After another weekend of league action, the TSI World Bees walked away securing 2 points from an away game against the Bristol Pitbulls where they won 7-2 on Saturday and then just fell short of power on Sunday to deny them a further 2 points against the Leeds Knights.

Bristol Pitbulls 2-7 Bees IHC 

A strong competitive start for both teams with Bristol coming away with the opening period face-off. The first 10 minutes of the game was extremely balanced with chances going in favour of both teams but at 07:41, Stuart Mogg got the Bees off the zero mark with assists awarded to Aiden Doughty and Dominik Gabaj. Not long after, Marcel Balaz, keen to continue his success from the previous weekend, made the score 2-0 in favour of the Bees at 11:57 – Jack Hoppes and Dominik Gabaj receiving the assists. The Pitbulls tried to apply pressure onto the Bees net but Brython Preece shut down any advances from the Pitbulls with many attempts coming from Bayley Harewood. With only 2 minutes left of the period Dominik Gabaj found the back of Matt Smital’s net with a short-handed goal and assists were awarded to Marcel Balaz and Stuart Mogg.

An opening period face-off win for the Bees saw the Bees test the Pitbulls yet again but it took Dominik Gabaj until 25:01 to get back on the scoreboard for the second time of the night to make it 4-0 with Marcel Balaz and Aidan Doughty both being awarded the assists on the goal. Bees yet again pushed in the direction of the Bristol goal and after a bit of a scrap in front of the goal Adam Rosbottom notched the Bees fifth with Liam Morris and Edgars Landsbergs receiving assists on the goal timed at 30:45. Just 9 seconds later it was 6-0 – Dominik Gabaj joined Marcel Balaz in the hattrick club this season after securing his own timed 30:54 with Marcel Balaz and Oliver Knaggs receiving assists. A close chance for Oliver Knaggs saw him ping the crossbar as well as a few chances for Aidan Doughty to further extend the Bees lead. Edgars Landsbergs secured the Bees’ seventh goal of the night at 32:41 with Adam Rosbottom and Brendan Baird getting the assists. Josh Kelly and Tanner Butler both exchanged words with both of them receiving penalties as a result.

The Pitbulls came out with a point to prove in the third and at 41:20, Adam Harding managed to break the Pitbulls’ silence and got them onto the scoreboard with Ed Bradley receiving the assist on the goal. The Bees had several chances to extend their lead back to 7 but at 56:37 Sean Morris made it 2 for the Pitbull’s with Nik Coric and Elliot Lewis getting the assists. This left the game finishing 7-2 and the Bees walking away with the 2 points.

Bees IHC 2-3 Leeds Knights

The start of the game like the previous day was very balanced but only 02:23 into the first period, Oli Endicott managed to slot the puck to the back of Brython Preece’s net to give the Knights an early lead. Josh Smith got the Bees back on level terms at 08:42 with Dominik Gabaj and Brendan Baird credited with assist. Some amazing saves came from Bees netminder Brython Preece to prevent the Knights regaining the lead as the first period ended all square at 1-1.

The Bees would go on to take the lead for the first time of the night with a power play goal from Dominik Gabaj ,timed at 26:19,with Stuart Mogg assisting in the goal, making the score 2-1 in favour of the Bees. However, the Knight’s Captain Kieran Brown was quick to react to the success the Bees had with his own short-handed goal to equalise the game timed at 28:12. This saw the game being neck and neck for the remainder of the period and well into the third period with both teams pushing the opposing team into defensive game plays while forcing themselves to keep creating offensive chances so either team could retake the lead once again. The deadlock was broken with what turned out to be the game winning goal at 49:00, Matt Barron securing the 2 points for the Leeds Knights despite an intense final push from the Bees.

The Bees head north of the border with a trip to Solway next Saturday before a stop in Hull on their way back down on Sunday to face the Seahawks in a double away weekend.

The Bees return to the Slough Ice Arena on the 15th October when they take on the Solway Shark for the first time at Slough for this season.