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Flames grind out overtime win
Photograph of Guildford captain David Longstaff courtsey of Dave Steadman.
After 5 wins to start the new season, the Flames had a near miss on Sunday night, relying on a 46 save performance by Miroslav Hala to support a Lukas Smital overtime goal just over 2 minutes into extra time in recording a 3-2 win over the visiting Basingstoke Bison. 24 hours earlier, in a place that is annually one of the Flames’ most difficult locations from which to generate points, Spectrum’s men enjoyed an unanswered 3 goal 3rd period outburst to turn a 1 goal lead after 40 minutes into a full time 6-2 road win over the reigning playoff champion Slough Jets.
In the weekend opener, the clubs traded a pair of goals each in the 1st. Doug Sheppard gave the home side the lead just over 4 minutes in. They doubled the advantage in the 10th minute through Slava Koulikov before a Martin Masa goal at 12:25 cut the lead in half. Lukas Smital added another at 14:22 on the powerplay to pull even. A scoreless middle frame was only just averted thanks to a game winning powerplay strike by Ben Campbell with just 54 seconds on the period clock. Jez Lundin added another man advantage goal at 50:45 to extend the margin. Smital bagged his 2nd of the night at 56:04 and Rick Plant capped off the scoring and the final result 39 seconds later.
On Sunday, the Bison hemmed Spectrum’s outfit in their own end in the early going, eventually getting the reward with a Viktor Kubenko goal at 2:14 to secure a 1-0 lead. Some powerplay time got the Flames back on the attack, but no success until just after a failed man advantage effort when David Longstaff executed a perfect mini 2 on 1 by moving out from the corner and sliding the puck onto the stick of a waiting Ben Campbell who tapped in the equalizer at 17:46 to ensure the clubs went to the break on even terms. The knot in the scoreline remained tight through the middle session before finally coming loose at 41:43 with a Longstaff goal. Spectrum’s favourites held the slim lead until Kurt Reynolds pulled the visitors even at 49:29. A Flames penalty inside the final 2 minutes of regulation offered a golden opportunity for the visitors to take the win, but a successful Flames penalty kill cued overtime and the Smital heroics at 62:13.
Flames Head Coach Paul Dixon reflected on the games:
“In Slough we did not come out well and we were probably lucky to have been only 2 down early in the first. We easily could have been in a worse position but a bit of timely scoring gave us the time we needed to get our performance to a much better standard, which we did in the middle and later parts of the game. They are a very good hockey team and their building is not kind to visitors as a general rule. To get an early season pair of points is a great result even if the scoreline was perhaps more flattering than the reality of the game. On Sunday we started no better and were stuck in our own end for a good chunk of the opening minutes. The Bison played a solid game and were full credit for the point they earned. I am sure they are very disappointed not to have come away with a win. Miro came up huge on several occasions to keep us in it until we found an opening to seal the game. On the one hand there are several issues we need to look at from that game, in particular, our inability on both nights to pressure either team in the early going, but on a positive note, we did manage to hang in there all night and play well enough to ultimately grind out the win. I am sure we will have other nights where we dominate and still get stuck with a loss so there are times you take what you can get and move on to the next bit of the schedule.”
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5-3 |
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1-4 |
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1-1 |
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- Campbell and Flames agree terms
- Flames re-sign David Savage
- Longstaff stays with Flames
- Flames re-sign Curtis Huppe
- Towe departs Flames
