News

Rink round up

Monday, 17th January 2005

Sunday night's cross-league action saw a win for the BNL when the Guildford Flames took the points in their clash with Sheffield Steelers in a high-scoring game where the Elite League team were defeated 6-4.  Elsewhere, in League competition, Cardiff Devils suffered a defeat when they were soundly beaten 4-0 in Coventry by the Blaze, despite outshooting their hosts. Goals came from Adam Calder, Russel Crowley and a pair from Ashley Tait. Jody Lehman claimed a 32-shot shut-out, earning him the Coventry Man Of The Match award.

Saturday night's cross-league competition also saw a BNL victory with the Dundee Stars taking the points in overtime on their visit to Basingstoke, despite the Bison taking a 2-0 lead through Duncan Dalmao and Doug Sheppard.  A brace from Cory Morgan put the visitors level and took the game to OT, where Mark Scott netted to give the Stars the points, final score 2-3.

The Elite League competition also saw a game settled in overtime, with Sheffield Steelers hosting Coventry Blaze in a bad-tempered affair that saw three ejections in the second period with Adam Calder, Wade Belak and Graham Schlender all taking an early trip to the showers.  Steelers had gone two goals ahead with markers from Dion Darling and Jeff Christian, only for Chris McNamara to draw one back for the Blaze.  Erik Anderson then put the Steelers up three to one with a late second period goal.  Two powerplay goals for Coventry in the third tied up the game, with Chris McNamara claiming his second of the night before Ashley Tait netted to take the game into overtime.  Ron Shudra found the net in OT to give the win to Sheffield, 4-3.

New table-toppers Belfast Giants increased their hold on the top spot with a comfortable 3-1 win over Nottingham Panthers, with ex-Manchester Phoenix Captain George Awada opening the scoring in the second for the home team.  Panthers drew level through Jan Magdosko, but ex-Manchester Storm player Curt Bowen gave Giants the lead late in the second.  Panthers pulled their netminder late in the third but succumbed to an empty net marker from Fredrik Nasvall at 59.58 to seal the game for the home team.  Belfast took the maximum points from their two-game home weekend, having shut out the Basingstoke Bison on Friday night in a 3-0 win, with goals from George Awada, Todd Kelman and Shane Johnson.

by Richard Allan

Rank Team Name Played Won Drawn Lost G GA Points Goal Difference
1 Belfast Giants 34 21
(OT:2)
5 8
(OT:1)
110 65 48 45
2 Coventry Blaze 34 19
(OT:1)
5 10
(OT:5)
116 72 48 44
3 Cardiff Devils 33 21
(OT:2)
2 10
(OT:1)
100 77 45 23
4 Sheffield Steelers 36 20
(OT:7)
3 13
(OT:2)
93 81 45 12
5 Nottingham Panthers 34 17
(OT:0)
5 12
(OT:4)
102 76 43 26
6 London Racers 32 11
(OT:2)
6 15
(OT:1)
64 78 29 -14
7 Basingstoke Bison 36 8
(OT:0)
5 23
(OT:2)
82 129 23 -47