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Tigers suffer difficult weekend
Telford Tigers suffered another difficult weekend, losing to two of the strongest teams in the league, but a more pressing concern is the mounting injury list hitting an already small team.
A nasty check into the boards sent top scorer Scott McKenzie to the Princess Royal Hospital with a suspected broken collarbone, while Ashley Stanton was forced off the ice complaining of dizzy spells after receiving a sickening stick check to the face during the 4-3 home defeat to Basingstoke Bison.
The game had started positively, with Tigers first to score - McKenzie with a powerplay goal at 4:08 - and even when Bison equalised and McKenzie was hurt, Telford continued to play positively and added a further goal from Andrejs Maslovkis.
Basingstoke's Wiggins had already picked up a penalty for roughing and clashed with a number of Telford players but it was his attack on Stanton at 18:05 that saw him take 16 minutes of penalties, and Josh Bruce scored on the resulting powerplay to send Tigers into the break
3-1 up.
However, the experience and skill of Bison showed in the second period, as they hauled themselves back to level and went ahead for the first time in the game in the opening minute of the third period. The depleted Tigers battled on but with little left in the tank by the end, and their lack of puck possession meant they weren't even able to pull goalie Martin Clarkson in the hope of a last-gasp equaliser.
Man of the match Clarkson said: "The team played really well and we couldn't get closer. We skated well for two periods but the lack of depth hurt us in the third period and that's where the mental mistakes creep in.
"With only two imports and a very young team we are doing very well.
We have come on so much from where we were at the start of the season when we lost to them 6-0.
"If we can take that into next week, we have two games where we are in with a chance of points. We are still in the race for the play-offs."
Saturday saw Slough Jets fly to a 5-1 lead in the first period, despite being outshot by Telford, with Scott McKenzie scoring Tigers'
only goal, shorthanded, at 16:08.
With the game pretty much settled, Slough game more ice time to their fringe players and back-up netminder for the remainder of the game, adding just one goal to their tally in the second period, while man of the match McKenzie scored at 28:40 and 54:58 to make it 6-3.
Summing up the weekend, player-coach Tom Watkins said: "It is disappointing. Losing Marek, then Joe and now Scott takes a lot out of the team, but the guys keep playing with heart and commitment and I don't think we give up on games.
"We didn't play well in the first period at Slough and I asked the guys to show me some character, which they did. We battled hard and outshot them, but of course they already had the game in the bag.
"Still our transitions were good and we didn't give up too many easy outs, so generally it was encouraging in that way.
"Slough and Basingstoke are both stacked with good players, but tonight was a one-goal game and could have gone either way. I think we just ran out of legs in the third.
"I'm asking Tomas (Janak) and myself to play a lot of shifts and that wears you down a bit. And losing Ash Stanton meant we weren't short of bodies, but we were short of experience. We just need a few more bodies really."
Tigers get back in the hunt for points when they face two of the teams battling with them for the final play-off place, making the short trip to Sheffield next Saturday, before meeting Swindon at Telford Ice Rink on Sunday (5.30pm).
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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- Tigers make back room changes
- New 'old' look for Tigers
- Watkins signs with Tigers for third season
- Tigers lose influential player
- GB fixture for Tigers
