Mayhem Open League Campaign With Victory
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
Saturday night in Widnes saw the Manchester Mayhem open their British Para Ice Hockey League campaign with a 2-0 win over the Cardiff Huskies, their first league victory over the Welsh side in nearly seven years, thanks to first-period goals from Mayhem captain Mark Colquitt and Anthony Booth.
It was back at the Playoffs last September that saw Manchester finally chalk up a win against Cardiff in the 3rd/4th contest, but you had to go right back to 2019 and the opening game to find when the Mayhem last tasted victory over the Huskies in a league game, when it saw them recording a 4-1 win. Three players who iced in that game were involved in Saturday’s match: Jon Le Galloudec for Cardiff, and Anthony Booth and Dean Lahan for the Mayhem.
Both teams handed out a lot of debuts to people, as it was good to see two long benches for both sides. The first-period saw Jon Le Galloudec having the first pop on goal for Cardiff, while the first real clear chance fell to Fliss Gregory who found herself unmarked at the back post and could only put it wide. The home side then began to create more chances, with Anthony Booth turning Le Galloudec inside out and bringing a very good save out of Jodie Hill in the Huskies' netminder, with Mark Colquitt firing low and seeing Hill make another good stop.
At the other end, most of Cardiff’s attacking play came through Jon Le Galloudec, as his effort was well saved by the Mayhem’s player of the year last season, Dan Hartshorn to keep it scoreless. The trio of Shannon Couch-Mitchell, Dani Czernuszka-Watts and Josh Davies all offered support for the visitors, and for a passage of play in the first period they were more attacking than the Mayhem, as Davies fired just over the bar in their only real attack.
Manchester looked more threatening when coming forward than the away side, as the hosts took the lead at 11:39 with a goal that should have seen the play blown dead moments before. This was after Dean Lahan saw him rip a shot that flew up, hitting the netting above the plexiglass, but everyone on the ice and bench lost sight of it other than the Mayhem captain, as he then got the puck back from Dean Lahan and Mark Colquitt sent the goalie the wrong way for 1-0.
The Mayhem kept the pressure on and doubled their lead less than two minutes later through Anthony Booth, as he rounded Shannon Couch-Mitchell and then slipped it past Hill for 2-0 at 13:18. Those two quick goals seemed to rock the away side momentarily, but they tried to mount some late offence in the final minute of the first, as a shot flew inches by the far post of Hartshorn before the break.
Play in the second felt scrappy, with neither side able to fully take hold of the game, but Cardiff had the best couple of chances in the first half of the period, as Josh Davies had a chance saved and then Jon Le Galloudec was unmarked and saw another great save by Dan Hartshorn to deny him. Le Galloudec created another chance which was saved by the Mayhem goalie, as the Huskies huffed and puffed at the Manchester goal, but couldn’t blow it down due to the brick wall named Hartshorn.
Manchester had been brilliant breaking out in attack, and it saw them once again getting behind the Huskies' defence, with Dean Lahan clear on goal and needing to just close in a bit more; but his rushed effort went wide of the target. The difference between the teams seemed to be cohesiveness in their play, as while the Huskies struggled to make successful passes or find that final one, the Mayhem on the other hand were, but were more guilty of wasting chances and not converting them.
It was nearly 3-0 early in the third, when Anthony Booth saw his turn and shot going a foot wide from going in. The home side seemed to come out more comfortable in the third and saw some lovely link-up play in attack, as Fliss Gregory tried desperately to add their name on the scoresheet, but Hill had other ideas. The Cardiff net lived a charmed life, as Booth again was involved, when a waft by a Huskies defender edged it like a cricket ball and it came off the foot of the post with Jodie Hill pushing it to safety.
Hill then made a brilliant save from Lahan soon after, as Manchester themselves banging on the door of the Huskies net and they couldn’t find a way either. Jon Le Galloudec then had the best chance of the period, as he danced around the Manchester defence but didn’t offer a shot, after which Josh Davies finally pulled the trigger but saw the shot blocked by the Mayhem defenders. Anthony Booth then twisted and turned the Cardiff defence again, but was put off at the last moment by both Jodie Hill closing the angle and Le Galloudec pushing him.
Dean Lahan then shot under his sledge but missed the target, and saw an effort trickle past the far post by Tony Naylor, with Lahan then penalised with an interference call, having bundled over Shannon Couch-Mitchell off the puck. Manchester put in arguably the best all-round team performance seen for some time as they restricted the Huskies to half chances. Fliss Gregory then saw her night summed up when she had control of the puck at the front of the net, but one of the referees lost sight and blew, to which I was later informed the goalie shouted they had it and saw them blowing the play dead.
Anthony Booth went close once more to add to his tally but Nic Hill again made a solid pad stop to keep it at two. As the horn sounded, the Manchester Mayhem picked up their first league win of the season and first one, as stated earlier, for 2,555 days against their Welsh opposition. It sees the two teams renewing acquaintances again in a couple of weeks' time down in South Wales on the 30th, where the Mayhem will look to try and make it a first-ever league double over the Huskies.
Captain’s Comments:
"This season we have a bolstered squad with 3 new players making their league debut and all three of them played a huge part as team players on the Ice. Off season we worked hard in organising our team, being disciplined on the ice holding good positioning and giving maximum effort when the whistle blew.
Fliss controlled centre Ice with expertise battling for possession straight from the drop. Really proud of how we started off in the first period passing and moving the puck well and pressuring a the solid defence of Cardiff with Shannon and Jon making it really difficult to get anywhere near the goal before meeting the solid goalie Jodie.
We pushed forward as a unit when we had the opportunity with the pace and experience of Dean and Ant and Ant and Fi but also being solid defensively cautious against the swift Cardiff counter attack for Dani, Josh and Max! I felt we played some real good hockey breaking out and gaining more momentum with brilliant opportunities on the Cardiff net in the second period but somehow unable to get the puck in the net.
With Cardiff pushing strongly at us in the third period we had to play more conservative defending our lead and Dan was excellent in goal preserving his shutout to the end making 13 solid saves. We were lucky with some of the Referee calls being kind to us and maybe got away with a few things so we have plenty of points to reflect and work on so we can continue to improve in our next games down in Cardiff and then back in Widnes on June 7th.
I liked the levels of effort every player of the team contributed and the way we played and gelled well as a team. It was a very enjoyable game to be part of!"
Coaches’ Comments:
“Great game between the two teams, great to win..it’s been a while since we beat Cardiff, but great to see both sides with several new players.
Team played well & as a team most importantly, with everyone chipping in to the game. Great work by Dan for the shutout & for Boothy for his MVP of the game.
Expecting another tough game in 2 weeks in Cardiff, but should be another good game”
PLAYER OF THE GAME:
MANCHESTER: ANTHONY BOOTH
CARDIFF: ARRAN FLAY
SHOTS ON GOAL:
MANCHESTER: 17 - CARDIFF : 13
NETMINDERS:
MANCHESTER : DANIEL HARTSHORN 13/13 (100%)
CARDIFF: JODIE HILL 15/17 (88.2)
