What Katy Did Next: EIHL Playoffs 2012-13 Part II
Following on from yesterday’s first part to Katy Parles’ adventures in Nottingham last weekend at the EIHL Playoff Finals weekend. We hear the second half of the action from the Saturday and also the third place game the following Sunday morning.
If you missed the first instalment – catch up right here.
Playoff Saturday… cont’d
Belfast Giants v Coventry Blaze
The second semi-final was hotly anticipated amongst the ranks of EIHL fans. These teams always seem to produce exciting, competitive, physical encounters, and with the added incentive of a trophy just around the corner, surely it would only serve to enhance the qualities that these sides so often brought to the table.
The game started brightly, with some early chances for the Giants testing Peter Hirsch in the Coventry net. The Blaze were awarded an early powerplay which produced little, and the quality of the ice was questioned as there was a higher than average occurrence of players falling over. The respective fans, situated in neighbouring blocks, were in fine voice, a call and response ‘Giants’ ‘Blaze’ chant lifting the atmosphere in the NIC. It was the Giants’ turn for a powerplay next and for the second time that day, blood had to be removed from the ice. Quite whose it was I failed to observe. One unsuccessful Giants powerplay was quickly followed by another and I recalled my previous enounters with this team over the course of the season – was it me or were the Giants incapable of putting together a decent powerplay?
That being said, the Giants were starting to build up a head of steam and, galvanised by a blistering Robby Sandrock shot and an almost plexi-shattering hit on Russ Cowley from Darryl Lloyd, they pushed for the advantage, Daymen Rycroft and Noah Clarke both seeing attempts on goal saved, and Peter Hirsch pulling off some heroics in his crease to keep the score level.
Darryl Lloyd really is a man for playoff hockey, and I can’t fail to comment on a move which began with a beauty of a check and seamlessly melted into a piece of mouth-watering puck handling, all topped off with a peach of a pass to set up a colleague on goal – it would have been a contender for goal of the season had it found its way into the net.
After another poor powerplay from the Giants and a rare save by Stephen Murphy – where WERE the Blaze? The continued pressure finally told for the Erhardt Conference champions, Rycroft deftly guiding the puck around Hirsch just over 13 and a half minutes in to make the breakthrough.
The pressure didn’t let up, with even the officials feeling the wrath of the Giants, the unfortunate Mike Hicks taking a puck to the elbow, but they fluffed a few chances to ensure the scoreline remained at 1-0. A wildly flailing stick from Mike Egener resulted in a another chance for the Giants to redeem themselves with the man advantage, Blaze’s ill-discipline not having been punished to the extent Doug Christiansen would have hoped for up to that point.
The ill-discipline seemed to be catching, as first Greg Stewart then Benn Olson took to the penalty box, and the Giants found themselves with a 4-on-3, a situation that was clearly more comfortable for them as they swiftly found the back of the net for the second time, Rycroft shielding Peter Hirsch allowing Colin Shields to fire home. An expertly executed powerplay goal that had been hiding away for far too long.
The Giants had the taste for blood now and just moments later they struck again, Craig Peacock on his own, taking the puck around Hirsch to score a peach of a third goal. This was most certainly not the lacklustre Giants of last years’s playoffs. This time around they meant business.
Darryl Lloyd’s hits. They are pure poetry. If poetry was a short, sharp, painful shock. The diminutive Giant continued at the beginning of the second period exactly where he had left off at the end of the first, and Blaze felt the pain. They also continued in the same vein, unable to build anything, the likes of Guthrie stifled by the Giants stingy play. But as Darryl Lloyd went on throwing his body at anything and everything, the Blaze closed ranks and started to play. Murphy was finally called into meaningful action for the Giants, and he combined with the Belfast defence to maintain the clean sheet, save after save ensuring the Dundonian netminder proved his selection over import goalie Garrett Zemlak was justified. The action so far was all concentrated at one end of the arena – quite fortunately, the end that contained both sets of affected fans. How considerate of them!
