Weekend Teaser: Here we go again!

 Pre-season done as the Bees start their league campaign

Pre-season with the MK Lightning 

The Bees travelled to Milton Keynes on Saturday for the first of two games with our local rivals the Lightning. There was no cup at stake, just an opportunity to put the players through their paces whilst evaluating the offensive and defensive lines and the powerplay and penalty kill strategies. Both the Bees netminders shared the game with new goalie Max Wright starting for the Bees and Brett Shepherd swapping with him during the second period. Bees didn't make the best start as Lightning dominated the first 11 minutes with 4 unanswered goals. Bees managed to adapt and this worked as MK were unable to add to their tally and at the end of the first period Bees were trailing 4-0. Bees scored the only goal of the second period as Josh Smith placed himself perfectly for a pass from Will Stead. The third period saw Liam Morris score with a powerplay goal and then Hallam Wilson brought the Bees within one with a superbly taken one on one opportunity. MK were next to score on the powerplay but Liam Morris was able to score his second of the evening bringing the Bees within one goal again. MK were to find the back of the net once more finishing the game with a 6-4 win. 

On Sunday the Lightning made the trip to Slough. Max Wright was to stand between the pipes for the whole game and Will Kerlin was in net for MK. The Lightning took a 2-1 lead into the end of the first period, Olly Knaggs with a sniper of a shot for the Bees. The second period saw each team score once with Josh Smith on target for the Bees, scoring his second of the weekend. The only goal of the third period was a short-handed goal from the Lightning, Max came out to meet a 2 on 0 breakaway and conceded. It was a split second decision for Max and it didn't pay off unfortunately. Final score was 4-2 in favour of the Lightning. 

My opinion - these games were pre-season warm ups for the actual games that matter. There were plenty of positives, the new players fitted in well, having Ashley Tait on the bench was a massive bonus and the two-way signings showed huge potential. There were some mistakes too but this is what pre-season is for. If you had told me that the Bees would lose by just two goals each evening to the team that came second in the league last season then I would have been happy and that's what happened. I get that some supporters may have been disappointed to not get a win but it wasn't the playoff final, it was just a "friendly". I know both teams can step up a gear or two and what that means with regard to future results between the teams remains to be seen.  

Player of the Weekend Result

Congratulations to Josh Poole who is the first player of the weekend for 24/25. He wins thanks to your votes on Twitter with 36% of the vote. 

Pre-season done, now the focus is the league

Bees head down the M4 to Swindon on Friday 13th Sept for the first game of the regular season. Wildcats have had a perfect pre-season with four wins from four games, playing the Telford Tigers and the Bristol Pitbulls home and away. They scored 21 goals and conceded just 6 over the two weekends of play so Bees will have their work cut out. The Wildcats roster, who were last season's playoff semi-finalists and finished third in the league, has seen a big change as imports Lubwele and Tower were dropped. Coming in are Jake Bricknell a forward and Ryan Wells a defender who both hail from Canada. Another big signing is former Bee Ed Bradley. Ed studies in Bath so Swindon was probably the better of the options available to him for the year ahead. Friday night's game faces off at 19.30 and we'll bring updates throughout the evening.

Saturday 14th Sept sees the Bees welcome the Peterborough Phantoms to Slough. Phantoms have won three out of four pre-season games, playing both the Telford Tigers and the Romford Raiders home and away and their only loss being to the Raiders. They scored 20 goals and conceded 13. Phantoms were last season's playoff champions after finishing 5th in the league and have seen some changes to their roster in the off season. Jordan Marr left for Solway leaving a vacancy in the net being filled by Canadian import netminder Hayden Lavigne. Other notable signings are Nathan Salem (from Hull) and Cameron Hough an import utility player from Canada. Phantoms lost Martin Susters to MK Lightning and Ivan Bjorkly Nordstrom to the Sheffield Steeldogs/Steelers. The game faces off at 18.30 in the Slough Ice Arena.
 
After the long break the season opener is finally here, we'll bring you live updates from both games this weekend.

All that is left to say is safe travels to the Bees and their travelling fans heading to Swindon on Friday and to the Phantoms and their fans travelling on Saturday. Come on you Bees!



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