Rink round up

Monday, 21st March 2005

With the Elite League season now at an end, and Coventry Blaze crowned League Champions, all eyes are now focussed on the Play-Offs. The first round of play-off games took place this past week, with Cardiff Devils hosting Sheffield Steelers last Wednesday in the first match. Steelers took the lead in the first period through Dave Cousineau only for Vezio Sacratini to equalise less than a minute later. Erik Anderson restored the Steelers lead in the second and kept the score at 1-2 until the second interval. A Jon Cullen breakaway early in the third saw the Devils level the scores. Russ Romaniuk found the net with just over two minutes left in the third period to give the Devils a one goal lead, forcing Paul Heavey to pull Jayme Platt from the Sheffield goal and to go with the extra attacker. But the ploy was unsuccessful, with John Cragihead capitalising on the empty net with thirty second remaining in the game. Final score 4-2 to the Devils, and Cardiff Coach Dave Whistle couldn't help but feel a little relieved: “Any win right now is a good win, both our teams are going to be battling it out with one goal games, we’re both short on bodies, we’re tired and we’re going to have to rely on our goaltenders, rely on some lucky bounces and just hard work . If we keep working hard and you get some bounces and get some breaks and we got our break near the end.”

Sheffield shook off the defeat in Cardiff with a home fixture against the Belfast Giants the following night, a fixture which saw Erik Anderson and Mike Peron both find the net twice with no reply from the Giants. Ex-Phoenix netminder Jayme Platt registered a 25-shot shut-out in the Sheffield net in a game which saw Belfast's Fredrik Nasvall pick up thirty minutes worth of penalties for abuse of an official.

London Racers began their play-off campaign with a home fixture against league champions Coventry Blaze on Saturday night, with Adam Calder putting the Blaze one goal to the good early in the first period. London's fight-back was instant, with Mark Gouett finding the net less than a minute later to tie the game, and then a goal from Steve Moria put the home team at 2-1 going into the first interval. Early in the second the scores were drawn by Ashley Tait, and halfway through the third the Blaze penetrated the Racers' defence to give Russell Cowley a goal, the Blaze taking the game 2-3.

Sunday night's action saw the Steelers in their third game of their campaign, with the return fixture against Cardiff Devils. Cardiff opened the scoring through Nathan Rempel in the first period, only for Mike Peron to tie up the game. The Devils kept up the pressure but were unable to find a way past Jayme Platt in the Sheffield net, and at the other end Jason Cugnet sat pretty in the Cardiff net, neither goalie conceding another goal for the rest of the game. Final score one-one.

Coventry opened their home campaign with a fixture against Nottingham Panthers. The Blaze were fresh from their win down in London, and were keen to capitalise on the momentum. And capitalise they did, with both Chris McNamara and Dan Carlson netting hat-tricks following the replacement of Curtis Cruickshank in the Panthers net through injury. The Panthers goalie had ventured from his net to make a clearance when he lost his footing and injured himself in the fall, leaving back-up goalie Geoff Woolhouse to face the Blaze. Mark Cadotte had tied the game at one apiece for the Panthers before the goal onslaught began, with Doug Schueller finding the net for the home team alongside his hat-tricking team-mates. Andre Payette took an early shower after being ejected in the first, but this didn't slow down the Blaze juggernaut, the game ending 7-1 to the league champions.

by Richard Allan

Playoffs Group A

Rank	Team Name	Played	Won	Lost	G	GA	Points	Goal Difference
1	Coventry Blaze	2	2 (OT:0)	0 (OT:0)	10	3	4	7
2	Nottingham Panthers	1	0 (OT:0)	1 (OT:0)	1	7	0	-6
3	London Racers	1	0 (OT:0)	1 (OT:0)	2	3	0	-1

Playoffs Group B

Rank	Team Name	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	G	GA	Points	Goal Difference
1	Cardiff Devils	2	1 (OT:0)	1	0 (OT:0)	5	3	3	2
2	Sheffield Steelers	3	1 (OT:0)	1	1 (OT:0)	7	5	3	2
3	Belfast Giants	1	0 (OT:0)	0	1 (OT:0)	0	4	0	-4

Elite League Final Standings

Rank	Team Name	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	G	GA	Points	Goal Difference
1	Coventry Blaze	50	33 (OT:4)	6	11 (OT:5)	181	104	77	77
2	Belfast Giants	50	31 (OT:3)	7	12 (OT:2)	170	104	71	66
3	Cardiff Devils	50	30 (OT:5)	4	16 (OT:1)	152	121	65	31
4	Nottingham Panthers	50	25 (OT:1)	5	20 (OT:6)	136	101	61	35
5	Sheffield Steelers	50	25 (OT:7)	5	20 (OT:3)	118	110	58	8
6	London Racers	50	19 (OT:3)	9	22 (OT:3)	116	124	50	-8
7	Basingstoke Bison	50	15 (OT:0)	5	30 (OT:2)	128	178	37	-50

News

Rink round up

Playoffs Group A

Playoffs Group B

Elite League Final Standings