Friday night lights
Do not adjust your television sets. That’s really ice hockey on your screen. No, really! It’s a travesty that it took this long, but finally, on Friday 9th December, it was time for the first televised game of the season, as league leaders the Belfast Giants travelled to the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield to take on arguably their main rivals for the title, the Steelers.
The stage was set: a group of Vipers fans gathered in Newcastle’s best new sports bar, Shark Club (it’s Canadian don’t you know), in the VIP area no less (as is befitting of our stature). The screen was large. The beer was cold. The build-up was exciting, although the lovely Anna Woolhouse and her guests were rather drowned out by the banging dance tunes being played in the bar which was a bit of a shame, but at least we managed to pick up most of what Simmsey was saying, as thankfully his voice really seems to carry (damning him with faint praise there)!
The game started out at a high pace, it was end to end stuff right from the off, all the players putting on a good show for the Sky cameras and neither team giving much away in the opening minutes. It was always going to be a close encounter: the timing of the broadcast was fortuitous as the Steelers looked to close the gap on the top-placed team, and with three games in three days they had a great opportunity to do so. But Belfast drew first blood, scoring on the breakaway just over halfway through the first period, Jon Pelle pouncing on a pass from Craig Peacock and burying it in the back of John DeCaro’s net to put the Giants in the driving seat. The Giants were always dangerous on the counter-attack, the blistering pace of Brock McBride in particular a real weapon and a sight to behold, and it seemed for a while as though they would take control, but the game became more physical and the tide turned.
This is what ice hockey on a big screen on a stripey wall looks like!! Them blurs, thems is hockey players! Yet another piece of fabulous photography brought to you by me.
In the second period things evened out again, the one goal lead lending itself to a pulsating yet cagey game. But tempers started to fray and the Giants started to pick up penalties, the Steelers with powerplay after powerplay through the second and third periods, piling the pressure on the Giants’ net. It seemed during the third period that the Giants actually wanted to be short-handed as every time a man returned from the box, another would make the effort to be sent there. Revolving door for Belfast please!
But the Northern Irish side’s penalty kill, along with an imperious display of goaltending by Stephen Murphy, thwarted wave after wave of pressure from the home side and frustrated Steelers fans, the tempo ramping up throughout the third period to a nail-biting crescendo. It looked to be all over as the Steelers just couldn’t find a way to penetrate Murphy’s defences. Back in the pub, conversation broke out. People drifted to the bar. Tabs were settled. The seconds ticked down on the clock…
And then came the game-changer. With 0.42 seconds remaining, Ashley Tait scored what looked through cider-warped eyes to be a good, and priceless, goal, to level the score for the Steelers and take the game to over-time. A shock to the system for the Giants, and the sucker punch was the gift that kept on taking, robbing them of the extra point after less than a minute of overtime, Jeff Legue picking up the puck on the Giants’ blueline and slotting it coolly past Stephen Murphy to end the game.
Steelers celebrated. Giants raged. Coaches vented at officials. Players may or may not have done things they probably shouldn’t have done. Both goals were shrouded in controversy, the first seemingly coming off the back of a missed hand pass, and the second, debated endlessly on the social networks ever since, could well have been offside. In the stop-frame replays Legue looks onside. But should he have had the chance to score that goal at all? It seems not. Passions were running high as Belfast fans and players alike wondered if this could be a turning point. Could that one point be the difference between them winning and losing the title? It would be a brave man who would make such an assertion at this stage in the season. But in the heat of the moment, and given the strength of the Steelers of late, these are the questions being asked.
In any case, for a one goal game it was a great spectacle, and the two teams should be proud of themselves for showcasing British hockey in such a close-fought and exciting encounter. The controversy rumbled on following the game, the players making their feelings known, as has become customary. It’s good for us neutrals, that’s for certain. Speaking of neutral…
Two tickets to the gunfight?
Okay, let’s be up front about this. It was the fight that those of us who are that way inclined would have wanted to see, the two Canadian tough guys named after guns taking it to one another on the ice. But hockey isn’t that simple and for one reason or another – it could quite simply be that the two of them are friends. Or maybe they just didn’t feel like it – they appeared disinterested in sparring, instead showing us what else they were hired for; both putting in good shifts for their teams, King in particular having a strong night up front. Speaking of which…
Colt King: Intelligent Enforcement
‘No Keefe-watch this week?!’ I hear you cry! Yes I may be fickle. But King had a more note-worthy week than Keefe, plus the title of this section sounds like an American cop show. Win win. Don’t worry, I’ll return with a further instalment of Keefe-watch in weeks to come.
Colt King: So hard, they named an alcoholic beverage after him
In a three game weekend for the Sheffield Steelers Colt King proved beyond a shadow of a doubt why Ryan Finnerty put his faith in him this season. For a start, he may be a tough guy, but he’s no goon. He stands up for his team-mates, sure, but he picks his battles carefully; this isn’t fighting for fighting’s sake. He seems to thrive on the implied ass-kicking that he will mete out to anyone who messes with him or his team; having viewed the punishment he doled out to Lepine early on in the season even the toughest in the league will be cautious around him. But he means business when he’s on the ice and is one hell of a presence on his forward line, making a nuisance of himself constantly, distributing the puck with clinical precision and using his physicality in a clever way, shielding the netminder and blocking defencemen to allow his linemates to put in the shots. He’s no goal-poacher and he’s not the fastest guy on the ice but he’s undeniably one of the most valuable forwards in the league when he plays the way he did on Friday against Belfast.
And when he does choose to fight, man does his opponent know about it. In a clear response to Kyle Bruce’s hit on him in Glasgow three weeks previous, King invited Bruce to drop the gloves in Sheffield on Sunday night, and on his home ice proved why he is a force to be reckoned with, winning the tilt in convincing style and causing damage to Bruce in the process (here’s hoping it’s nothing serious). And there’s no show-boating with him either, in contrast to other notable tough guys in this and other leagues. He skates, head down, to the penalty box. Mission accomplished. And continues on his way, five minutes later. Impressed? You will be. More importantly, does he have his own song yet? And if not, why not?
Around the League
In the Sunday basement battle, Dundee Stars picked up two desperately needed points at the expense of visitors Fife Flyers in the first league meeting between the teams, scoring seven goals and gaining some long overdue confidence as well as a first win for new coach Brent Hughes.
The other two Sunday games were once again thrillers (what is it about Sundays?), Braehead Clan coming away with a point and almost upsetting the Steelers on home ice despite being short-benched, the hockey player who most sounds like a German dessert, Steelers’ new boy Francis Trudel, scoring the winning goal in overtime to top off an impressive start to his Elite League career. But the prize for unexpectedly amazing match of the weekend has to go to the tie between Edinburgh Capitals and Hull Stingrays, which was bursting at the seams with 12 goals in regulation time, the teams trading scoring throughout the game eventually tying it 6-6. Amazingly neither team were able to score in overtime, so to a nerve-wracking penalty shoot-out in which the Capitals were finally victorious. Yet again the Elite League pulls cracking entertainment out of the bag.
And so it’s the start of the week once again and I’m left to reflect on the weekend’s action on and off the ice. If I were any sort of aspiring professional I should be attempting to write up these reports immediately following a match. But then I wouldn’t have the full picture. Plus I’m normally drunk and/or hung over at the time. Plus there’s nothing like a couple of days following twitter feeds to add fuel to the already brightly burning fire of inspiration. That’s my excuse. And I’m sticking to it. But there are plenty more talking points to chew over so I’ll see you again soon, folks. TTFN.
