Sorry this is a very late Double Overtime...mainly thanks to computer problems (plus getting all of about 30 minutes sleep on Sunday night after celebrating a friend's wedding slightly too much...don't ever play poker with Carlyle Lewis because you WILL lose...).
On we go into a look back at an eventful weekend that gave us rumbles, refereeing incompetence and flying equipment...and that was just Coventry v Edinburgh...
So, we can assume this isn't just a "cosmetic" rivalry then: On Sunday night in Newcastle, the Vipers renewed acquaintances with the Giants-and went to war, often literally. Jason Rushton saw the other end of both Chris McAllister and Derek Campbell's fists, while Andre Payette, never one to be left out of any rough stuff, found a willing partner in Malcolm MacMillan...
There was some fairly decent non-pugilistic action as well, as the Vipers won 6-3 including a Jeff Hutchins hat-trick...Paul Deniset and Mark Morrison (twice) replied for the Giants...
On we go into a look back at an eventful weekend that gave us rumbles, refereeing incompetence and flying equipment...and that was just Coventry v Edinburgh...
So, we can assume this isn't just a "cosmetic" rivalry then: On Sunday night in Newcastle, the Vipers renewed acquaintances with the Giants-and went to war, often literally. Jason Rushton saw the other end of both Chris McAllister and Derek Campbell's fists, while Andre Payette, never one to be left out of any rough stuff, found a willing partner in Malcolm MacMillan...
There was some fairly decent non-pugilistic action as well, as the Vipers won 6-3 including a Jeff Hutchins hat-trick...Paul Deniset and Mark Morrison (twice) replied for the Giants...
It's just a matter of time now...: Sheffield, meanwhile, won their only game of the weekend against Hull, doing what all title-winning teams do and finding another gear after having some serious trouble disposing of a resolute opponent. Hull Stingrays were leading 2-1 thanks to Jamie Thompson going into the final ten minutes, before the Steelers scored three to set themselves up perfectly for a massive game against Coventry on Thursday...
Bouncing back is all very well, but has no-one ever told them not needing to bounce back is better?: It was something of a redemption for Hull after they suffered a home tanking against Cardiff the night before, Jay Latulippe scoring a hat-trick in the Devils' 7-1 win, with Konstantin Kalmikov scoring the lone Stingray's goal when his team were already 3-0 down...
In fairness to him, even the most ice-blooded person would react badly to an unexpected smack in the chops with a lump of carbon-fibre: Mark Hurtubise caused the normally-fairly-dull fixture between Coventry and Edinburgh to liven up a little (although Carlyle Lewis and Adam Stefishen had had something of an endurance-contest fight earlier which was the first instance of gloves hitting ice for some time at the Skydome) when he was sticked (accidentally) in the face by Matty Soderstrom as the Blaze defenceman lifted Hurtubise's own stick full into his jaw while battling for the puck-not because of the incident itself but because of his reaction when, despite dropping gloves and stick and heading for the bench holding his mouth and dripping blood, he somehow failed to attract the attention of referee Matt Thompson.
Clearly following the logic of "if at first you don't succeed", a very racked-off Hurtubise then proceeded to turn his helmet into a ballistic object/"Hey, YOU!" yell, by hurling it onto the ice, for which he was given a game misconduct.
But wait, it gets better:
Because any right-thinking hockey player knows that the best way to win a powerplay is to slam your stick into your own face on purpose: A few Blaze fans near me, who have been there many years, came out with the defence that Thompson had no need to give a penalty as it was Hurtubise's own stick, rather than Soderstrom's, that had done the damage, and thus it was all a blatant and cheating attempt to get a powerplay...
I have a cunning plan...: ...and Jordan Steel, realising that Caps were about to lose their best player, quickly took his helmet off, hid it and claimed he had thrown the offending one...
Which would have worked, had the Caps, like many other teams, not had their numbers emblazoned on the back of their helmets...the sequence of events went roughly thus...
Lee Young skates to the bench as Steel yells that it was his helmet that was thrown:
"So, you threw the helmet?"
"Yep."In fairness to him, even the most ice-blooded person would react badly to an unexpected smack in the chops with a lump of carbon-fibre: Mark Hurtubise caused the normally-fairly-dull fixture between Coventry and Edinburgh to liven up a little (although Carlyle Lewis and Adam Stefishen had had something of an endurance-contest fight earlier which was the first instance of gloves hitting ice for some time at the Skydome) when he was sticked (accidentally) in the face by Matty Soderstrom as the Blaze defenceman lifted Hurtubise's own stick full into his jaw while battling for the puck-not because of the incident itself but because of his reaction when, despite dropping gloves and stick and heading for the bench holding his mouth and dripping blood, he somehow failed to attract the attention of referee Matt Thompson.
Clearly following the logic of "if at first you don't succeed", a very racked-off Hurtubise then proceeded to turn his helmet into a ballistic object/"Hey, YOU!" yell, by hurling it onto the ice, for which he was given a game misconduct.
But wait, it gets better:
Because any right-thinking hockey player knows that the best way to win a powerplay is to slam your stick into your own face on purpose: A few Blaze fans near me, who have been there many years, came out with the defence that Thompson had no need to give a penalty as it was Hurtubise's own stick, rather than Soderstrom's, that had done the damage, and thus it was all a blatant and cheating attempt to get a powerplay...
I have a cunning plan...: ...and Jordan Steel, realising that Caps were about to lose their best player, quickly took his helmet off, hid it and claimed he had thrown the offending one...
Which would have worked, had the Caps, like many other teams, not had their numbers emblazoned on the back of their helmets...the sequence of events went roughly thus...
Lee Young skates to the bench as Steel yells that it was his helmet that was thrown:
"So, you threw the helmet?"
Young checks Steel's shirt
"No you didn't...that's a nine on your shirt, not a ten."
You have to give the kid (a founder member of the Corey Spring All-Stars, by the way) points for trying...
"Basingstoke are like ducks in Britain-Every year, they're fine till about November, then, they head south like bats out of hell":...This random snippet overheard from an Edinburgh fan discussing the merits of next year's Elite League, and who (or not) will play in it, seems a fair comment to put here...Yes, Bison lost again-only this time, they didn't even have to turn up in Manchester to do so, thanks to a broken-down coach...although the 5-2 loss in their own rink the night before can't exactly have been a motivation to fix it...
That's all the events of the weekend covered, apart from Nottingham's (by now routine) win against Newcastle at the NIC (this season, the East Midlands has not been a happy hunting ground for the Geordies)
And, there you go...Basingstoke play Manchester tonight in the re-arranged fixture from Sunday, but for now, you're all up to date on the events of last weekend...
