On Saturday 4th April, The Cardiff Huskies welcomed the Manchester Phoenix to the Cardiff Ice Arana for the opening game of the BSHA Planet Ice National Sledge Hockey League for both teams.
Cardiff are starting this year with a number of players new to league matches alongside many more experienced players. However the game was expected to be close and physical between two sides of fairly equal strength.
In an end to end start with strong skating, tight defence but few opportunities for shots on goal the Huskies looked stronger. However despite being the only team in the first 10 minutes to keep possession in attacking positions a mistake against the play and fast reactions from Phoenix 14 Anthony Booth opened the scoring as the forward gained control of the puck in the Huskies zone and wrapped around Gareth Rees’s net to open the scoring on the backhand at 11.41
The physical style of the Huskies continued to give the home team good possession after the restart, however a roughing call against Huskies Paul Furber three minutes later lead to Manchester’s first real opportunity to change the momentum of the game and while the power play that followed was dealt with well by The Huskies penalty kill, Phoenix had begun to make an impact. Despite going on the penalty kill themselves in the last few minutes after a disputed elbowing call on defenceman Graham Wilson, the away team came out of the period 1 – 0 up and looking the more effective team.
Having been the stronger team at the end of the first period, the Phoenix kept up the momentum with a great start and were 2 up in the 17th minute after good interplay between Booth, the scorer of the first goal and top centre Karl Nicholson who flicked the puck into the Cardiff net from close in.
A period of 4 on 4 hockey was key to the next passage of play. Cardiff’s Scotty Turner and Manchester’s Anthony Booth both serving penalties for separate incidents within a short time. Cardiff continued to put good pressure on their opponents with some tough hits, although the greater amount of space clearly benefitted the fast Manchester forwards,
With the score remaining 2 -0 going into the 3rd period a change of net minder in the Cardiff goal seemed to signal a more direct attacking style in the final 15 minutes. A more open style initially seemed to play into the away teams hands, a breakaway goal again from prominent forward Booth on 36.26 taking them into a 3 - 0 lead. However there was no question that Cardiff had begun to put more puck on net in the last 10 minutes and the opposing net minder Stephen Midgehall who was in great form began to get much better shots coming his way.
Unfortunately for the home side the dominance they finally managed to reassert towards the end of the game would not be enough, but in an exciting last few minutes the game firstly seemed to have been completely taken away from Cardiff after Karl Nicholson struck again, before Cardiff staged a very late come back.
The final twist in the game came with little over a minute left to play, when Phoenix seemed to suddenly lose concentration and the fired up home team, who had found new energy in the late stages managed to break the deadlock. At 43.46 Lloyd Woodyatt showed great forward pressure taking the puck of the defence around the back of the net and following on for the wrap around to finally give his side the goal they were looking for.
Then just seconds later after the centre ice face off, Manchester again failed to clear the puck from deep within their defensive zone and Woodyatt again charged down of goal and working well with Scott Turner, saw the home team score a remarkable second goal.
It was a great last push by the Huskies, however it was not enough and with no further score Manchester Phoenix came out winners with a 4 – 2 score line.
This was a good well matched game of Hockey from which both teams will have positives to take away going further into the league season and the rematch away in Manchester will be keenly awaited by both sides.
