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Games from Saturday 9th September 2006

Sheffield Steelers 3 Coventry Blaze 5

Great start on the road for Coventry Blaze as take both points in a seesaw game against Sheffield Steelers. The visitors dominated the opening period and jumped into a 3-0 lead thanks to goals by Ashley Tait 2 and Dan Carlson. Steelers then came right back into it with counters from Phil Hill and Brett Clouthier by the halfway mark only for Sylvain Cloutier to make it 4-2 in the 35th minute.  The home side were still not finished however and Clouthier hit his second inside the final minute of the second period  to set up an interesting third. Cloutier nabbed his second goal for the visitors in the opening minute of the final period and that proved to be the final goal of the night as Blaze iced the vital win.

Mobilx Vipers 10 Hull Stingrays 4

A baptism of fire for new boys Hull Stingrays as Mobilx Vipers hit double figures. It was goalless after the opening period and in fact Pavel Gomenyuk shot the visitors ahead early in the second but by the time Hull netted their second of the night in the 52nd minute, the home side had hit 9 straight between the 23rd and 47th minutes, including doubles from David Longstaff and Pavol Mihalik. Stingrays did pull it back to 9-4 but the final word went to the home side as Michael Tasker made it 10 with a minute left.

Basingstoke Bison 4 Cardiff Devils 6

Good road win for Cardiff Devils as they hit 2 goals in the final 10 munutes to see off home town Basingstoke Bison in a game of 122 penalty minutes. Brad Volk opened for Cardiff on the powerplay in the 6th minute only for Brad Cruickshank to level in the 13th again on the powerplay.  Tyson Tiplitsky (Car) and Kevin Bergin (Bas) saw equality by the first break.  The second seeion was also shared 2-2 with Mark Smith and Russ Cowley netting for the visitors only for Greg Chambers and Doug Sheppard to peg them back each time. The game winner came from Dave Iannazzo in the 53rd minute and Cowley hit his second of the night a minute later to seal the road win.

Belfast Giants 4 Nottingham Panthers 3 (After Penalty Shots)

Despite outshooting their hosts by nearly 2-1, Panthers lost out to a Mark Dutiaume penalty shot after overtime failed to seperate the teams in front of nearly 5,000 fans in Belfast.  The home side opened up in the 11th minute with a powerplay goal by Jason Ruff and although Nottingham levelled through Corey Neilson in the 18th minute, Giants hit 2 more counters before the end of the period by George Awada and Ruff again - this time shorthanded to take it 3-1.  The only goal of the second session came Panthers way in the 35th minute when David Clarke found the net on the powerplay and that was also the way of it in the third period with Jan Krajicek taking the game into overtime with a powerplay strike in the 58th minute. The 5 minutes of overtime saw no goals and Dutiaume was the only scorer from the 3 penalties taken by each team in the shootout.    

Games from Sunday 10th September 2006

Nottingham Panthers 9 Basingstoke Bison 4

Panthers turned on the style in their home opener, coming from behind as Bison suffered their second weekend loss.  A goal by Jan Krajicek after only 17 seconds had the home side ahead but by the first break it was Bison who led thanks to goals by Greg Chambers in the 8th minute and Brad Cruickshank shorthanded in the 10th.  A powerplay goal in the opening minute of the middle session by Mark DeSantis seemingly had the visitors in control but it turned out to be Panthers who grabbed the game and between the 25th and 48th minute they struck 6 times (2 powerplay and 1 shorthanded) for a 7-3 lead.  During that spell Sean McAslan scored 3 times.  Although DeSantis pulled one back, Panthers finished off the scoring with 2 further counters, including another hat trick strike - this time by GB international David Clarke.

Coventry Blaze 6 Belfast Giants 4

Games between these 2 teams are always relished by the fans and this match up proved no exception.Blaze are early leaders in the bmibaby Elite League after this their second weekend win in a game of 10 goals and 120 penalty minutes. Belfast started the better and goals by Todd Kelman and Jason Ruff, both powerplay counters, had them 2 goals to the good by the 9th minute. Reid Simonton (powerplay) brought it back to within 1 in the 12th minute and it remained that way at the first interval.  We had a real rush of goals between the 25th and 34th minute, which left Blaze leading by 5-4. with Sylvain Cloutier of Blaze and Curtis Huppe of Giants bith hitting doubles.  It stayed tight right up until the home side iced the win thanks to an Ashley Tait goal in the 58th minute and with 12 seconds remaining frustrations boiled over and saw Danny Stewart (Blaze) and JP Morin (Giants) ejected on 5+games for fighting.  

Mobilx Vipers 5 Sheffield Steelers 4

Mobilx completed a double winning weekend taking both points in a tight struggle against Sheffield, who lost for the second night in a row. An explosive start had Jeremy Cornish (Vipers) and Brett Clouthier( Steelers) binned on fighting majors after only 5 seconds and a double strike by David Longstaff with goals in the first and second minutes had the home side 2 ahead. Sawn Maltby pulled a goal back before the end of the period and it was equality in the 22nd minute when Maltby grabbed his second of the game.e visitors then turned it right around, going ahead themselves thanks to a powerplay counter from Dan Tessier in the 33rd minute but the homesters were given the opportunities themselves with the man-advantage and it paid off when Pavol Mihalik (35th) and Andre Payette (40th) edged them 4-3 ahead.  Jonathan Weaver on the powerplay made it 5-3 early in the final period but a grandstand finish was assured when Rod Sarich shorthanded brought Steelers back to within a goal.  That however, was as close as the visitors got!

by Ronnie Nichol and Jim Lydon