Individual News
18th of November 2008
Well, certainly a weekend to remember in the bmibaby Elite League, with a bit of everything thrown in!
Goal fests, penalty filled clashes, hat trick heroes and amazing goaltender displays all added up to a weekend of many talking points.
Coventry Blaze still lead the pack but they travel this week to Bolzano in Italy for some Continental Cup 3rd round action in far from the best of spirits after a weekend that saw double defeat. First up was a big home win by 4-1 for nearest challengers Sheffield Steelers but then the next night was the real coupon buster as second bottom Basingstoke Bison travelled to the Skydome with only eleven skaters but produced a remarkable display to win 4-1.
Clearly the whole Bison team are worth a mention but a hat trick by Danny Stewart and a standout display between the pipes by netminder Kevin Reiter were the foundations for perhaps the result of the season so far!
With Blaze slipping up the chasing pack were all given the encouragement they needed to push closer and they certainly took advantage.
Steelers followed up their win over Blaze by grinding out a 3-2 shootout win in Wales against Devils in a feisty match up that saw 123 penalty minutes and 3 players ejected. Steelers are now only a couple of points adrift and have two games in hand. Third placed Nottingham had a mixed weekend as they went down 7-6 at home to Belfast on Saturday before bouncing back to spoil Ed Courtenay's debut for Newcastle with a 3-1 road success in the North East.
Giants however will be very pleased with their weekend on the road as the followed up the win in Nottingham with another victory, this time 4-3 in Manchester.
We might just have the a makings of a top four split but Manchester are just about hanging in there and will be hoping to shrug off their recent poor run in order to stay in touch at the 'right' end of the table.
At the other end it was definitely Basingstoke's weekend as they had picked up a huge 6-5 shootout win against Edinburgh on Saturday before their heroics in Coventry. The Scottish side did bounce back on Sunday to hammer Hull 7-3 and this completed a disappointing couple of days for the Stingrays as they lost out in a shootout against Cardiff on Saturday.
We had no fewer than four hat tricks - all of them on Sunday night:-
Martin Cingel of Edinburgh with 3 1 against Hull
Jeff Glowa of Hull 3 0 in the same game
Danny Stewart 3 0 for Basingstoke in the shock win against Coventry
Paul Deniset 3 0 for Belfast during the win in Manchester
Other scoring feats saw that same man Deniset score 0 4 for Belfast on Saturday at Nottingham, Greg Chambers hit 1 3 for Basingstoke against Edinburgh, where Capitals had 1 4 from Mark Hurtubise and 1 3 from Andrej Rajcak.
But Player of the Week time and a performance that simply stood out a mile - skate forward goaltender Kevin Reiter, left, of Basingstoke Bison. Only 1 of 66 shots fired on him by Coventry found it's way into the net and for what will arguably be the single best goaltending display likely to be seen in the EIHL this season we have no doubt that Player of the Week honours are rightly given to the Bison backstop.
Goal fests, penalty filled clashes, hat trick heroes and amazing goaltender displays all added up to a weekend of many talking points.
Coventry Blaze still lead the pack but they travel this week to Bolzano in Italy for some Continental Cup 3rd round action in far from the best of spirits after a weekend that saw double defeat. First up was a big home win by 4-1 for nearest challengers Sheffield Steelers but then the next night was the real coupon buster as second bottom Basingstoke Bison travelled to the Skydome with only eleven skaters but produced a remarkable display to win 4-1.
Clearly the whole Bison team are worth a mention but a hat trick by Danny Stewart and a standout display between the pipes by netminder Kevin Reiter were the foundations for perhaps the result of the season so far!
With Blaze slipping up the chasing pack were all given the encouragement they needed to push closer and they certainly took advantage.
Steelers followed up their win over Blaze by grinding out a 3-2 shootout win in Wales against Devils in a feisty match up that saw 123 penalty minutes and 3 players ejected. Steelers are now only a couple of points adrift and have two games in hand. Third placed Nottingham had a mixed weekend as they went down 7-6 at home to Belfast on Saturday before bouncing back to spoil Ed Courtenay's debut for Newcastle with a 3-1 road success in the North East.
Giants however will be very pleased with their weekend on the road as the followed up the win in Nottingham with another victory, this time 4-3 in Manchester.
We might just have the a makings of a top four split but Manchester are just about hanging in there and will be hoping to shrug off their recent poor run in order to stay in touch at the 'right' end of the table.
At the other end it was definitely Basingstoke's weekend as they had picked up a huge 6-5 shootout win against Edinburgh on Saturday before their heroics in Coventry. The Scottish side did bounce back on Sunday to hammer Hull 7-3 and this completed a disappointing couple of days for the Stingrays as they lost out in a shootout against Cardiff on Saturday.
We had no fewer than four hat tricks - all of them on Sunday night:-
Martin Cingel of Edinburgh with 3 1 against Hull
Jeff Glowa of Hull 3 0 in the same game
Danny Stewart 3 0 for Basingstoke in the shock win against Coventry
Paul Deniset 3 0 for Belfast during the win in Manchester
Other scoring feats saw that same man Deniset score 0 4 for Belfast on Saturday at Nottingham, Greg Chambers hit 1 3 for Basingstoke against Edinburgh, where Capitals had 1 4 from Mark Hurtubise and 1 3 from Andrej Rajcak.
But Player of the Week time and a performance that simply stood out a mile - skate forward goaltender Kevin Reiter, left, of Basingstoke Bison. Only 1 of 66 shots fired on him by Coventry found it's way into the net and for what will arguably be the single best goaltending display likely to be seen in the EIHL this season we have no doubt that Player of the Week honours are rightly given to the Bison backstop.