Weekend Teaser: Bees look to tame the Tigers and spook the Phantoms

 Bees continue to bag the points

A loss on the road and a home win  

With the players and fans still coming to terms with the loss of Adam Johnson, last weekend teams across the country were paying their respects and proving why hockey is not just a sport but a family too.

Good news for the weekend was the return of Adam Rosbottom to the Bees line up. Harvey Stead and Josh Kelly were still on the injury balcony, Harvey will return to the line up tonight and we hope to see Josh back on the ice very soon.

The Bees travelled to Milton Keynes last Saturday for what is probably the second hardest away fixture in the calendar after Leeds. Bees took an early two goal lead thanks to Dan Rose and a short-handed goal from Marcel Balaz. Lightning were able to get back into the game with two quality plays and a lucky goal to lead 3-2 at the end of the first. MKL were to win the second period 3-1 with Bees goal coming from Balaz. The third period saw an altercation between Lightning Griffin and Bees Liam Morris which resulted in Griffin being evicted from the game and Bees with a 5 minute powerplay. At the time of writing Griffin has received a two game suspension for his actions, it's very difficult to comment on whether this is the correct decision as the stream failed to show what happened. Gabaj was able to add to Bees tally during the powerplay but MKL were able stretch their lead, the final score of 7-4 in Lightnings favour didn't reflect Bees good performance on the night.

Sunday saw the Peterborough Phantoms make the journey to Slough. Their second visit this season, the result of the first game in September where Bees edged the Phantoms 7-5 suggested this would be a close affair. At the end of the first Bees were one goal to the good courtesy of Dom despite being outshot 11-5.  The second period saw Vanya Antonov start to make his mark as he scored two goals giving the Bees a 3-1 lead going into the third, Ferrara scoring the only goal for Phantoms in the period. Third period action saw Phantoms reduce Bees lead to one goal for Vanya to then score his hattrick goal and put Bees 4-2 in front. With less than 3 minutes on the clock, Phantoms took a timeout and as everyone expected pulled their netminder. Bees had a couple of chances to seal the game but Phantoms were to have the luck and drew one goal back. Bees were then to go on the penalty kill with 1.21 to go but they stood tall and prevented Phantoms from scoring the game tying goal. A 4-3 win for the Bees saw them move up to 4th in the league.

As a mark of respect for Adam Johnson the fans applauded and drummed during the 47th minutes of both games this weekend. Bees scored during this minute in both games but it was so humbling to hear the fans continue with the tribute rather than celebrate the goals. A proud moment in recognition of a man taken too soon.

Player of the Weekend Results

After a phenomenal weekend there's no surprise that Vanya Antonov is our player of the weekend with 84% of the fans vote.

Next - The Tigers come to Slough and the Bees visit Phantoms

Tonight (Saturday 11th) we are at home to the Tigers, this is the first time the teams have met in Slough this season. Bees travelled away to Telford in September and raced to a 4 goal lead, Tigers then scored 6 unanswered goals. Bees dug deep to bring the score back to 6-6 in regulation and were able to find the game winning goal 1.38 into overtime. Tigers sit 7th in the league but just 2 points behind the Bees so this is a must win for the Bees to keep them on track. This will be the first chance for the fans to see Bees new import Gianni Vitali in action.

Bees visit the Phantoms on Sunday, after the very close scorelines between the two teams this season we expect this to be a close game. Phantoms will not want to see the Bees walk away with the points again but Bees know what they have to do, it's going to be a thriller. 



All that is left to say is safe travels to the Tigers and their fans travelling on Saturday and to the Bees and travelling fans heading to Peterborough on Sunday. Come on you Bees!

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