Weekend Teaser: Dominik Gabaj becomes Head Coach as Bees go into another challenging weekend

Dominik Gabaj becomes Player Coach of the Bees

Last weekend's opposition too strong for hard working Bees

Last weekend was a bitter pill to swallow on many levels with two losses and a match penalty handed to Dominic Gabaj. On Saturday Bees travelled to Peterborough to play the in form Phantoms team and came away with a 5-3 loss. The first period ended 3-0 to Phantoms and, despite a spirited fight back with a goal of the season contender from Dan Rose, the Bees couldn't find their way back.
Sunday evening saw the Wildcats visit Slough, this game started off very evenly with Swindon edging the first period 1-0. The second period saw the Wildcats add a further goal before Alan Lack brought the Bees back to within one goal. With just 2.54 left on the period Dominik Gabaj was given a 5 + match penalty for checking to the head and Wildcats were to capitalise on this and the loss of Gabaj from the game. With just over 5 minutes left of the game Bees found themselves 4-1 down but on the powerplay due to a 5 minute boarding penalty on Wildcats and Smital was pulled for the extra attacker. This was to backfire as a freak turn of events saw a misjudged pass go between the two players on the blue line and head all the way to goal. The last Wildcats player to touch the puck before this was Renny Marr so he was rightly credited with it but it's hardly going to go down as one of the best goalie goals you will see! Final score on the night was 5-1 in Wildcats favour.

Player of the Weekend Results

Congratulations to Alan Lack on his player of the weekend with 44% of the vote, Dan Rose came second with 30%. Who will be up for the vote this weekend?

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

Sheppard steps down as Head Coach

Doug Sheppard announced yesterday evening that he is stepping down as head coach following the run of poor results but he will continue as General Manager and Director of Hockey for Bees IHC. He has appointed assistant coach Dominik Gabaj as the new head coach.

Doug has led the team for the last few years, one of his highlights being the 2019 Playoff run that saw the Bees head to the Coventry Final Four. With the Bees run of form you could feel that something had to change sooner rather than later and possibly a change at the top would be the best way to do that. Gabaj has been the Bees best player since he made his debut for the club during the 2019/20 season. Being the Bees coach is not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination - the funding is simply not there to compete in the same way that the top teams do, but we've proven that on our night we can beat anyone and as the team in Slough continues to develop the Bees could become a force further down the line.

We've also found out that Dominik Gabaj has received a suspension for 10 games due to his check to the head on Sunday. The base tariff for a check to the head is 6 games, however due to the injury caused to the opponent the tier 2 tariff of 10 games was issued. We understand that his suspension also applies to the bench, so Gabaj can come sit with us for the next 10 games!

The issue over defenders was clear at the start of the season, and the journey to build a consistent defence in front of the Bees net needs to continue if we're going to have a chance to succeed in seasons to come.

Coming up can Bees scare the Phantoms and tame the Tigers?

Bees face Peterborough on Saturday night in Slough and with just one week since the teams last played eachother this should be an interesting match. This will be a tough game as Bees won't be able to benefit from the players on a two way deal with Slough Jets as they play away that evening and they will also be without Dominik Gabaj (suspended). The players know they will have to work hard to come away with the points but we have seen them do this before in Swindon earlier in the month so anything is possible. Phantoms players to watch out for are Glenn Billing, Duncan Speirs, Lukas Sladkovsky, Corey McEwen and Ales Padelek who are all in form so far this season. 

Sunday sees Bees head to Telford for the second time this season. For many reasons our last visit there was not a good one but that is in the past and Bees have come away with the points from there before. Since our last game against the Tigers, Bayley Harewood has moved on to play for the Pitbulls. The Tigers defence has also been boosted by the addition of Henry Adams who has moved from Steeldogs just this week. Tigers haven't been the league winning team we saw last season but are still tough opposition and Bees are going to have to pull out all the stops to come away with a result from Shropshire.


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