The Bees skated away from this weekend after securing 2 points in an overtime win at the Slough Ice Arena against the Telford Tigers on Saturday night, then falling short against the Peterborough Phantoms in a 5-3 loss away at Planet Ice Peterborough on Sunday night.
Bees IHC 3-2 Telford Tigers (After overtime)
Bees began this period with a strong offensive start by testing Brad Day who was in goal for the Tigers. Some good chances for Marcel Balaz and some good defensive plays by captain Stuart Mogg to stop the Tigers progressing up the ice. At 2:04 Marcel Balaz, with the assistance of Will Stead and Dominik Gabaj, gave the Bees a 1 goal lead with an even-handed goal. Not long after this goal, the Tigers found themselves on a man advantage due Will Stead being sent to the penalty box for a Slashing 2 minute minor, but Telford were unable to capitalise on this opportunity. Dominik Gabaj then at 11:27 was able to further the Bees’ lead to 2 goals with assists being awarded to Marcel Balaz and Aiden Doughty. During the first period Brython Preece in goal for the Bees faced 9 shots on goal while on the other side of the ice, Brad Day faced a total of 11 shots on goal.
A slow start to the second period for both Telford and the Bees with both teams struggling to clear both of their defensive zones but eventually managed to get back into the game. Chances went in favour of Finley Howells and Vladmir Luka for the Tigers but neither of the players were able to get the puck to the back of the net as Brython Preece made some incredible saves. Harry Ferguson, at 36:09, managed to slot the puck to the back of the Bees net on a power play chance with assists that went to Rhodes Mitchell-King and Scott McKenzie. This then had fuelled a fire within the Tigers lineup as not long after their first goal Finley Howells also found the back of the Bees goal at 38:36, with assists being awarded to Rhodes Mitchell-King and Nick Oliver, to get the equalising goal. Once this period had finished words were exchanged between Harvey Stead and Jamie Peca. Brython Preece faced 13 shots on goal during this period while Brad Day faced 14 shots on goal.
The third period was very defensive from both sides as the score remained 2-2 throughout the third period with both teams attempting to take the lead but neither were able to do that. Some good chances for new Gianni Vitali on his debut game for the Bees, but Brad Day was able to shut down these chances the same as Brython Preece was doing in goal for the Bees when the Tigers would try to take the lead. This forced the game to go to overtime allowing both teams to secure 1 point but battle it out for the extra point to come away with the full 2 points. Only 59 seconds into overtime it looked for Vanya Antonov to secure the 2nd points for the Bees and the win against the Tigers with the only shot on goal against Brad Day during overtime.
Peterborough Phantoms 5-3 Bees IHC
Bees came away with the opening period face-off win but Phantoms automatically started to battle for possession of the puck to try and test Preece in goal for the Bees. A strong offensive start for the Bees with Dominik Gabaj gaining the lead in the game at just 1:44 into the first period with an assist awarded to Marcel Balaz. It did not take long for the Phantoms to react to the early success for the Bees with Luke Ferrara , with the assistance of Martin Susters and Lukas Sladkovsky, getting the equalising goal at 4:15. Both teams had opportunities to test both teams defensively, but at 16:07 after an amazing poke check by Marcel Balaz to obtain possession of the puck off of Brad Bowering to then go on and take the lead again for the Bees with Josh Smith getting an assist on the goal. Lukas Sladkovsky managed to equalise the game with a tic tac toe style of play with Luke Ferrara and Martin Susters getting the assists on the goal to see both teams through to the end of the period.
A slow start to the second period for both teams after picking up quite a few penalties within the first 10 minutes for both sides, which saw an extremely defensive play for this amount of time until Luke Ferrara helped the Phantoms take the lead for the first time on the night at 32:40 with Martin Susters and Joe Gretton.A strong start to the period for the Phantoms after an early goal timed at 41:01, which saw Luke Ferrara secure his hat trick on the night with assists awarded to Martin Susters and Lukas Sladkovsky.
The Bees tried to push into the Phantoms’ defensive zone and eventually managed to pull themselves back into the game with Gianni Vitali getting his first goal for the Bees at 48:17 with Marcel Balaz and Dominik Gabaj getting the assists to then make it a one goal game. The Bees called a timeout to evaluate the situation they found themselves in and decided to pull Brython Preece from his goal to gain an extra skater, but the Phantoms managed to secure the 2 points with an empty net goal. Brython Preece faced a total of 41 shots on goal within this game while Jordan Marr faced 33 shots on goal.
