After an entertaining weekend of hockey, the TSI World Bees walk away from the weekend with 3 points secured. The Bees secured a win on the road against the Raiders on Friday night with a 5-1 victory with netminder Byrthon Preece saving 41 shots out of 42 in this game, then on Sunday after a day off gained 1 point in an overtime loss to the Solway Sharks. 

Raiders IHC 1-5 Bees IHC

A slow start to this game with no major opportunities for both teams in the first 10 minutes but a couple of chances went in favour of both teams. After this silence from both teams Dominik Gabaj blasted the puck to the back of Ethan James’ net to give the Bees the lead at 11:13 and assists were awarded to Marcel Balaz and Brendan Baird. Just over 2 minutes later, Jake Sylvester found himself facing a 2 minute Holding penalty, which gave the Bees power play unit the perfect chance to extend their lead. At 13:48, Aiden Doughty slotted the puck to the back of the goal to secure a power play goal with Dominik Gabaj and Stuart Mogg gaining assists on the goal to make the score 2-0. A strong penalty kill from the Bees to kill a 2 minute High Sticks penalty called on Dan Rose and shortly after the penalty was killed Aiden Doughty gets the 3rd Bees goal of the night but his second timed at 17:31 with Marcel Balaz and Dominik Gabaj both receiving assists on the goal. Shots on goal in this period were 19 on Brython Preece and 11 on Ethan James. 

A tough start to the second period for the Raiders as they are forced to kill 1:12 left of Mikey Power’s penalty for Roughing that was called near the end of the first period. This period was extremely defensive from both sides with Raiders being able to shut down offensive plays within their defensive zone to prevent the Bees from making a further dent on the scoreboard. During the second period, Ethan James faced a total of 11 shots while Brython in net for the Bees faced 12. 

Raiders skated onto the ice for the third period desperate to close the gap on the scoreboard after 2 periods of hockey. At 44:14, Adam Laishram ended the Raiders’ silence throughout the first two periods with a goal and an assist was awarded to former Bee Mikey Power to make 1-3. After this goal Raiders were quick to keep pushing the Bees into a defensive play but at 51:01 Captain Stuart Mogg secured the fourth Bees goal of the night with an assist awarded to Jack Hoppes. The Bees found themselves on another power play chances as Callum Wells was given a 2 minute penalty for Holding and Marcel Balaz took this opportunity to seal the deal and make sure the Bees got the 2 points on offer with a power play goal timed at 55:19 with Dominik Gabaj getting the assist. This saw the Bees to the end of the game and Brython Preece receiving man of the match.

Bees IHC 4-5 Solway Sharks

The Bees welcomed the Sharks to the Slough Ice Arena for the first time on Sunday and the Sharks saw success early on into the game with Kieran Hair taking the lead for the Sharks 22 seconds into the game and assists were awarded to Craig Peacock and Olivier Arseneau and not long after at 7:10 Kieran Hair did it again, this time to make the gap 2-0 and assists given to Craig Peacock again and John Dunbar. Bees tried to regroup to stop the consistent attacks from the Sharks but at 8:39 Nolan Gardiner made it 3-0 in favour of Solway with Scott Henderson and Liam Stention receiving assists. After a neutral zone face-off win in favour of the Bees, they pushed the Sharks into a defensive play and Dan Rose ended the cycle of unanswered goals with one of his own at 10:07 to make the score 1-3.

Early on in the second period the Sharks were forced to kill a 2 minute Tripping penalty called on Lewis Young but this was successfully killed. Then at 27:29, Dunbar scores the fourth Sharks goal of the night to create a 3 goal gap on the board for the Bees to try to close. A goal waved off for Bees due to a high stick towards the end of the second saw the Bees have enough more to play for through frustration of losing the goal. 

The same story for the Sharks in the third as they were yet against finding themselves killing a penalty at the start of the third and final period but this time it was a 5 on 3 they needed to kill after Scott Henderson received a 2 minute Slashing penalty and not long after Kell Beattie faced a 2 minute Slashing penalty too. With 1 second left on Scott Henderson’s penalty, Marcel Balaz blasts the puck to the back of Hepburn’s net to make it a 2 goal game with assists awarded to Josh Smith and Dominik Gabaj.  Captain Stuart Mogg shot the puck to the back of the net to make it a 1 goal game at 53:24 to keep the Beearmy behind the team. With only 54 seconds left in the game, Marcel Balaz secured the equalising goal to force the Sharks into overtime and gave the Bees 1 point. Chances for Dominik Gabaj and Marcel Balaz early on in overtime but then at 62:25, Ryan Webb was forced to sit 2 minutes for Slashing giving the Sharks a man advantage that gave them the edge with a goal from Craig Peacock.