Recap

Match Report- Bees Match Reporter

On Saturday evening the TSI World Bees faced the Sheffield Steeldogs after a previous 6-0 loss away at Sheffield the weekend before. The Bees were very short benched and were without: Josh Kelly, James Galazzi, Dominik Gabaj, Zaine McKenzie, Adam Goss and Adam Rosbottom. The Steeldogs also found themselves short with Jason Hewitt having to sit this one out as well as Matt Bissonette. We also saw Alan Lack and Dan Weller-Evans make their home debuts and the Bees addition, Vanya Antonov, take to the ice.

To start the game Stuart Mogg, Josh Martin and special guest Vanya Antonov took the opening face off. With Curtis Warburton and Dmitri Zimozdra starting in net for the Bees and Steeldogs respectively. We saw both teams come out with strong starts with some good, early chances for the Steeldogs. A great chance from Lee Bonner saw Curtis Warburton making a brilliant save. Then at 04:28, Timothy Smith received a 2 minute Hooking penalty which saw the Bees take advantage of the extra players. 1 minute 2 seconds later, Ben Morgan found himself receiving 2 minutes for Interference, leading to a 5 on 3 opportunity for the Bees. During this powerplay we saw some great chances from Ryan Webb, Alan Lack and Will Stead. Later in the period, at 09:11, Alan Lack received a 5 minute major for Boarding which saw the Steeldogs on a long powerplay. After some amazing defensive plays by Stuart Mogg, Jack Brammer managed to get past Curtis Warburton to secure a 1 goal lead for Sheffield with an opening powerplay goal timed at 13:48, with assists going to Andreas Valdix and Jonathan Kirk. Looking further ahead to 19:06, Josh Martin received a 2+2 for Roughing and Boarding whilst Lee Haywood found himself with 2 minutes for Holding.

The first period ended at Bees 0-1 Sheffield.

In the opening for the second, Vanya Antonov, Ryan Webb and Edward Bradley took the face off and straight away you could see they were hungry for those 2 points. We saw an early opportunity for Vanya Antonov that was stopped by an incredible save by Dmitri Zimodra. This strong start from the Bees was carried forward with some great plays coming from Harvey Stead as well as Josh Smith. At 30:17, Joe Baird found himself receiving a 2 minute Boarding penalty which, seconds into the penalty kill for the Bees, the Steeldogs found themselves with a great opportunity to extend their lead, which was however denied by Curtis Warburton. Shortly after this, Vanya Antonov managed to get the puck to the back of the Sheffield net with an unassisted goal timed at 31:01 to even the game at one goal a piece. However, the tied score line was broken at 31:33, when Lee Haywood got the puck into the net for a powerplay goal, with the assists going to Timothy Smith and Louie Newell, that then made the game 1-2. Bees were now back to full strength. Ben Morgan and Lee Haywood were proving to be key players for the Steeldogs up to this point in the game, creating many opportunities for the team. Sheffield, at 33 minutes, secured a further lead with Andreas Valdix finding his way through the Bees defence, assisted by Lee Bonner and Timothy Smith. Some great partnerships arose from Will Stead and Edward Bradley as well Juha Lindgren and Ryan Webb in an attempt to close the 2 goal gap towards the end of the period.

After 40 minutes, the score stood as Bees 1-3 Sheffield.

Going into the third and final period, both teams came out blazing and fighting for those 2 points, with Vanya Antonov, Josh Martin and Joe Baird taking the first faceoff. The final 20 minutes of regulation time got off to a quick start, with both teams finding early chances, with Ryan Webb and Edward Bradley providing the Bees with opportunities to try and reduce the two goal lead that the Steeldogs had created. This lead to strong defensive work by the Bees, with Curtis Warburton making some crucial saves to prevent a larger lead for the Bees to tackle, whilst Vanya Antonov and Ryan Webb proved a key pairing for the period. At 47:19, Andreas Valdix, assisted by Jack Brammar and Lee Bonner, managed to get past Curtis Warburton for the final goal of the night, securing the 2 points for the Steeldogs. To see out the game, we saw great interceptions coming from Harvey Stead as well as tensions beginning to rise between both sides.

The Man of the Match awards, chosen by our match night sponsor: First Shift, were presented to Vanya Antonov for the Bees and Dmitri Zimodra for the Sheffield Steeldogs.

I had the opportunity to get forward Josh Smith’s views on the game:

“Personally I thought we played really well. I don’t think the scoreline reflected the way we played in any way. It was always going to be tough for us being so short benched and missing some key guys from the lineup, but I think everyone who played battled and gave it everything they had. I feel we had some really unlucky bounces, and if a few had gone our way then I think we definitely could’ve given ourselves a chance to get something from the game.”