CARDIFF HUSKIES 4 - 2 MANCHESTER MAYHEM
Manchester Mayhem saw their league campaign come to a close in a battling display against the odds-on favourites to take the British Para Ice Hockey League title in the Cardiff Huskies this past Saturday, where the North West club fought back from 2-0 down to level at 2-2 before succumbing to their hosts.
The Mayhem travelled to South Wales hoping to spring a surprise against the league leaders, as it saw the title-chasing Huskies dominate play with the visitors on the back foot for most of the period. Cardiff took the lead in the contest through Tyler Christopher as an effort from long range bounced off the pads of Darren Pomfrett straight to the Huskies target man, where he fired home for 1-0 at 7.23 played.
It saw Cardiff doubling their lead with another bounce fall their way when a clearance hit an official and went straight to Jon Le Galloudec, as the defencemen slalomed his way through the Mayhem defence before flipping it over Pomfrett for 2-0 at 9.43. It would have been easy for Manchester to fold after going two goals down. But one thing you cannot question about the Mayhem over the past couple of seasons is their heart, and they looked to force their way back into the game.
It saw the Manchester forwards began to make inroads as Karl Nicholson led the fightback and got the side on the board at 12.29, as he chased his clearance and went one-on-one with Dan Hutchinson in the Huskies goal before finishing it off 1-2. That goal seemed to boost the confidence levels of the Mayhem, with Anton Tomlinson going close but saw a good save by Hutchinson before Felicity Gregory saw her effort narrowly go wide of the target, as Manchester ended the period on top.
Play in the second saw a very tight contest between the two, as the game was played in good spirits between the two sides as they always tend to be. The sustained pressure by Manchester caused the home side problems as the Mayhem stifled their Huskies attacks, which led to the visitors growing in confidence and looking to counter-attack. Rob Allen nearly got on the scoresheet, but Hutchinson made the stop and covered up, then Karl Nicholson turned defence to attack with a counter that saw Manchester level at 2-2 with 22.34 in the game, with Darren Pomfrett stick pushing it away into the path of the Mayhem man to go on and score.
Despiting clawing it back through their determination, Cardiff would retake the lead minutes later to take the wind out of the sails at 24.09 as a faceoff just outside the Manchester zone saw Christopher gain possession and puck it past Darren Pomfrett for 3-2 and give the Huskies a lead going into the final period. It saw Pomfrett making a second glove save from his arch-nemesis on the ice in
Tyler Christopher, as the home side began to turn the screw.
We saw a scary moment early on the third with Manchester captain Mark Colquitt having his wrist caught following an accidental collision at mid-ice with Huskies Tyler Christopher. But huge credit goes to both teams, the step-in officials from the Cardiff Comets Women's Ice Hockey team and the matchday helpers who patched him up and calmed the situation. Unsurprisingly, Colquitt missed the rest of the game as he watched on from the bench, and he would have seen his team battling on but coming up against a Huskies side that was just too good.
Manchester found it hard to generate offence in the third period, where Cardiff added to their lead thanks to Josh Campbell keeping the puck in the Mayhem zone, where he passed it to Tyler Christopher to finish off for 4-2 and see 'Game, Set and match' with 2.59 to go in the game. When the horn sounded, Cardiff took the victory but was forced to battle for the win as they look ahead to their crunch title decider next weekend in Peterborough, where the Phantoms need a swing of five or more goals to be crowned or the Huskies three-peat the BPIHL championship.
For the Mayhem, it sees them now awaiting the victor and league champions from that game as they will be facing whoever it is first up in the opening semi-final game, with the end-of-season playoffs taking place for the first-ever time in Nottingham in mid-September.
Stats of the Game
Cardiff: Ty Christopher 3+0, Jon Le Galloudec 1+0
Manchester: Karl Nicholson 2+0, Darren Pomfrett 0+1
Netminders:
Cardiff: Dan Hutchinson - 10 Shots, 8 saves - 80.0%
Manchester: Darren Pomfrett - 22 shots, 18 saves - 81.1%