Not in Doubt at Nottingham

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 24 November 2012 at the Capital FM Arena
Result	Nottingham Panthers 5 Cardiff Devils 0
Competition	Elite League – top-tier British ice hockey
Hopping	Number 9 on the rinkhopping list
Pre-match preparation
Not a lot – I arrived in the pouring rain with five minutes to spare from Brigg.
This match in one sentence
An efficient and dominant performance from the home team, and the points were won with the four goals in the second period.
So what?
Nottingham are fourth in their “southern” conference table and have closed the gap to Cardiff in third to just one point.
The drama unfolds
Panthers’ David Clark was penalised for hooking after 12 seconds.  This is excellent commitment on his part – his team successfully defended the powerplay.  Here’s my scene-setter clip.  This is an excellent and comfortable arena, by the way – thoroughly enjoyed the visit here. Each team had one more powerplay opportunity in the first period but there were no goals.  I was surprised to find the shot count announced as 8-8 because my impression had been that Nottingham were well on top.  What do I know?  I don’t even know all the actions to the music – it’s embarrassing when you get “Put your hands up in the air, put your hands up in the air” mixed up with “We will rock you” and I have no idea about this gangplank style thing that everyone is doing.  0-0 at the end of the first period Panthers removed any lingering doubt about this result with a second period demolition of the Devils.  Cardiff had three penalties and Nottingham were lethal in converting all three into powerplay goals, with another one thrown in.  Bruce Graham scored one and assisted two, Pat Galivan scored two, including one from a rebound from a shot smacked in by Jordan Fox from the blue line, and Matthew Myers had the even-handed goal.  See, I am picking up the jargon.  Game over, to all intents and purposes.  4-0 at the end of the second period Myers added his second and the team’s fifth in the third period.  Not much else by way of drama apart from a bit of coincidental 2+2 roughing penalties and two of the officials hitting the ice when trying to separate the teams.  One of the penalties was against the Panthers’ netminder Craig Kowalski so fair play to Devils’ Devin Didiomete for trying to rough up someone with even more padding.  Final score 5-0
The programme
Something random
Clockwise!!!! It was never in doubt. Look at the posts tagged ice hockey in the cloud on the right if you would like an insight into the strange world of Zamboni behaviour.  This one has been badly disguised as an aeroplane but fools no-one.
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Nothing to add – except that you can still make a pledge which I will ask you to pay up in June 2013 to help the funding of world-class eye and sight research at Moorfields Hospital.  Use the HoppingForMoorfields tag to look for further details.
What Next?
I will try to get to a midweek game, working hours and weather permitting.  Hanworth Villa v Littlehampton in a Vase replay on Tuesday is top of the shortlist.

Giants Derailed by Autumnal Leebs on the Line

Matt Beleskey has temporarily switched from Ducks to Blaze

A hockey netminder - society's way of finding work for clearly insane people.
No-one knows why people choose to do this.

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 3 November 2012 at The Skydome
Result	Coventry Blaze 5 Belfast Giants 4 (OT)
Competition	Elite League (the top tier of British ice hockey)
Hopping	Rink #8 on my lifetime list – here because I was in the Midlands for the day and an attempt to see a football match earlier was rained off - a waterlogged pitch at Highgate (and Alvechurch) despite the bright sunshine.  My first Elite League game.
Pre-match preparation
Not a lot!  Coventry are bottom of the table at the moment but there is very little between the teams in their conference.
This match in one sentence
A very entertaining see-saw fixture which saw Coventry come back in the third period from a two-goal deficit before Belfast took the tie to sudden-death four-on-four overtime.
So what?
The two teams meet again today - Blaze will overtake Giants if they can repeat the result.
The drama unfolds
The first period was somewhat cagey and entertaining at a technical level.  The game seemed less frantic (at this stage) than some of the Premier league encounters I have watched so far.  The sides defended a powerplay each.  Here's a scene-setter clip.  Blaze are in blue. Blaze then had a goal disallowed (the red light came on) because the net was off its moorings.  The second clip is also from the first period and Blaze are again successfully defending a powerplay after a teensy bit of hooking by Brad Leeb.  0-0 at the end of the first The next clip has Giants defending a powerplay (for some minor assault or other) and excellent work by Blaze netminder Peter Hirsch.  A goal began to look more likely. The goal duly arrived at 33m52s from Giant's Noah Clarke.  Good finish.  0-1 Blaze struck back within four minutes (3 minutes and 59 seconds to be precise).  Dustin Cameron the scorer with assists from programme-cover star Matt Beleskey and Shea Guthrie.  Beleskey has signed on-loan from the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL and Blaze fans will be hoping that the NHL player lock-out continues for a while yet.  To quote the programme, "After a debut performance including an impressive fight that instantly won over a packed Skydome ...".  1-1 Within one minute, however (57 seconds for the pedants) Andrew Fournier's shot was beaten out by Hirsch but straight back to him and he reacted well to score.  1-2 His second goal just before the end of the second period was also a clinical finish to give the Giants a two-goal cushion and they looked to be in control of the game.  1-3 The teams played four-on-four for two minutes after some cross-checking misdemeanours but a "too many men" penalty for Giants opened a window of opportunity for Blaze as they would start the final period with 93s of powerplay advantage.  1-3 at the end of the second Here's their crucial powerplay goal at the start of the third.  The scorer is Brad Leeb.  2-3 The momentum had switched and Blaze were soon level.  Beleskey and Cameron combined to assist the score by Mike Schutte.  3-3 Giants' netminder Stephen Murphy was called upon to make three saves in quick succession before Blaze rattled the goalframe, but the turnround was complete as Blaze converted a powerplay goal.  Brad Leeb's second of the night was assisted by brother Greg with Robbie Sandrock watching from the sinbin for tripping.  4-3 To be fair to Giants, they came straight back themselves to level the match.  With Schutte sitting out 2 mins for tripping, Jeff Mason got the goal with just under nine minutes to go.  4-4 Blaze completed the handover of the initiative to giants as Beleskey was penalised for high sticks, and then gift-wrapped it with a full minute of 5 on 3 as Benn Olson was adjudged to have delayed the game.  Here's the clip. Superb defence work by Blaze to ensure that we needed overtime, which in this league is four-on-four sudden death.  4-4 at the end of the third It took two-and--half minutes before this happened to decide the game (after some crowd-pleasing "Put your hands up in the air.." action a few seconds earlier...).  It's the Leebs again, combining in the same order as they had done for the fourth goal.  This one won it.  The ref is right on the spot to make the call.  A great night of sporting action for a £16 ticket.  Final score 5-4
The programme
Something random
Clockwise! (I do love a running joke … see previous ice hockey posts for details of my northern hemisphere net Coriolis force clockwise Zamboni rotation theory which remains intact even if my credibility doesn’t.)
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Nothing to report!
What Next?
More careful scrutiny of weather charts as we enter the season of fixture disruption.