Mayhem Take Victory Despite A Late STING
- Peter Bradders
- Jun 18
- 3 min read
SHEFFIELD STEELSTINGS 1-3 MANCHESTER MAYHEM
This past Saturday saw the Manchester Mayhem travelling over the Pennines to face the Sheffield Steelstings in a return fixture of last weekend, in which Manchester won 6-0 on home ice in Widnes. The trip to Sheffield saw the Mayhem missing their captain, Mark Colquitt, but did welcome back Peggy Assinck to the side, with the Canadian international making her first appearance in Mayhem colours this year.
Manchester took an early lead through Anthony Booth for 1-0 inside the opening two minutes, with the Mayhem forward scoring his third of the season, and looked to be an ominous sign for the home side, especially following last weekend's scoreline. Despite the Mayhem keeping the pressure on their hosts and dominating play, they just couldn’t find or create anything in the way of clear-cut chances.
With play being mostly down in the Sheffield zone in the first, it saw the Mayhem struggling to turn their possession into goals, with Bryan Hackworth having a stunning game between the pipes for the ‘Stings. Sheffield’s GB international pulled off a string of fine saves to deny firstly a Felicity Gregory effort that stopped an almost certain goal, as he stretched his arm out to keep the game at one nil.
Down at the other end, it saw Daniel Hartshorn facing his first shot of the game later in the period, as the ‘Stings tried to get their foot in the door. Manchester finally made their pressure count right before the end of the first, as Anthony Booth found the incoming Karl Nicholson, who took the pass and doubled the lead for the visitors to lead 2-0 heading into the break.
The second period saw the game being more of a scrappy affair, with not so much in the way of clear chances for either side, though Bryan Hackworth was the busier of the two goalies, making a couple of stops from the duo of Anthony Booth and Karl Nicholson. Mayhem still shaded play in the period, but it was a very similar story to last weekend’s game in Widnes, where not a whole lot really happened.
In the third period it saw more action than the first two periods combined, as Anthony Booth grabbed his second of the game to make it 3-0 early on, as that looked to be that from a Manchester perspective. However, the Mayhem can never be trusted to do anything easy, as they conceded a goal a few minutes later, though the manner of the goal had Manchester less than impressed with the referees.
The lead-up to the goal saw Sheffield managing to get behind their opponents' defence, which then saw Daniel Hartshorn making the initial stop as the puck seemed semi-lodged with his pad. Hartshorn was unsure as to where the puck was, and that saw the SteelStings attacker poking at it before finally forcing it home for 3-1.
This led to many of Manchester’s players not being happy with the call, having seen a couple of occasions in the game where the officials were very quick to blow the play dead when the puck was loose for the Mayhem forwards, and this led to disgruntlement from the visitors. After a long chat that saw Karl Nicholson pleading his side's case on the goal to the match official, it saw the goal standing and Sheffield having their tails up because of it.
Efforts fizzed past the far post of Hartshorn's net, as the Mayhem players were rattled a bit from events, with the hosts having a purple patch in the contest. Manchester would eventually settle down and see the game out, as Pete Hagan’s side collected two big league points that saw them strengthen their position for a playoff place so early on in the season.
Next on the schedule for the Manchester Mayhem is that against the Cardiff Huskies and the return fixture of their entertaining 6-4 game down in the Welsh capital at the start of the season, where a short-benched Mayhem side led 4-2 before falling to a rally by the Huskies in the 3rd. So Manchester will be hoping to gain revenge in the return at Widnes Ice Rink (4.15pm).
