An eventful weekend for the TSI World after an electric penalty shootout against the Swindon Wildcats on Saturday evening left them with 2 points secured, then the Bees welcomed the Bristol Pitbulls to the Slough Ice Arena for their last fixture against each other for the rest of the season and then went on to secure a 4 point weekend. 

Swindon Wildcats 5-6 Bees IHC (After shootout)

A good start to the game for the Wildcat as they automatically try to apply pressure onto Brython Preece in goal for the Bees with a 2 on 1 opportunity but the slapshot was gloved by Preece. Marcel Balaz opened the scoring chance for the Bees on the night with a goal timed at 9:52 with an assist awarded to Adam Rosbottom. Just over 5 minutes later, Colby Tower managed to equalise the game at 1-1 with Chris Jones and Tomasz Malasinski both receiving assists on the goal. With only 3 seconds left in the period, after getting an assist on the last Wildcats goal he just managed to get the puck to the back of the goal before the final buzzer at 19:57 with Gael Lubwele and Russell Cowley getting assists to make it 2-1.

Early on in the second period, Liam Morris faced a 2 minute Slashing penalty that gave Gael Lubwele the chance to score a power play goal timed at 23:13 with Russell Cowley and Balint Pakozdi getting assists and making an even bigger gap on the scoreboard for the Bees to tackle. Then history repeated itself as an Interference penalty was called against Harry Harcup, which then resulted in the fourth Wildcats goal that was scored by Balint Pakozdi with assists awarded to Luc Johnson and Gael Lubwele at 24:01. Dominik Gabaj found himself with a chance to begin to close the gap that the Wildcats had put in front of the Bees and at 26:11 the Bees closed the gap to 2 goals as Gabaj secured the 2nd Bees goal of the night. The Bees found themselves with another chance to close the gap as Marcel Balaz scored at 31:16 to make it 4-3 with Dominik Gabaj getting an assist. Harvey Stead had a Tripping penalty called against him that saw the Wildcats have a power play chance at the end of the second period. Balint Pakozdi found his way to the back of the goal at 39:06 with Gael Lubwele and Luc Johnson getting assists on the goal. 

It was a slow start to the third period for both teams, but Dominik Gabaj was able to get to the back of Tyler Perre’s goal at 47:05 to make it a 1 goal gap on the scoreboard and Marcel Balaz and Adam Rosbottom got assists on the goal. After penalties were called against both teams, Adam Rosbottom found his way to the back of the Swindon goal to tie the game at 5-5 at 51:24 with Dominik Gabaj and Marcel Balaz receiving assists on the goal. The Bees then ice the puck with 5 seconds left and force the Wildcats into overtime.

During overtime both teams had the same amount of chances to take the second point on offer but neither team could secure a goal which then forced them both into a shootout. Goal scorers for the Bees consisted of Gianni Vitali, Dominik Gabaj x2 and Marcel Balaz with Colby Tower, Balint Pakozdi and Tomasz Malasinski being the goal scorers for Swindon in the shootout but the Bees secured the 2 points in the Link Centre in their final visit there this season. 

Bees IHC 4-3 Bristol Pitbulls 

A face-off win for the Bees saw them able to attack Ben Norton’s net with chances for Dominik Gabaj and Marcel Balaz. Not long after the the Pitbulls began to push for more possession of the puck and were able to test Brython Preece in goal for the Bees but at 8:19, Gianni Vitali got the first goal for the Bees with Vanya Antonov receiving an assist on the goal. Vanya Antonov found himself in a position with an opportunity to extend the Bees’ lead as he tipped the puck into the goal at 11:41, which led to a 2-0 lead with Stuart Mogg and Ed Bradley both receiving assists on the second goal. Just over a minute later, Dominik Gabaj with the assistance of Brendan Baird and Zaine McKenzie was able to create a 3 goal gap between the teams on the scoreboard at 12:57. A power play chance was given to the Pitbulls as Dominik Gabaj and Ed Bradley both found themselves in the penalty box, as well as Max Birbraer for the Bristol, and Mason Lipsey was able to take advantage of this with a power play goal timed at 15:25 to get the first goal for Bristol of the night.

Throughout the second period there were many penalties called on both teams and in addition to this we saw some good chances on goal for both sides but during this period no players were able to get the puck to the back of either netminder’s goal and left the second period ending 3-1 still in favour of the Bees.

A penalty called at the end of the second period against Pitbulls captain Tanner Butler saw the Bees start the third period on the power play and Marcel Balaz started the period off to a good start with a goal only 37 seconds after the opening period face-off with Vanya Antonov gaining an assist on the goal. Bari McKenzie was quick to react to the Bees’ early success with the Pitbulls’ second goal timed at 43:58 with Sam Smith and Dan Bradley receiving assists. With just under 2 minutes left in the game, Mason Lipsey scored his second goal of the game at 58:46 to create just a 1 goal difference between the two sides and after this the Pitbulls called a timeout and made the decision to take a risk and pull Ben Norton from the goal to gain an extra skater in their final push. But this was not enough to force the Bees into overtime and meant the Bees scored the 2 points as well as a 4 point weekend.