Flames egde out Cats in physical encounter

The Guildford Flames travelled to Swindon to take on the Wildcats in a mid-table clash in the league cup competition. Both teams were coming in to this game off of the back of victories, with the Wildcats beating Milton Keynes by three goals to two and the Flames destroying Telford by six goals to nil.

Guildford won the face-off to get the game underway in front of a good crowd in Swindon and forced a good save from the Cats goalkeeper Thomas Murdy in close with just 30 seconds gone. Conceding early in the previous two games, the Cats would have wanted to start this game in a better manner and they went about that by firing two good shots in from Watt and Aldridge within the first two minutes. It was an open start to the game and with six minutes gone, the ever impressive Aaron Nell dropped a lovely pass back through his legs for Swede Jonas Hoog, who forced a good save from the solid Mark Lee in the Flames net.

The game settled down abit and at the same time brought the first goal of the night, as Slovakian Milos Melicherik released a slapshot from the blue line which beat Murdy low on his glove side, giving the Flames a one goal lead with five minutes to play. The Cats were given an opportunity to go into the locker rooms all square as Guildford’s Jez Lundin was given a minor for boarding but Swindon’s powerplay didn’t function at all, failing to test Guildford goaltender Mark Lee.

A very entertaining first period came to a close with the Flames leading one goal to nil and also leading the shots with 14 to the Cats 12.

The Flames again won the face-off to kick off the second, which turned out to be a very strange period indeed. We saw five on five, five on four, four on three and five on three hockey throughout the period and witnessed two game misconducts. The Flames went on the powerplay early in the period as Nicky Watt was penalised for interference but they couldn’t capitalise and take a two-goal lead.

It was a very scrappy second period, with both teams struggling to gain any sort of consistency going forward. With about four minutes gone, Guildford’s Neil Liddiards high stick drew blood from the face of Sam Bullas, resulting in a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct. The Wildcats capitalised on the penalty and with about six minutes played, the very talented Jonas Hoog impressively released a snap shot over the glove of Lee after receiving a nice pass from Ryan Aldridge to tie the game at one apiece.

Halfway through the second the Flames started to apply some pressure to Swindon and by this point I had genuinely lost count of the penalties. With 12 minutes gone the second game misconduct occurred as an off-the-puck incident between Shane Moore and Curtis Heppe lead to the Wildcats defender getting changed earlier than expected. With Loris Taylor serving Moore’s five-minute penalty, the Flames grabbed a go-ahead goal through Canadian Heppe, who deflected a shot from Lundin past Thomas Murdy who couldn’t do anything about it.

It was a very physical end to what turned out to be a scrappy period and not too pleasing on the eye. The Flames went in with a two goal to one lead and edged the shots again, 16 to 13.

It was quite a quiet final period in comparison to second, as Guildford fired several shots in early but couldn’t find a way past the impressive Murdy inbetween the pipes for Swindon. Aaron Nell went close for Swindon as he had a wrist shot denied by the equally impressive Mark Lee with 12 minutes to go in the game. At the half way-point in the period, the Flames had a chance to gain a crucial two goal lead, but Rick Plant couldn’t put the puck home on his breakaway chance coming out of the penalty box.

A tense final few minutes was perfectly set up with the Cats camped in the Flames zone trying to get the puck past Mark Lee which they had struggled to do throughout the game. The Cats pulled Murdy in the quest of an equalising goal and they thought they had one as a slapshot that was heading into the roof of the net was sublimely saved with fast reactions by the glove of Lee. The Flames managed to hold out until the final buzzer to take a road victory back to Surrey after what turned out to be a physical, frantic and enjoyable game.

Scorers:
Swindon Wildcats – Jonas Hoog
Guildford Flames – Milos Melicherik, Curtis Heppe

Shots:
Swindon Wildcats -40
Guildford Flames -42

Man of the match:
Swindon Wildcats – Jan Melichar
Guildford Flames – Mark Lee