NIHL Top Stories
The top stories from across Ice Hockey’s second division.
Watkins: Seeing Double
Telford Tigers’ father/son duo of Tom and Sam Watkins started in the Tigers’ recent game against The Bees.
They ran out 8-4 winners on the night with Tom Watkins scoring in the second period to score the Tigers’ sixth goal of the night.
He posted to Twitter saying how proud he was to have started the game with his 18-year-old son.
Tom Watkins who is also Head Coach, said: “I was disappointed to go two behind as I thought we started well but were too aggressive with our up-ice pressure. We took full advantage of the power-play opportunity at the end of the first period and turned the game around”.
The Tigers move up to first in the NIHL National League table with the win as the Bees stay in eighth for another week.
Hazeldine Honours
17-year-old Archie Hazeldine was voted Leeds Knights Supporters Club Player of the Month.
This follows on from last week’s announcement that he’d be representing GB Under-18s.
A successful start to the young man’s career, who already has 24 NIHL appearances under his belt.
The Defenceman also boasts 10 assists in that time.
A promising young player to keep an eye on for the future.
Bison vs Bees ‘Bloodbath’
A Southern Derby as Basingstoke Bison played The Bees last week.
It wasn’t the on-ice action that has got people’s attention though.
A statement from the Bees’ Directors mentions an altercation between two supporters after the game.
“The altercation was between these 2 individuals which left the Bees supporter with a physical injury that required some medical attention. We have no reports of any injuries to other parties”.
This derby has always been fiercely contested with the hostilities dating back to the 90s.
They go on to say that the Bees fan didn’t want to pursue the incident any further.
Furthermore, the club have confirmed they’ll be stepping up security for future games.
Phantoms Fantastic Form
The Peterborough Phantoms managed to pick up two wins last weekend.
A 5-2 win over the Basingstoke Bison and a 5-0 victory over the Swindon Wildcats.
The win over the Bisons came after going 2-0 down and netminder Jordan Marr shutout the Wildcats in the following game.
Marr spoke about his sides form, saying: “I thought the guys did a great job fighting back. We stuck to the system Slava set out for us, limited scoring opportunities for Basingstoke and made the most of our opportunities offensively”.
Speaking after the Swindon game where Marr made 41 saves, he said: “I think a shutout is more of a team accolade than a goalie specific one. When the guys do a great job in our D-Zone, it makes the goalies job a lot easier”.
This will be a welcome turnaround of form after losing 9-1 to Raiders IHC and 7-2 to the Telford Tigers the previous weekend.
