Cardiff Huskies 13-1 Manchester Mayhem
Saturday afternoon saw yet another tough loss for the Manchester Mayhem against the league and Playoff champion Cardiff Huskies, where the Welsh side followed up their 11-2 victory last weekend in Widnes by inflicting a 13-1 defeat against a short benched Manchester side, though the Huskies were just far too powerful and outclassed the Mayhem from the off. Despite the big loss however, the effort and heart shown across the entire game from every single Mayhem player on the ice was one of a strong willed team and never allowed their heads to drop.
Manchester came into the game unchanged with eight players, while the home side had Emma Douglas forced to sit out after picking up an injury last weekend in their win, but Keiron Miles and forward Chris Smart were inserted to the line up. Cardiff opened the scoring with 2.23 gone in the first, as Jon Le Galloudec played a nice angled pass to the far post where Josh Campbell was on hand to turn it home for 1-0. Nathan Stephen then went coast to coast to make it 2-0 for the Huskies, before a poor call by the officials saw Dean Lahan sent to serve a Teeing penalty and allowed Chris Smart to rub salt in the wounds of the away side with three seconds left on the powerplay, as the Huskies took a thoroughly deserved 3-0 lead in to the first break.
Manchester almost caught the Huskies cold right from the restart of the second – as some good link up play from both Dean Lahan and Mark Colquitt helped to set up a chance for Felicity Gregory, as her shot on goal was the first faced in the game. Cardiff then turned defence into offence with a quick transition that saw Paul Furber getting clear from the Mayhem defence to bring a good stop from Darren Pomfrett that denied the Welshman a goal. But Furber would not be denied soon after, as his low effort extended the hosts lead as the puck went under Pomfrett’s arm to find the far corner for 4-0. Cardiff’s total domination saw Stephens grabbing his second of the game less than a minute later, before a couple of quick goals from Chris Smart completed his hat trick for 7-0 with 18.53 gone.
While Manchester were outclassed by a vastly stronger Huskies side, they did try to put themselves in good positions to break forward and start attacks. But the lack of speed was a big miss, with the Huskies having so much throughout the side to cut out any possible threats. Nathan Stephen added an eighth midway through the second as Cardiff were dismantling the Mayhem with ease, despite the efforts of the visitors – though they did manage to see the period out without shipping any more goals. In the third and final period – the Huskies hit Manchester for six goals as they racked up the goals, with Nathan Stephens grabbing his second hat trick in the game within the opening 5.50 of the period to take the scoreline onto 11-0.
Josh Campbell scored his second of the game after Tyler Christopher passed across the face of goal for Campbell to tap in, while Furber made it 13-0 at 43.07 with the Huskies man firing high on Pomfrett to bring the scoring for the home side to a close. As the game drew to a close, it saw Manchester looking likely to be a shutout having rarely mustered any shots in the game, with just two efforts to show and illustrated how difficult of a job it was for them to generate any chances. However, the Mayhem’s most attacking player in the game was Dean Lahan, so when the defender turned forward gained possession of the puck in his own zone, he decided to let one fly from his own blue line and saw it beat Burgess-Gould in the Huskies goal to both deny her and the Huskies a clean sheet.
Despite Cardiff winning 13-1 – that one goal they conceded with 1.01 left in the game seemed to really sting them a lot, as just like the two quick fire goals they shipped last weekend against Manchester; ironically Lahan being the man that scored both times then. It was another learning experience for a relatively inexperienced team to face a side that is the measuring stick in the British Para Ice Hockey League to date, and did remarkably well with the limited weapons at their disposal. Up next for Manchester is another home and away double against the Peterborough Phantoms, with the home game coming first at Widnes Ice Rink next Saturday, as it will see the rare occasion of the Mayhem coach in Karl Nicholson playing against his own side.
Cardiff: Nathan Stephens 6+0, Chris Smart 3+0, Josh Campbell 2+1, Paul Furber 2+0, Jon Le Galloudec 0+3, Dani Czernuszka Watts 0+2, Tyler Christopher 0+2, Gemma Kemble-Stephenson 0+1, Josh Davies 0+1.
Manchester: Dean Lahan 1+0
Period Score: ( 3-0, 5-0, 6-0) Penalty Min: Cardiff 0 – 2 Manchester
Player of the Game: Huskies – 36. Chris Smart Mayhem // 7. Felicity Gregory