Weekend Teaser: Bees look to tame the Tigers

  

 What does weekend nine have in store for the Bees?

Season weekend eight review 

The Bees travelled to Milton Keynes on Saturday to take on the Lightning who were sitting at the top of the league at the time. Bees were shorthanded as Dominik Gabaj did not ice and many of the two-way players were unavailable. Fortunately the Cardiff Canucks allowed Josh Poole to play even though his team had fixtures. The Lightning made the most of the short bench and were 3-0 up by 4.38 on the clock. A powerplay opportunity got the Bees on the board as Marcel Balaz scored unassisted at 7.28. The Lightning then scored another goal and the period ended 4-1. A goalless second period gave the Bees a glimmer of hope but two goals in the third for the Lightning sealed their victory. There were positives for the Bees as they pulled themselves together after the poor start and kept the MK offence in check on the whole for the remainder of the game. 

Sunday saw the Raiders visit Slough. When the teams met earlier in the season the Raiders convincingly beat the Bees but this game was a tense affair and it looked like the Bees had almost secured the win leading 4-3 when the Raiders equalised with 0.6 seconds on the clock to take the game into overtime. The Raiders scored in overtime due to a penalty shot being awarded for the Bees net being pushed off its moorings. Bees goals came from Dominik Gabaj, Liam Morris and a brace for Will Stead.   

My opinion - Saturday night in Milton Keynes was never going to be easy for the short-handed Bees. The bad start in the first period gave the Lightning the cushion they needed to win the game. The positive was the Bees never gave up. The Lightning had 56 shots on Max's goal and no matter how great a goalie is with those numbers some are going to go in. 
Before the game on Sunday I would have been happy with a point but the Bees deserved more. They brought their game up to the Raiders level and worked so hard. Again the shots on goal for the opposition were a huge factor in the result as the Raiders had 48 shots compared to Bees 34. I hope the Bees can take some positives away from the games and go into this weekend with the confidence and tactics needed to bank the available points.

Player of the Weekend Result

Congratulations to Will Stead who is the player of the weekend, he wins thanks to your votes on Twitter with 50% of the vote. This is his 3rd player of the weekend win this season, he has scored 8 goals in 14 games and he is currently Bees second highest goal scorer only Marcel Balaz has more goals.

Next: A double header with the Tigers 

Bees welcome the Tigers to Slough on Saturday evening before making the trip to Telford on Sunday. This is the Tigers first visit to Slough this season although the teams played in Telford in September when Bees came away with a 6-3 win. The Tigers currently sit eleventh in the league just one point behind the Bees so both teams will be fighting hard for the points in this bottom of the table clash. The Tigers have made changes to their imports following their poor start to the season bringing in Eric Henderson and David Thomson and parting ways with Zachary Yokoyama. Their top scorers are Scott McKenzie with 24 points, and Vladimir Luka and Finley Howells who both have 19 points each. Their team seems much improved since the early part of the season so these games should be very exciting. 


All that is left to say is safe travels to the Tigers and their travelling fans heading to Slough on Saturday and to the Bees players and travelling fans heading to Telford on Sunday.

Come on you Bees!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Weekend Teaser: A weekend playing with the Cats and Dogs

Weekend Teaser: A double dose of Tigers

Weekend Teaser: Friday night is hockey night in Slough