Double Overtime, 17th March...

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all the Belfast fans who read this blog, and indeed anyone else of Irish descent. Slainte!...as they say in the Emerald Isle...

Anyway, on to the review of a weekend which in some ways summed up why it's best not to have a team dominate the league and have everything over early...as mentioned in Round the Rinks on Friday, there were a fair few games where only pride was on the line and not really much effort put in beyond fixture fulfilment (example: Sheffield-Belfast on Saturday night, a game which is normally pretty feisty, went thirty minutes before a penalty of any kind. Meanwhile, Omar Ennaffati must have been galvanised by his selection in my All-Under-rated team last Tuesday (which surprised just about everybody) as he answered his (many) critics (or at least began to, perhaps) by scoring twice and earning himself MoM honours on Sunday night in Manchester's win against the Capitals...

Anyway, on with the other interesting events of the weekend (of which there are a few). Sunday night in Coventry saw a game where, by all accounts, the playoff race may have hinged on, as Basingstoke's nine men pulled out an amazing 4-1 win thanks to another rearguard action worthy of Rourke's Drift, with Curtis Cruickshank stopping fifty shots, including twenty in the final period. With Edinburgh losing their game away to Manchester, the only real interest in the league for the final weekend is the epic battle for the final playoff place, with Bison and Edinburgh facing each other in what could be a winner-takes-all clash next Sunday.

In other games, Hull won! The Stingrays beat Cardiff by five goals to three in order to gain a little respect and prove they weren't just "going through the motions" although there's a chance Devils might have been. Belfast are winding their league season down with a whimper, losing twice, while the Devils, Newcastle, Coventry, Manchester and Nottingham all won one, lost one. In fact, only Sheffield came out of the weekend with four points, beating the Giants and the Panthers in the penultimate two games of their home league campaign.

Does anyone else get the feeling that, with the exception of Basingstoke and Edinburgh, no-one (at least from the clubs themselves) really gives a puck about these last few league games? With the playoff matches not for another week or so and yet already decided in most cases (the only question left involves whether Coventry face the Bison or the Capitals), do the players have the right to just go "sod it, we'll go through the motions because, after all, people will still come and watch us" as certain Coventry players appeared to be doing at times last night? Is it any wonder that attendances drop before the playoffs when not even the players seem to want to be there?

This week, however, sees the interest go back up (a little) thanks to the second leg of the KO Cup final tomorrow night-a game which I have a sneaking suspicion (and no doubt many a neutral fan a hope) that Basingstoke will be rewarded for their struggles this season with a trophy-that is if they can defencd their two-goal league from the first leg. Check back tomorrow for a One Minute Preview of that game, as well as a rambling answer to the question that many hockey fans bring up whenever anything media-related is mentioned:

"Can hockey in this country ever grow beyond the level it's at now?"

And of course, keep keeping your eye on the puck...