PLAYOFFS WEEKEND: Mayhem Claim Bronze at Playoffs Weekend

The Manchester Mayhem went into this year's British Para Ice Hockey Playoffs as the massive underdogs, especially having the smallest roster of the four teams over the weekend, but they were determined to try and be the surprise package of the weekend. Finishing fourth in the league meant that they had the tougher semi-final of the two, with them going on to face the league champions, the Sheffield Steelkings, who were also the reigning playoff champions.

MANCHESTER MAYHEM 0 - 3 SHEFFIELD STEELKINGS

Manchester played in the opening semi-final against the Sheffield Steelkings, with Sheffield coming into the contest keen to complete a league and playoff double. It saw their opponents controlling the opening period, with the South Yorkshire club creating a vast amount of chances and needing Daniel Hartshorn in the Mayhem goal to be alert early doors. Manchester really struggled to get into the game on offence, but by the end of the first they had slowly adapted to the quick ice and bouncy boards at the Lee Valley Ice Centre, but defensively they were very stubborn and frustrated their opponents.

Eventually the league and defending playoff champions broke through the Mayhem defences late on in the first, as Sheffield's Jake Oakley netted shorthanded at 12:11, exploiting Manchester’s biggest weakness in their game, as having the numeric advantage has proven to be more of a hindrance than an advantage. It saw a Mayhem attack broken up when the puck was intercepted by Daniel Clarke, who played it up the boards to Oakley to chase down and saw him getting behind Peggy Assinck in the Mayhem defence before he slipped the puck past Dan Hartshorn for a deserved lead.

Manchester managed to get up to the Steelkings' blue line once or twice, but nothing came out of it, as the stats showed, where the Mayhem was outshot 12 to 0.

Play in the second period saw a much closer game, with Manchester finally getting in the contest and being very threatening in their build-up play, but they just couldn’t find a goal-scoring touch. Manchester had the neutrals' support in the rink, as that seemed to help push them on, but Sheffield almost helped gift them two goals themselves and was ironically the best that they came to actually scoring.

In truth, the game all hinged on clinical finishing, and it was Sheffield who possessed that in their royal arsenal. With 28:08 gone, a faceoff win down in the Manchester zone saw Daniel Clarke lobbing it over the head of Dan Hartshorn – almost Ronaldinho-like – to make it 2-0 to the Steelkings and seemingly take the wind out of the Manchester sails. Despite trailing by two goals, they did look the stronger side in the middle stanza, even outshooting their opponents 4-3.

Moving to the third, and it saw the backbreaker in the game for Manchester, as with just thirty-two seconds played, Sheffield added a third through Rachel Oakley, as everyone got drawn over toward the puck and saw Matt Clarkson playing the puck backdoor for his teammate to grab the puck, set herself and put it home for 3-0. It meant that once again Manchester was condemned to yet another 3rd/4th playoff game at a playoff weekend where their only trip to a final came back in 2017, back when the Mayhem started out.

If there were positives to take from this loss, then it was that they played better than the last time the sides last met in the semi-finals, as on that occasion the Steelkings ran out 9-0 winners and saw the Mayhem putting in arguably one of their worst ever performances. Another positive was that despite being short-benched, they gave the best side in the league a good fight and looked to build on that performance heading into their next game the following game.

3RD/4TH PLACE GAME:

MANCHESTER MAYHEM 3 - 2 CARDIFF HUSKIES

Sunday afternoon saw the game that no one wants to be involved in, the 3rd/4th playoff game, where Karl Nicholson bagged a hat trick in a 3-2 win for Manchester against the Cardiff Huskies at Lee Valley.

The game began in a very similar vein to the day before, with Manchester on the back foot for the opening five of the game, but they managed to weather the storm. Despite Manchester having the better of the play, it typically saw Cardiff’s Tyler Christopher opening the scoring, going almost coast-to-coast before unleashing a shot that flew over the shoulder of Dan Hartshorn to put the Huskies 1-0 at 9:31. Manchester soon levelled things up with a nice team goal where Anthony Booth and Mark Colquitt linked up to have Karl Nicholson score backpost for 1-1 at 11:52.

Manchester then did something almost rarer than Lord Lucan riding Shergar, as Karl Nicholson netted a power play goal for the Mayhem, having stick-handled his way past GB International Shannon Couch in the Huskies defence and then put his effort low by Jodi Hill to put the Mayhem 2-1 ahead at 13:01.

The second period began with a freak goal to level things up for a ‘desmond’ with eight seconds played, as Cardiff’s Jon Le Galloudec sent the puck up ice and saw it diverting in off the glove of Dan Hartshorn in the Manchester goal for 2-2. At 24:43, Karl Nicholson restored the lead for the Mayhem, having seen them fail to capitalise with a 3-on-2 advantage, but they recovered to have Anthony Booth send a pass over to Nicholson, who slammed the puck home to make it 3-2.

Manchester should have been 4-2 up inside the opening minute of play in the third, as the officials missed the clearest offside all weekend, which led to a 2-on-0 and had Karl Nicholson playing the puck across goal for Anthony Booth to score in a ‘FIFA stylee’. But instead he managed to somehow hit the goalpost, then collide with it himself, an impressive feat to achieve.

At the other end of the ice, it saw the defence holding firm and doing an extremely good job at cutting out any real threat from the Huskies forwards, with Dan Hartshorn stopping a Shannon Couch shot, which turned out to be the last throw of the dice from Cardiff. When the horn sounded, it saw Manchester finally ending their Cardiff hoodoo that dated back to the opening game of the 2019 season, with Pete Hagan's side securing an unexpected bronze medal.