BUIHA National Championships: Tier III

It was with some trepidation that the D team headed up to Sheffield on Easter Saturday for Tier III of the championships. Not only did they have just 8 skaters and a goalie, but only 3 of their outfield players had ever played a game before (and one of those was usually a goalie). Furthermore, they had no idea what standard of opposition they were up against.

The 9 players were: Dave Crowther, Jovana Duvnjak, Darren Ellis, Andy Glisson, Dan Grimes, Adam Occleshaw, Samantha Penny, Keith Smith and Phil Smith (G). Coach Mark Illingworth set his team out to play a counterattacking game, with the speedy Daz Ellis as the outlet player.

In the group stage Nottingham would face Newcastle and Imperial, while the other group contained Northumbria, Sheffield and Cardiff. The top two places would secure a semi-final spot, but Nottingham really wanted to win their group in order to avoid facing favourites Cardiff.

Group Stage

Nottingham D   4 – 1   Newcastle C

In the opening game of the tournament, the D team faced a Newcastle team of obviously mixed ability. Unsurprisingly it took the most of the first of the two 15 minute periods for the new players to get the hang of playing in a game, though a couple of them continued to stand on the wrong side of face-offs for the entire day… As Nottingham got settled down they started releasing players on counterattacks that the Newcastle defenders simply couldn’t keep up with. Two goals  from Daz and one each for Jovana and Occy on breakaways gave Nottingham a confidence-boosting victory.

Nottingham D   7 – 0   Imperial B

For their second game, Nottingham faced the tournament’s other big unknowns. Not only had Imperial not played a game this season, but didn’t play one last year either. In the end it didn’t matter, as Nottingham simply dominated the game in the first period, with Imperial hardly getting into the Nottingham zone. Four goals from Daz and two from Occy  gave Nottingham a huge 6-0 lead at half-time. In the second period complacency understandably crept in, with Imperial getting some decent chances but Phil Smith proved up to the task, recording his first shutout in a Nottingham shirt, whilst Keith added another goal to complete the tournament’s biggest win.

In the group’s other game, Imperial beat Newcastle, leaving the final positions as Nottingham, Imperial, Newcastle. The other group was less clear-cut, with Cardiff and Sheffield drawing and both beating Northumbria. Sheffield ended up winning the group based on a lower number of penalty minutes as Cardiff racked up 14 in the day’s final group game.

Semi-Final: Nottingham D   2 – 6   Cardiff B

As a result of Cardiff’s penalty taking, they had to play Nottingham in the very next game, with just the duration of an ice cut to rest. Nevertheless, it was quickly obvious that this game was a far bigger challenge, with early Nottingham defence which can only be described as ‘scrambled’. It was therefore somewhat against the run of play when some good work down low led to Sam scoring against her old team to give Nottingham the lead. Cardiff weren’t going to stand for that, and levelled just before the end of the first of two twenty minute periods.

The pattern continued in the second, with Cardiff piling on the pressure and Nottingham making counterattacking breaks. Cardiff took the lead after a few minutes, but couldn’t seem to find that elusive two-goal cushion, and Nottingham continued to look capable of scoring on the break. Unfortunately, with ten minutes to go, it all went badly wrong for Nottingham. Pushing to level the scores, they only succeeded in tiring themselves out, whilst Cardiff’s 19 players were far less concerned. No longer able to compete, Nottingham shipped 3 goals in quick succession. A goal from Dave was only a consolation, especially as Cardiff scored their sixth soon after. The scoreline was only fair given Cardiff’s attacking dominance, but Nottingham could have snatched an unlikely victory up until the last 10 minutes.

Third Place Playoff: Nottingham D   1 – 1   Imperial B

In the other semi-final, Sheffield comfortably beat Imperial, setting up a rematch of the earlier group game in the third place playoff. However, Imperial had been improving throughout the day whilst Nottingham had tired themselves out against Cardiff. Both teams struggled to find the breakthrough, with both goalies stopping several breakaways. This time it was Imperial who finally found the back of the net, and it started to look like it wasn’t Nottingham’s day as chance after chance went begging.

The final four minutes or so were played as one shift by Nottingham’s top line, who threw everything they had left into the search for an equaliser. The chances kept coming, and finally with a minute to go Dave found the back of the net. It looked like Imperial’s luck had run out, especially when thirty seconds later a ricocheting puck in the Nottingham crease resulted in Keith kicking the puck against his own post. The game finished in a tie, and went to a penalty shootout.

In the shootout, both goalies were on top with none of the first 8 shots scoring. However, Imperial broke the deadlock with their fourth shot, rounding the goalie and placing the puck into an empty net. This left Nottingham’s final shooter, Captain Keith, needing to score to keep them in the game. Despite almost losing the puck on the run in, he evaded the goalie only to see his shot hit the inside of the post and bounce clear.

In the final, Cardiff overpowered a spirited Sheffield performance to win comfortably, taking the trophy.

Summary

Despite finishing fourth, this was an encouraging day for the D team. At the start of the day the only objective was not to come last. Even with a team full of rookies and half as many players as any of the other teams, we had shown we could win games and compete with the best in the division. Particularly encouraging was the fact that six of the eight outfield players had scored goals, whilst Daz finished as the tournament’s second highest scorer. In the end it was tiredness and the best team in the tournament that defeated us. If we can get our veteran players back and put out a full team, we should be looking for nothing less than winning Division 3 this year.

Keith Smith

D team captain