What a strange week last week was. Teams beating teams they were not expected to beat, and records shattered. It certainly has been an interesting season so far, and even in December we can't really say one team is shining more than the others. On a given night, bottom can beat top quite easily. Let's look back on another week in the Elite League.
It all began on Friday night when Steelers took Coventry at the Arena, well they did eventually. Due to incidents and tail backs on the M1, the game finally faced off at 8:50pm - a good hour and 20 minutes after the original start time. It was a feisty little affair it has to be said, with four goals in the first period with Colton Fretter and Mathieu Roy netting for the hosts only for Drew Fisher and Carl Lauzon to equalise for the Blaze.
After that it became a bit scrappy with both Pinc and Stewart being forced into some several decent stops. Jason Hewitt left proceedings early after his clean uppercut (no way was it was cross checking) sent Kevin Noble onto his bum, and Cale Tanaka was lucky not have an early night himself for the Blaze with some of his on the edge plays. But cometh the man, cometh Fretter with just 34 seconds left in the third and ensured we would finish playing before midnight.
In the three games played on Saturday, we saw more entertaining hockey which has become staple for the season so far. Inspired by a Brett Switzer hat-trick, Dundee overcame Manchester 6-4 in Altrincham and to keep up their resurgence under Marc LeFebvre's coaching methods. Fife probably annoyed the hell out of Ryan Finnerty and his Clan's team - scoring three unanswered third period goals to overturn a 2-0 deficit and record a much needed win. But the story came down in South Wales as Cardiff, unbeaten in 13 games in the BBT previously, saw that record come crashing down. With the game poised on a knife edge, and Panthers 4-3 with just a shade under 4 minutes left - Corey Neilson's men turned up the heat and scored three unanswered to inflict a 7-3 loss on the Devils which nobody saw coming. A fantastic performance.
Sunday was no different, with surprises in four of the five games. Clan got their revenge on the Flyers with a 3-0 home win, and ensured Fife's poor away form continued. Now time for the shocks, and where do we start? How about events in the SSE Arena Belfast then as Storm got their best result of their season with a 3-1 road win there, 37-16 Giants outshot but a single Craig Peacock goal (which actually gave them the lead) was the only joy for Derrick Walser's men as Vinny Scarsella, Luke Salazar and an empty net short handed tally from captain Matty Davies ensured Storm would go home very happy indeed.
Cardiff will want to forget this particular weekend as they crashed 4-1 at a resurgent Coventry who had four different scorers lighting the Devils lamp, Joey Haddad's 57th minute goal being the sole bit of delight for Andrew Lord's men. Then just as we thought that we had seen the last of the goal fests, Edinburgh and Dundee shared a remarkable 20 goals in an incredible game at Murrayfield; setting a new EIHL record in the bargain - that's what I call value for money or either the defences were giving their respective Christmas cheer out early doors! And after Nottingham had dismantled Cardiff, few gave Steelers a chance in the NIC: in fact most were wondering if Neilson's men would hit double figures. But Steelers didn't read that script, skating away with a 6-4 road win and had a Fretter goal incorrectly washed out after David Clarke and his team had harangued Matt Thompson to reverse his original decision.
That concludes another "Elite Report" - wonder if we will have more surprises to report next time. Stay tuned....
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