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Flames put a sting in Bees playoff hopes
Photograph of the Bracknell Bees v Guildford Flames courtsey of Chris Callaghan.
With the end of the 2009-10 season fast approaching and the Bees still battling for the 8th and final playoff spot with the Swindon Wildcats, any points they can claim are vital. However a double header weekend with Guildford was to prove fruitless for the Bees, both nights finding themselves on the wrong side of high scoring encounters. Having fallen 7-1 the previous evening, the Bees would have been keen to make amends.
After a tight first period the home team found themselves 1-0 up at 15 minutes through an Andrius Kaminskas powerplay goal. Flames netminder Dean Skinns would have wanted it back after allowing it to trickle over the line from under his pads. The period also saw Nicky Watt and Tom Duggan drop the gloves, both receiving 2+2 roughing calls for their trouble. Neither player will be happy with the outcome, as both failed to complete the match due to the injuries sustained. Despite the 1-0 scoreline in favour of Bracknell, Guildford always looked dangerous with Smital, Masa, Saul and Rempel on import duty, outshooting the bees 10-8.
It all seemed to go wrong in the second period, with Dumas’ men conceding 6 unanswered goals from just 8 shots, Martin Masa registering 2 while Lundin, Saul, Plant and Rempel picked up 1 apiece. Despite the high number of goals from the relatively few shots, blame couldn’t really be laid at the skates of Bees netminder Carl Ambler who throughout the season has been inspirational at the back, facing a huge number of shots. It was mainly defensive errors and good finishing that saw the Flames take a commanding leave, despite being outshot 8-10.
The third period saw a change of goalie for the home side, with fan favourite Adam Marashi taking his turn between the pipes. Perhaps due to a loss in confidence from Bracknell’s starter, or possibly as a tactic to play a more defensive minded game (something the team has been seen to do in matches where Marashi has iced so far this season). Either way, after his sterling display the last time he faced the Flames in Bracknell’s OT loss, you couldn’t deny that “Rashi” had earnt his chance. However the woes seemed set to continue as after less than 4 minutes in, import Adrian Saul put Guildford’s 7th goal on the scoreboard. Around a minute later Michal Pinc posted what appeared to be nothing more than a consolation effort, compounded 4 minutes later as Martin Masa restored the Flames 6 goal advantage.
It was the next 6 and a half minutes that would see the Bees fans leaving The Hive with something to cheer about (even if it didn’t result in any points) with Michal Pinc scoring again to kick-start a mini revival, assisted by Bees top point scorer Jaroslav Cesky and none other than backup netminder Adam Marashi. It was Bracknell’s 2nd line that then appeared to come into its own, scoring 3 goals between them, player-coach Claude Dumas registering a hand in all 3, assisting Ashley Calvert and Captain Terry Miles before scoring 1 himself.
With the Bees now trailing by just 2 goals, the optimists amongst those in the black white and gold may well have been predicting the comeback of the season. However despite a number of very close chances it wasn’t to be. Hindered partly by in form import Michal Pinc being forced to sit out the remainder of the game at 54.17 with a 10 minute misconduct penalty, following an interference call from referee Nigel Boniface. With that call the home side lost a lot of their offensive threat and despite continued pressure from the Bees with Adam Marashi being pulled in favour of an extra skater the match finished 6-8 in the visitors favour with Andrius Kaminskas and Adrian Saul deservedly picking up the man of the match awards.
With the Swindon Wildcats 2-1 victory over the Sheffield Scimitars the Bees now find themselves sitting in 9th place in the English Premier League and currently missing out on a playoff spot. However the fight for 8th, and the promise of a tough encounter against the leagues newly crowned champions Milton Keynes Lightning is still far from over. A win against bottom side Romford Raiders (and fingers crossed Tony Hand’s Manchester Phoenix) next weekend may just be enough to secure it, as long as results go their way, and not that of Swindon.
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5-3 |
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4-5 |
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1-4 |
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4-4 |
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2-4 |
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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4-1 |
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5-2 |
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3-7 |
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1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
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