The action continued and it was all Blaze, Stephen Murphy having to play a blinder. On a powerplay Coventry had a fantastic attempt, almost finding a way around Murphy to score a goal that would have defied physics, as the Giants netminder was sprawled full length in his crease, Blaze fans began to celebrate, but no goal was given.
This was miles better from Coventry, night and day compared with their first period showing, their build-up play impressive and a rain of shots falling on Stephen Murphy who was equal to the challenge. Giants had a chance at the other end to briefly punctuate the Blaze pressure which Peter Hirsch fumbled, and a goal-mouth scuffle broke out. It was to be the last of the significant action for a period of time as the game went quiet – were the Blaze running out of steam? They were awarded another powerplay opportunity 13 minutes in – could it be as good as their last? It was not to be as the Giants D were resilient, and Belfast had a couple of breakaway short-handed chances at the other end. The Blaze mustered a great chance right at the end of the two minutes to force a save from Murphy but it was too little too late and Adam Henrich proceeded to break his stick over the crossbar – accidentally or on purpose? We’ll never know.
The Cameron/Guthrie forward line was starting to look strong but when Blaze’s efforts finally paid off, just over 17 minutes into the period, it was young Brit James Griffin whose name was on the scoresheet. I missed the goal due to excessive note-taking (I really must take something for this affliction) but saw another attempt immediately after almost take Murphy by surprise, sneaking through the legs of the D-man in front of him. The period concluded with some off-ice activity between Derek Campbell and Adam Keefe but nothing came of it, and we headed into the third with the score 3-1 to the Giants.
My early observations in the third period were that the ‘oomph’ had gone from the game. Giants had another unsuccessful powerplay and perhaps they were going to be content to sit on their lead. But it was not the case; just as the thought was formed they scored again, Noah Clarke taking advantage of an out of position Hirsch, who had already committed himself on a previous shot, to rip another hole in the Blaze’s already wind-less sales.
The period was a damp squib in comparison to what had come before, the Giants content to defend and the Blaze out of steam and ideas. James Griffin continued to impress and was undoubtedly the stand-out Brit for the Blaze. There was a fantastic chance for a Giant from a Greg Stewart pass, Peter Hirsch forced to make a reflex save. Thoughts strayed to the upcoming 50/50 draw. I was feeling lucky. There was a stoppage in play with 3.20 left on the clock and the crowd started to get rowdy. I was officially the soberest person in the building. Possibly in the whole of Nottingham.
The game had gotten lazy, slack. The Giants had a few chances and one of them trickled in from the stick of Craig Peacock to take the score to 5-1. The game concluded with the Giants on yet another powerplay.
Giving one of his last press conferences in British hockey, Paul Thompson said he felt the previous week’s exertions against the Steelers had taken it out of his side, but that he felt they had done their best despite the differences in depth between the squads.
“You need to be at full strength to challenge,” he said, “and tonight was a push too far.”
He praised man of the match James Griffin, labelling the 19 year old ‘a star of the future’, and when asked if he felt the gap between the three arena teams and the rest was closing he said that overall he felt his side had overachieved this campaign, but he felt in the current circumstances, teams like the Blaze would always be ‘playing for fourth place.’
Doug Christiansen was pleased with his team’s performance and said they were “motivated, hungry, and excited for the chance to wreck Nottingham’s party.”
The day drew to a close with the prospect of a mouth-watering final match-up to look forward to on Sunday.
Playoff Sunday
Coventry Blaze v Cardiff Devils
Before the build-up to the final could begin, there was the small matter of a ‘bronze medal match’ to be played between rivals sides Coventry and Cardiff. The matter of whether or not such a game was wanted or needed at playoff weekend had been debated across social media networks ever since its announcement, with the general consensus being that it was pointless and that the players would not be enthusiastic about participating.
Perhaps surprising then, that the first game of the day found the arena surprisingly full, not just with the fans of the two teams involved but with plenty of others besides. The prospect of an extra game of Elite League hockey too tempting to allow many to extend their long lie-ins, and the atmosphere in the arena was friendly and laid back, a nice contrast with what had been the day before and what was to come later.
