Bees face leagues champions

 A weekend with last seasons playoff champions and league winners

Bees add some points to the tally with a 3 point weekend 

Last week we said in our weekend preview that Pitbulls and Seahawks hadn't made the best of starts to the season but they couldn't be underestimated. How right we were! Saturday evening saw the Bees head to Bristol for our first game against the Pitbulls. Bees scored just after the one minute mark and it's fair to say a few of us travelling fans thought we were going to have an easy night but the Pitbulls had other ideas and by the 24th minute of the game they were 5-1 up and looked to be cruising to a win. Coach Sheppard decided to swap netminders and DWE took to the ice. Shortly after this Dom scored at 26.51 to bring the score to 5-2 but we would have to wait until the last 10 minutes of regulation time for Bees to turn it on when Dom's hat trick goal followed by a goal from each of the Stead brothers tied the game. Overtime didn't produce the game winning goal so penalties it was. Bristol were clinical with their penaly shots scoring all 4 they were required to take and earned their first points of the season. DWE maintained a 100% shutout during his stint in regulation time and the 5 minute period of overtime. 
Sunday evening saw Seahawks make the long road trip to Slough and, although still short of their imports due to visa issues, the team came out all guns firing and by 23.19 of the game they were sitting on a comfortable 3 - 1 lead. Bees found their way back into the game and by the second period interval the scores were tied. Third period was Bees all the way as they scored 5 goals and finished with a 8 - 3 scoreline. It's been a tough start to the season for the Seahawks but hopefully their import issues will be sorted and they will start seeing some reward for their efforts just hopefully not against the Bees ;-). On another positive note for Bees, Dom's points tally has him currently sitting 5th in the top points scorers table for the league, well done Dom!

Player of the weekend

Congratulations to Will Stead who picked up player of the weekend winning across our Instagram and Twitter Polls with 41% of the vote. Dan Weller-Evans and Dominik Gabaj were both runners up with 23% each.

You can view all our player of the weekend winners from the last 2 seasons here: Bees IHC Fans Database

Coming up the Bees first games this season against the Steeldogs and Tigers

Bees head to Sheffield on Saturday night for their first encounter with the Steeldogs, winners of last season's playoff weekend and then see Tigers, last season's league champions, travel to Slough on Sunday evening.  Steeldogs currently occupy the league position immediately above Bees and Tigers the one above them with both teams on 8 points a piece. Bees are just 3 points behind and will be looking to gain on both teams with a good performance this weekend.

Both Tigers and Steeldogs have looked short of the performances they produced last season to win silverware, however they will still be very tough opponents to overcome. Both teams start with good netminder and defensive records, conceding a small numbers of goals to date. Steeldogs have conceded the second lowest number of goals in the league at 19 - only MKL have a better record.

The Bees attacking threat has seemed much better this season so far, and they will be sure to test both teams defences. Dominik Gabaj sits 5th on the point scorers table, with 14 points from his 7 games so far this season. Tigers player Vlad Luka is one position below in the standings in 6th place - whereas the Steeldogs currently have no players in the top 10.

Current League Standings

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