Weekend Teaser: Four Point Weekend Kickstarts Bees League and Cup Campaigns

 Bees look to continue winning streak

Bees deliver a four point opening weekend 

Saturday evening saw the Phantoms visit Slough for the Bees first game of the regular league season. Arriving after a narrow loss the previous evening, Phantoms were looking for their first points of the campaign. Bees were to find the net twice in the first period as Marcel Balaz scored his first and second goals for the Bees. Phantoms turned up the heat in the second period and at the end of the 40 minutes had brought the game to a tie at 3-3 with Bees only goal of the period scored by Harry Harcup. An exciting third period saw Brendan Baird give Bees the lead again with a superb shot from the blue line flying past Marr's left shoulder. Phantoms then tied the game again before Bees scored 2 goals on the bounce with Gabaj and Landsberg on target. Phantoms, not willing to give up, brought a goal back and saw the opportunity to pull their goalie as Bees Harry Harcup sat 2 minutes for holding. This was to backfire as Harry left the penalty box just as Bees regained possession of the puck and he made sure the only place it was going was in the Phantoms net. Bees coming away with a hard fought 7-5 win.

Sunday saw Bees take the road trip to Telford. The Tigers had won the previous night in Solway against the Sharks, the new boys in the the league. Another goal fest was in store for the fans as Bees stormed to an early 4-0 lead with Marcel Balaz's hattrick in the bag with just over 12 minutes of the game gone. Tigers were to score twice before the period end reducing the Bees lead to 4-2. The second period belonged to Tigers who with 3 unanswered goals took the lead on the night and went to the dressing room with a 5-4 lead. Another goal for the Tigers early in the third period put them in a good position but Will Stead and Dominik Gabaj had other ideas and by 50.54 the game was tied at 6-6. No further goals were to come in regulation so 3 on 3 overtime came next. Just 38 seconds were required for Dom to find the net again and Bees came away with another 2 hard earned points.

The Bees imports definitely justified themselves with Marcel Balaz scoring 5 goals and Dom Gabaj with 3 goals. With 7 different goal scorers over the two nights and despite Adam Rosbottom, Vanya Antonov and Liam Morris missing from the line up on both evenings the team earned the points with strong individual performances from all.

Player of the Weekend Results

Congratulations to Marcel Balaz who is the second player of the weekend this season thanks to your votes on twitter with an incredible 80% of the vote. Bad luck to the other nominated players, you were against strong opposition this week.

Next - Bees visit Bristol before Leeds make the trip to Slough

Bristol Pitbulls will be looking to get some points on the board after two losses last weekend and conceding 12 goals. Former Bees Dan Bradley, Matt Smital and Juha Lindgren made the move down the M4 to Bristol in the off season and will be wanting to prove themselves against their former team. This will be a tough game for the Bees who will be looking to maintain their unbeaten run.

Talking of tough games, no fixture is tougher than welcoming the league and playoff champions from last season into your rink. Leeds Knights started this season as they finished last season. A four point weekend with back to back wins over the Pitbulls with a 7-3 win in Bristol and a 5 goal shutout at home sees them sitting top of the league table again. 


After a solid first weekend Bees now know where their strengths lie and what needs a little work. If they play with the same determination and passion we saw last weekend there's no reason why they won't put more points on the table. Come on you Bees!

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