The league’s media team had put together a nice montage of ten years of the Elite League playoffs which showed on video screens throughout the day, a great collection of footage and a nice reminder that once, in the dim and distant past, my beloved Vipers had lifted the trophy.
No-one knew what to expect from the game itself – rumours of back-up netminders playing on the wing and the employment of Mighty Ducks-style flying V formations abounded, but in actuality it was not a bad game to watch. It brought to mind exhibition or testimonial style games, with zero physicality but plenty of style on display. It was actually a pleasure to watch the skills of some extremely gifted and experienced players in such a laid back setting, and the early part of the game saw the Leeb brothers combining beautifully numerous times to provide threats on the Devils goal.
The first goal went to the Devils however, after some lovely interplay between Chris Blight, Max Birbraer and Stu Macrae. Five minutes later, Greg Leeb tied the score – the two brothers, who would announce their retirement immediately after the game, were treating it as a final spot of shooting practice and Chris Whitley in the Devils goal had to make a number of saves. Another goal for the Devils swiftly followed from Luke Piggott, and a brace of goals just moments later for the Blaze from Shea Guthrie and Adam Henrich. Okay, so the excessive scoring was a bit silly but perhaps to be expected, Peter Hirsch the more awake of the two netminders, making a couple of one-one-one saves within the melee of goal-scoring opportunities. Chris Blight scored again after 12 minutes, executing a lovely move and some expert puck control – pure class from the standout Devils player of the weekend.
It was a masterclass of top level hockey – the next Blaze goal coming from a drop pass from Dale White to Dustin Cameron whose snapshot blasted into the Devils net to bring the scoreline to 4-3. It was a pleasure to see the quality and class of the import players shining through, beautiful skating and soft hands the order of the day. There was yet more scoring to end the period, Derek Campbell assisting himself on Blaze’s fifth goal, making up for an earlier fluffed chance.
The backup netminders took up their place in the crease at the beginning of the second period, and Blaze began to stretch away from the Devils adding another to their tally less than two minutes in. Meanwhile out in the crowd, the Fife fans were keeping everyone entertained with some lovely singing, followed by the Braehead fans whose stunning purple masses piped up shortly afterwards. It was all jolly good fun.
The Blaze’s seventh goal was almost cruel, as Dustin Cameron took the puck to the netminder, teased, then passed swiftly off to Henrich who made no mistake. Chris Blight continued his one man Devils crusade at the other end a couple of minutes later picking up the puck and travelling at amazing speed before tucking it around Blaze back-up Declan Ryan, who was having a decent showing despite being Blaze’s third choice.
In the final period Blight scored a fourth, a selection of inflatable sheep did the rounds in the crowd, and Declan Ryan made a brilliant save on what should have been a tap-in for Chris Blight, attacking the goal two-on-one. Mike Bayrack scored from his temporary position in defence, the stadium announcer called out a Devils fan for not organising his wedding date, and even the DJ was getting bored of the Blaze scoring as he decided to play something else instead of their usual goal music as first Brad Leeb, then Dustin Cameron, then Ross Venus racked up the scoreline to 11-5. The Devils back-up Joe Myers closed out the period with a couple of decent saves and overall it was agreed that despite low expectation, the bronze medal game had been a pleasant surprise. Paul Thompson got a great send-off from all of the fans as he left the ice for the final time – for now – in British ice hockey.
As fans drifted out to grab a bite to eat prior to the main event I reflected on the skills of the retiring Leebs, the sadly departing Shea Guthrie, and others such as Dustin Cameron, Adam Henrich and Cardiff’s Chris Blight, who had been nothing but a pleasure to observe for 60 minutes, and concluded that perhaps it hadn’t been such a terrible idea after all. Third place would clearly mean little to the players in the long run, but they had provided a spectacle for the fans, and this did add value to a costly ticket.
Join me for the final part of my playoff opus in which I review the final game between the Nottingham Panthers and the Belfast Giants.
