News

Rink round up

Monday, 10th January 2011

Friday night's match saw a battle of the capital cities, with London Racers playing host to Edinburgh Capitals in cross-league competition. Ex-Bison duo Joe Ciccarello and Steve Moria netted all the Racers goals of the evening, with Ciccarello opening the scoring and Moria adding a second period hat-trick in a game which saw the Racers debut of netminder Jow Watkins. Watkins kept a clean sheet through the first period and most of the second, only for Dino Bauba to net for the Caps. A third period marker from Ratislav Bohme wasn't enough to keep Edinburgh in it, and the Racers notched up the 4-2 win.

Saturday night saw six of the Elite League teams take to the ice for EIHL competition with Belfast hosting Sheffield, Cardiff hosting Coventry, and Nottingham hosting Basingstoke. A five goal blast from the Giants stole their win over the Steelers at the Odyssey Arena as Belfast came from 3-1 down to win 6-4, with ex-Phoenix captain George Awada putting away the empty netter to give Belfast their sixth.

Coventry Blaze fans gave their support to the Cardiff Devils protest march on Saturday, as the Devils fans demonstrated against the forthcoming closure of the Wales National Ice Rink with no new venue ready for the Cardiff team. But out on the ice the mutual support was nowhere to be seen as the Blaze gave Cardiff a lesson in goalscoring, notching up a rather impressive 7-1 win over their hosts. Cardiff had opened the scoring with what would turn out to be their only goal, with Dave Matsos finding the net. Joel Poirier scored twice in the second period, and markers from Adam Calder and Ashley Tait pushed the game in Coventry's favour. Calder got further involved in the third period when he was checked by Russ Romaniuk, a move which sparked off Andre Payette and resulted in the two men being ejected. A Dan Carlson short-hander moments later saw the Blaze extend their lead even further, and a follow-up goal from Wade Belak added to the Devils misery. Carlson found the net once more to give the Blaze fans seven reasons to be cheerful on the way back to Coventry. Coach Dave Whistle was highly critical of his Devils team, saying: “The way the team played I think they went home in the second and third period and I think if they play like that one or two more times a couple will be going home.”

A surprising result came up at the National Ice Centre, with home team Nottingham Panthers coming off second best in a 3-5 game against bottom-placed Basingstoke Bison. Panthers opened the scoring through Richard Wojciak only for Jason Norrie to even the score a minute later. Kim Ahlroos and Marek Ivan put Nottingham 3-1 ahead, only for Basingstoke to draw level again through Jeff Ewasko and ex-Storm player Shawn Maltby. Maltby had a hand in the go-ahead goal, notching up an assist on Shaun Thompson's marker just after 30 minutes, and then Maltby bagged himself a second goal to seal the 3-5 win.

Sunday's action saw second-place Coventry Blaze held to a 1-1 draw against visitors Nottingham Panthers, who went ahead in the first through Steve McKenna only for Ashley Tait to take the game to overtime with a marker in the 55th minute. Basingstoke continued their run of good form with a home win against Belfast Giants, with home team goals from Jeff Ewasko, Greg Wood and Doug Sheppard, with Curtis Huppe netting twice for the Giants. Belfast netminder Martin Klempa was sent for an early shower towards the end of the second period when he received a match penalty for kicking.

Rank Team Name Played Won OT Won Drawn Won OT Lost G GA Points Goal Difference
1 Cardiff Devils 32 21 2 2 1 9 100 73 45 27
2 Coventry Blaze 32 18 1 5 4 9 109 68 45 41
3 Belfast Giants 32 19 2 5 1 8 104 64 44 40
4 Sheffield Steelers 34 19 6 3 2 12 85 72 43 13
5 Nottingham Panthers 31 15 0 5 4 11 97 71 39 26
6 London Racers 30 10 2 6 1 14 59 74 27 -15
7 Basingstoke Bison 34 8 0 5 1 21 80 123 22 -43