Weekend Teaser: A tough weekend to start 2025

 

 What does weekend seventeen have in store for the Bees?

Season weekend fifteen and sixteen review 

Bees last games before Christmas were a home and away fixture with the Peterborough Phantoms. With a fuller bench than we have seen of late, the Bees were the better team and although Phantoms were the first to score this was to be the only time all game that the Bees were behind. The whole team played incredibly well but two players need some praise; Max Wright recorded a 93.88% save percentage and Dominik Gabaj registered 2+3 on the night being involved in every Bees goal.
Spirits were high as the Bees headed to Peterborough the following evening but frustratingly for the team and the travelling fans the game was postponed shortly before face off due to a faulty ice plant. 
The twixmas games saw Bees play a double header with Romford. The Raiders won both evenings with 6-3 and 5-3 wins. Both games ended with an empty net goal for the East London team. 

My opinion - I could not fault the Bees performance against the Phantoms, every player played their part and the fuller bench allowed Dom to return to three line hockey. With the games against Romford it all went wrong in the third period. Having been equal to the Raiders for the first two periods of both fixtures the Bees were unable to match the shots on goal in the third. The Raiders registered 10 more shots than the Bees in the third period on both nights and that was the Bees undoing. Both games were really good games and, whilst the results didn't go the Bees way, the team showed a lot more promise and I feel that better results are on their way.

Player of the Weekend Results

Congratulations to Dominik Gabaj who is the player of the weekend for weekend 15, he wins thanks to your votes on Twitter with 63% of the vote. With a 5 point haul against Peterborough it was never going to be anyone else! 

Congratulations to Roman Cathcart who is the player of the weekend for weekend 16. Roman received 43% of your votes after registering his first Bees goal in Romford on Sunday.  

Next: Bees face the top two teams in the league 

Bees head to Milton Keynes on Saturday. This will be the teams fourth meeting in the league so far this season and Bees have only managed to take one point off the Lightning in an overtime loss in Slough. To add to this the Lightning have only dropped two points at home all season both as a result of an overtime loss. Lightning have a game the night before in Romford so we can only hope that the Raiders work them hard.

Sunday sees the Leeds Knights visit Slough for the Bees fourth encounter with the Knights this season to date. The first time the teams met back in October, the Bees registered a 2-1 win with Stuart Mogg scoring the game winning goal. The Knights currently sit second in the league, one point behind the Lightning but they do have two games in hand and are unbeaten in their last nine league games. On New Years Eve they booked their place in the cup final after battling past the Steeldogs and on Saturday evening they will face the Hull Seahawks at home. Last time the Knights visited Slough they took a 5-0 lead into the second period although the game will be remembered for other reasons. It was a feisty affair which resulted in Liam Morris picking up his lengthy ban.      

Bees have been bolstered by another signing in the week as former Phantoms player Ralfs Circenis has signed for the remainder of the 24/25 season. He will wear number 33 and with a recent average of a point a game he should help with the Bees push to make the playoffs.

The Slough Jets have a game on Saturday and Streatham have a game on Sunday but the Cardiff Canucks have a free weekend so we hope to see our two-way players in action at some point over the weekend. 

Safe travels to the Bees and their travelling fans heading to Milton Keynes on Saturday and to the Knights and their fans travelling to Slough on Sunday.

Come on you Bees!

Finally, wishing everyone a Happy New Year from all of us at the Berkshire Bees Fans.

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