SIHA Round-Up 7th February 2015

Thank you to Phillip Holden for his contribution to FSB, All Credit for this piece goes to him so any queries you can contact Phil on Twitter @PhilSlice

Saturday’s SIHA round up starts with Spartans who were in action against Sutton Sting in what was a “home” game for Spartans at Ice Sheffield.

Spartans ultimately paid the price for missed opportunities to see them lose out 3-1 to play-off rivals Sutton Sting on Saturday. In a goalless first period it was pretty even between the two teams with Spartans arguably shading it as they had more chances and certainly the better ones but it would have been harsh on either team to have gone into the break behind in what had been at times a scrappy opening 20 minutes. 

Spartans got off to the perfect start in the second with Elliott Knell scoring on 20.14 from Ollie Barron & Jonathan Kirk. From this point on they enjoyed a long spell of domination and played some great hockey at times but as the shots rained in on Sutton’s goal they couldn’t make those chances count. Sting did have a couple of chances themselves for which they were unlucky not to pull level but they eventually did through Mark Turner on 34.11. The goal, coupled with some inspired defending lifted Sutton but Spartans quelled the pressure to hit back and finish the period strongly but will have been cursing themselves for not having made their chances, and at times superiority in this period count. As it stood it was all square at 1-1 going into the final period. Sutton came out in confident mood for the final 20 minutes and after some early exchanges between the two teams Sting slowly gained the upper hand with Spartans struggling to clear their lines and the failure to do so put them under more pressure. Sting’s confidence grew and they were definitely having the better of things this period and it is fair to say that when Sutton took the lead on 53.37 through John Ross, you could sense it coming. Spartans, who had rarely troubled Zimozdra with anything seriously threatening this period saw things get worse when Simon Offord scored on 55.38 to make it 3-1 with a goal that Spartans really should have dealt better with. Spartans rallied but it wasn’t enough and their efforts were snubbed out comfortably by Sting’s rear-guard which saw them see the game out to win 3-1 and claim two valuable points.

There can’t be any complaints from Spartans, they had more than their fair share of good chances to have been clear at the end of the second but credit to Sutton for hanging in there at times to then hit back strongly to deal the hammer blow to win the game. Jonathan Kirk won the Man of the Match Award for Spartans with the inspiration Dmitri Zimozdra a worthy winner of the award for Sutton.

Earlier in the day Greyhounds U16 D2 enjoyed success over Oxford City Stars in their challenge game whilst Rapiers U16 D1 also tasted success with a fantastic 7-1 road win in Nottingham, made that bit sweeter too with Steelers success over Panthers.

Lasers U12 D1 lost away to Bradford 5-4. Callum Field had equalised for Sheffield to make it 1-1 but two goals, one a short-handed goal, put Bradford in the driving seat at 3-1 up. , twice coming from a goal down to tie at 2-2 with Callum Field & Tate Shudra getting the Sheffield goals. Tate Shudra pulled one back for Lasers only for Bradford to score two more to make it 5-2. Two more goals for Tate Shudra weren’t quite enough for Lasers to grab a point but they still sit at the top of the pile in their league.

Samurai U10’s had two teams in action with one travelling to Billingham and the other to Coventry for their cross-ice games. Official scores aren’t kept at this age group but I have it from a reliable source that the kids won all three games in Coventry, beating the hosts 3-1 whilst beating Nottingham 2-0 & Solihull 13-0.

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