at the beginning of the third period to win 6-5, thanks to an overtime winner from Richard Bordowski. The Bison forward had already smashed in a hat trick in regulation to add to goals from Alex Sampford and Ashley Tait.
For the Raiders it was Brandon Ayliffe, Callum Wells, Dan Scott, Juraj Huska and Liam Chong with the goals.
You can watch the winning goal by clicking here.
Kostal snipes
Milton Keynes Thunder took an early lead again on the road as Tomas Rubes edged them ahead in the first period at the Link Centre against the high flying Swindon Wildcats. Despite a big display by Jordan Lawday between the pipes, the Cats did eventually take the win with three unanswered goals courtesy of Sam Jones, Adam Harding and Jan Kostal.
Invicta Dynamos goalie Adam Long had a busy night against his old club Peterborough as the Phantoms skated off with a 4-0 win at Bretton Way, peppering him with 59 shots in the process.
Petr Stepanek top scored with a brace to add to efforts from James White and Corey McEwan. Phantoms goalie Jordan Marr enjoyed a 16 shot shut out and 16 year old back up Luke Clark enjoyed his first taste of NIHL 1 action with a 1 minute cameo at the end of the game.
Sunday review
The loudest cheer of the night came from Invicta Dynamos fans in Milton Keynes where their team snapped an 18 game losing streak to win their first game of the season 3-2 against the Thunder.
Jake Stedman was the hero with a third period winner to add to goals from Ondrej Zosiak and Lewis English – his first for the club after signing from Thunder this week. MK scorers were Shaun Talbot and Tomas Rubes.
All credit goes to the players and fans who persisted with the Mo’s and they will enjoy Monday morning for the first time in a long while. Jubilant Coach Kev Parrish summed up the feeling with a post-match tweet while sinking a Budweiser outside the Thunderdome.
Kev and his Bud
The Phantoms made it a four point weekend thanks to a hard fought 3-2 win in Romford against the Raiders.
The game was all tied up at 2-2 going into the final third until Captain James Ferrara completed his hat trick on the powerplay with nine minutes remaining. The Raiders pulled Michael Gray with a minute to go but to no avail, with Filip Sedivy and Aaron Connolly on the scoresheet earlier in the game.
The game was a feisty affair with John Connolly and Will Weldon dropping the gloves followed by a 3rd period bout between Martin Susters and JJ Pitchley.
All eyes were on the Hive as Swindon travelled to face a Bracknell side buoyed by a return of Mr Malinik.
Another close game ended with the Bees fans on their feet in delight as defenseman Ed Knaggs fired home in overtime from a pass by who else but Malinik.
The game had finished 4-4 in regulation with Brendan Baird, Shaun Thompson, Aidan Doughty and Zach Milton on target for the Bees. Edgars Bebris scored a brace for the Catts with Neil Liddiard and Max Birbraer also on target.
Sampford on target (Five Hole Photography)
The result was a big one for the Bees after a mini slump in form that had seen them lose earlier ground to both the Cats and the streaking Phantoms.
In South London, the game between the RedHawks and the Basingstoke Bison was doubly important, not only for league points but also the final semi-final spot in the Cup, with the game counting for both competitions.
The RedHawks conceded two goals in the third to ensure an all ex-EPL Cup semi-final match up and push all of the original NIHL clubs into the bottom half of the table for the first time this year.
The 4-2 win for the Bison came courtesy of goals from Richard Bordowski, Hallam Wilson, Alex Sampford and Michel Klejna. For the RedHawks it was Adam Wood and Adam Carr with the goals.
NIHL Media outlet 482 Days were due to attend the game, but tweeted that they had been struck down by a ‘migraine’. Investigations by PHN found that famed Oxfordshire nightclub Purple Turtle closed its doors for the last time on Saturday night following a farewell party, at which a flame haired lady and a man with an EIHA tie were allegedly spotted chanting at the DJ for M-Beat and General Levy at around 3am on the dancefloor. Whose HQ is in Oxfordshire? We all know the answer.
The results leave Swindon, Bracknell and Peterborough in a three way fight for the title and Basingstoke and Streatham just out of touch behind. The Dynamos are still three points behind the Thunder at the bottom and face the Raiders on home ice next Sunday in an intriguing clash.
Results
Saturday 24 November 2018
Peterborough Phantoms 4 Invicta Dynamos 0
Swindon Wildcats 3 MK Thunder 1
Basingstoke Bison 6 London Raiders 5 (after OT)
Sunday 25 November 2018
MK Thunder 2 Invicta Dynamos 3
Bracknell Bees 5 Swindon Wildcats 4 (after OT)
Streatham IHC 2 Basingstoke Bison 4
Raiders 2 Peterborough Phantoms 3
Contact the author: carrsy2@gmail.com
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