Weekend Review

Last weekend the TSI World Bees faced the Raiders IHC on Saturday at the Slough Ice Arena. The Bees started the game strong with an opening game face-off win. Raiders were hit with a penalty on Harry Gulliver early on in the first period but were able to kill the 2 minutes without a real threat towards Ethan James, apart from a couple of good chances coming from Dominik Gabaj. The Bees had early success at 06:13 as Ryan Webb created a gap in the game where the Bees took a one goal lead with assists awarded to James Galazzi and Stuart Mogg. Matt Smital was forced to make crucial saves as the Raiders tried to close the one goal gap but then 6 minutes later, after a couple penalties were called on both teams, at 12:42 Will Stead further extended the Bees lead to 2 goals with assists given to Dominik Gabaj and Brendan Walkom. A late chance for Harvey Stead saw him get the puck from the Bees defensive zone and take it all the way up the ice to the Raiders defensive zone to test Ethan James but was not successful. During the first period the Bees faced a total of 4 penalty minutes while Raiders faced 6. In goal, Matt Smital faced a total of 5 shots on goal whereas Ethan James faced 15 shots on goal from the Bees.

The Raiders came out eager to close the gap on the scoreboard and reacted to this with an opening period face-off win and straight away tried to apply pressure onto the Bees net. A close chance early on for Matt Gomercic for the Raiders but was unlucky enough to hit the crossbar. More penalties were called against the Bees and Raiders but none of the powerplay chances were taken advantage of by either team. At 29:41 Brendan Walkom got to the back of Ethan James’ net to make the Bees lead 3-0 with assists awarded to Dominik Gabaj and Will Stead. The partnership between Brendan Walkom, Dominik Gabaj and Will Stead was key on the night but for the Raiders Tommy Huggett was key, pushing the Bees constantly to play a defensive game while he was on the ice. Just as the period was about to end, at 39:02, Blahoslav Novak ended the Raiders’ silence with a goal and assists were awarded to Alex Roberts and Jake Sylvetser. The Bees faced 2 penalty minutes in the second period while the Raiders faced 4 penalty minutes. Matt Smital faced a total of 16 shots in comparison to Ethan James who faced 10 shots. 

There was quite a slow start to the third period for both teams however the Bees were playing an extremely defensive game in order to keep their lead whereas the Raiders were keen to put as much pressure onto Matt Smital as they possibly could. The Raiders were hit with a lot of penalties towards the start of the third period, but this did not stop them in not allowing the Bees to extend their lead even further however this Bees did have quite a few good powerplay chances. Matt Gomercic did eventually get onto the scoresheet, after many good attempts to make the gap between the two sides small, at 54:53 with the Raiders second goal of the night making the score now 3-2. The Raiders decided to call a timeout at 58:06 and came to the decision of pulling Ethan James so they could finish the game with a one man advantage over the Bees. This plan did not work though as at 59:04, Will Stead secured the Bees win with an empty net goal with assists awarded to Dominik Gabaj and Brendan Walkom to end the game. The game finished Bees 4-2 Raiders, the Bees faced a total of 4 penalty minutes during the third period while the Raiders faced 6 penalty minutes and Matt Smital faced 12 shots on goal in the third period while Ethan James faced 7 but was pulled from the goal for 58 seconds. 

On Sunday, the TSI World Bees took the trip up to Telford to face the Tigers. The Bees and Tigers both came out with strong starts but the Tigers took an early lead at 01:55with Brodie Jensson scoring an unassisted goal. Less than a minute later Sam Watkins extended the Tigers lead further to two goals timed at 02:39 with assists awarded to Jake Price and Brodie Jesson. Robert Herrman was the only player to receive a penalty during the first period due to a Hooking call. Smital faced a total of 13 shots on goal in the first period while Brad Day faced 10 shots.

After the Tigers early success in the first period the Bees came out trying to play a more offensive game to try and keep up with the Tigers as well as try to close the two goal gap on the scoreboard. A powerplay chance due to Tom Carlon receiving a 2 minute Hooking penalty lead to the Bees being able to have a one man advantage which gave the Bees the opportunity to begin to close the gap on the scoreboard with the first Bees goal coming from Will Stead, timed at 30:02, with assists awarded to Brendan Walkom and Josh Smith. It only took the Tigers 5 minutes to react to the Bees’ first goal of the night with Robert Herrman scoring the third Tigers goal of the night, timed at 35:38, with assists awarded to Tom Carlon and Deakan Fielder, but then at 37:20 the Tigers created an even bigger gap as Vladimir Luka secured the forth Tigers goal of the night with an assist awarded to Sam Watkins. The Tigers and Bees both faced a total of 4 penalty minutes during the second period. Brad Day faced 12 shots whereas Matt Smital faced 19 shots in goal for the Bees. 

To start the third period the Tigers Henry Adams faced a 2 minute Tripping penalty but this did not stop the Tigers from extending their lead as Daniel Rose managed to get a short handed goal, timed at 40:38, with assists awarded to Scott McKenzie and Sam Watkins. Then at 43:11, Lucas Price also added to the goal total for the Tigers with an even handed goal this time but assists were awarded to Tom Carlon and Rhodes Mitchell-King. Tom Carlon found himself facing another penalty for Roughing which gave Brendan Walkom the chance to get a chance for the Bees and at 51:30 Brendan got to the back of Brad Day’s goal with a powerplay goal and assists were awarded to Dominik Gabaj and Harvey Stead. Yet again the Tigers did exactly what they had done the whole night and reacted to Brendan’s success with another goal from Finley Howells with an assist awarded to Sam Watkins timed at 53:50. Roughly 3 minutes after the Bees goal, Dan Bradley saw himself with a chance to get his first goal for the Bees this season and he did just that at 54:19 with assists awarded to Dominik Gabaj and Brendan Walkom. The game finished Tigers 7-3 Bees. The Tigers faced a total of 10 penalty minutes whereas Bees faced 8 in the third period, but Matt Smital faced a total of 12 shots in comparison to Brad Day who faced 16 shots.