SWINDON, UK – On the 2 nd of the month the Manchester Phoenix, who many are tipping for the league title and beyond , arrived in Swindon for their first encounter with the Wildcats. Coach Ryan Aldridge was one of those subscribing to the power of the Phoenix machine and told the Swindon Adver tiser , ‘They have set their mark already . ’ A nd when it came to their league chances: ‘I’d probably give it to Manchester over Milton Keynes .’
However, Aldridge was no pessimist when it came to the Wildcats’ chances saying, ‘We’d like to think we could get a point against a team like Manchester in our barn.’ So, it wasn’t such a big surprise when the home team not only went into the lead but did it again when the Phoenix equalised , and w hen the game was taken to penalties the Wildcats came away with both points rekindling memories of the lambasting dealt out to the Phoenix at the end of last season when Aaron Nell scored a hat-trick as part of a ten to one victory. T he result put Jozefs Kohut and Liska as joint leading points scorers.
The following evening , however, in Telford , a team already bea ten by the Wildcats, a wheel fel l off and the Wildcats w ent down five – two. While praising the team for the result against Manchester , Coach Aldridge said after the Tigers’ game, ‘ We were all over them for the first fifteen to twenty minutes, then silly mistakes kept coming into our game. We’ve got to go through a weekend and play the full six periods to the best of our ability rather than just four.’
The following Saturday the Wildcats were scheduled to play the Steeldogs, all being well. The council workers’ industrial action at the Link Centre was still in effect but early in the week GM Steve Nell was able to announce the game would go ahead as planned , and the Wildcats won three-nil. The victory not only game the team their first shut-out of the season , but Chris Douglas ’s one hundred per cent save rate put him on his way to giving the team two ninety-per-cent-plus goalies; a n unusual situation . Kevin McGurk was called on for his first netminding backup game and Jan Melichar scored his first goal of the season.
Any hopes of two top ten goalies took a nose dive the following evening during the second game against the Phoenix , now on their own ice. In a blistering first period six goals were conceded and D ouglas was pulled from the goal after what was his most difficult game since joining half way though last year. Later in the game Liska was fouled and Manchester ’s netminder Steve Fone saved the subsequent penalty shot , and to make matters worse Toivo Suursoo limped from the are n a with a leg injury. The fifty shots on the Wildcats ’ goal became a new record but t here were, however, a couple of positives with Ryan Watt grabbing two goals and an assist and Kohut became the first player to score in four consecutive games. Liska, meanwhile, took over as leading points scorer .
The following weekend the Union involved in the continuing industrial action at the Link centre threatened to escalate the disruption, but again the Wildcats’ game, this time against the Milton Keynes Lightning, was unaffected. Coach Aldridge said, ‘We are not a club that has a lot of strength in depth, so everyone has to play every game, but I look at the warm-ups and the line-ups and for every match there’s never that much between us.’ However, although Suursoo was back Liska did not play due to an injury and the hole he left was enormous and the Wildcats went down 3-1. The Lightning defence w as able to contain the Wildcats, highlighting why MKL netminder Alex Mettam, who faces shots much less frequently than any other regular netminder , leads the EPL .
On Sunday the Wildcats faced the Phantoms in Peterborough , which is known as a difficult arena. Coach Aldridge in acknowledging a poor road record summed it up: ‘ Peterborough is a tough place to go. It is old and cold, and not exactly the place you want to spend your Sunday afternoon.’ And, with another high total of shots on goal conceded and a missing Liska, the Wildcats experienced their first shut-o u t of the season and a record defeat at 8-0.
The following weekend against the Bees, who had beaten the Wildcats in Bracknell , didn’t look much better with K ohut , who apparently had been unsettled for a week or so with problems back in Slovakia , walked out. Fortunately Li ska was back on the ice and scored , but it was Suursoo who opened the scoring with a goal in the first minute . Aldridge picked up three assists, a creditable contribution for a part-time player putting him alongside Kohut, Liska and Watt as the only players to bag three points in a game . Loris Taylor grabbed his first goal and t he Wildcats took the two points in what turned out to be the highest scoring game of the EPL season so far at 7-5 .
The following evening the Wildcats went to Sheffield and made it a four-point weekend , their first, with a 3-1 win over the Steeldogs. Aldridge, with his coach hat back on said, ‘I am proud of the boys for this weekend .’ GM Steve Nell, on the other hand , was understandably miffed with the disappearing Kohut. ‘We are very disappointed Jozef has chosen to turn his back on the club,’ he said, ‘particularly after having committed to us for another year. ’ Somewhat mysteriously he added, ‘ We rescued Jozef from a dire situation in Poland , paying out more than £3,000 in addition to significant international transfer and registration fees.’ But, i n practical terms there is very little the club can do, particularly with it being a cross-border affair.
The last week of the month held three games, starting on the Wednesday with the first leg of a double – header against the Jets. In a hard-fought battle in which Suursoo again scored first the Wildcats ended up losing 4-3. On Saturday in Slough things looked to be taking a very different direction which at one point saw the Wildcats 4-1 up. But despite a field day for Liska in which he scored the first Wildcats’ league hat-trick – plus – one and a handful of other records, and Watt equalled the record for the most consecutive games scoring a point , the Wildcats lost on penalties . But at least they claimed a point and in the process again broke the record for conceding the most shots on goal, now 59 , and the biggest lead overturned to lose a game. Hadfield , however, continued his impressive form and still peaked over ninety-per-cent.
The final game of the month was on the final day, and it was almost as if the exhausting activities of the previous night took their toll when regardless of opening the scoring again in Peterborough , the Wildcats crashed to a 6-3 defeat. Liska and Suursoo both managed to get on the score sheet again and Aldridge was there once more with an assist point. But the high spot was probably Liska improving on a couple of Kohut’s records for scoring runs.
October drew to a close with Coach Aldridge sa ying he had a shortl ist he was considering for Kohut ’s replacement but didn’t want to be hurried into making a decision. His task is presumably a difficult one because the Slovakian forward was regularly in the points, and such talent part way through a season is simply not growing on trees . For more news, stats, charts and mailing list updates try my website – www.swindonwildcats.me.uk Contact the author Bill.collins@prohockeynews.com
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