Seahawks Sting the Bees to Secure Four-Point Weekend
Hull Reckitt Seahawks v Berkshire Bees – 27/10/24
The Hull Reckitt Seahawks secured back-to-back wins against the Berkshire Bees at the weekend to keep their NIHL Cup ambitions alive and to maintain pressure at the top of the league standings.
On Saturday, the team made the long trip down south to face the Bees at Slough Ice Arena.
The Seahawks were without the suspended Canadian forward, Johnny Corneil, and forward, Rhys Edwards, was unavailable. Dimitri Zimozdra was given the nod between the pipes.
The Bees took an early advantage, on 04:19, through William Stead, assisted by Dominik Gabaj and Stuart Mogg, but this lead was short-lived as Bobby Chamberlain netted the equaliser for the Seahawks just 40 seconds after the restart, after being fed the puck from behind the goal by Owen Sobchak and Owen Bruton.
In the second period, Lee Haywood continued his recent run of goal scoring form for the Seahawks, letting fly a wrist shot from distance that went through traffic and into the top corner, at 38:34, assisted by Chamberlain and Sobchak, to take Hull into the second period intermission 2-1 up.
The final period was all Seahawks as they wrapped up a 4-1 win on the road with goals from Sobchak, assisted by Chamberlain and Haywood, and James Spurr, set-up by Bruton.
The victory was built on a solid defensive performance and backstopped by Zimozdra who won the player of the match for facing down 30 shots with a string of saves to earn a save percentage in the game of 96%.
The reverse fixture on Sunday saw a short-benched Bees travel north in search of revenge and points.
The game was billed as the Seahawks’ Halloween fixture, and it would prove the stuff of nightmares for the Bees.
A delayed faceoff, due to a pane of plexiglass being shattered during the warm-up, could, in hindsight, have been considered a bad omen for Berkshire as they were comfortably beaten in front of a packed Hull Ice Arena.
The Seahawks were still without the suspended Corneil and forward, Alex Kent, was unavailable.
Jordan McLaughlin started in goal for Hull on his 25th birthday and Rhys Edwards returned to the side.
The Seahawks flew into an early lead, on 03:27, when Emil Svec broke away and played the puck to Sobchak who carried it over the blue line and let a shot off that was tipped in by Chamberlain, securing a 1-0 lead.
Five minutes later, defenceman Haywood continued his goal scoring streak after linking up with Svec and Sobchak to make it 2-0.
Such was the Seahawks’ dominance; the Bees called a time out to try and re-set but whatever was said clearly didn’t have the desired effect, because Berkshire almost found themselves 3-0 down toward the end of the first period.
Shorthanded, with Haywood sitting a two-minute tripping penalty, the Seahawks capitalised on a lucky bounce as the puck deflected off the rink door and into the path of Lee Bonner who laid it on in front of goal, but
Jordan Fisher misconnected with his shot for what would have been a certain goal as Bees keeper, Max Wright, had no idea where the puck was. With that, a battered and bruised Bees limped into the first period intermission.
However, like the bad guy in a horror film, Berkshire refused to go quietly and reduced the deficit early in the second period through Dan Rose, who scored on the powerplay, beating McLaughlin with a rasping shot into the top corner on his glove side, while Svec sat a two-minute hooking penalty.
As it turns out, that was to be Berkshire’s only goal of the night, but the Bees would go on to concede four more.
Before the second period was through, the Seahawks achieved the same scoreline as the night before with goals from Chamberlain and Spurr making it 4-1 but would go further with goals in the third period from Dave Phillips and Svec to seal the points and a 6-1 victory.
“Last week, we got quite far away from where we should be as a team and from how we play,” said Seahawks Head Coach, Matty Davies, who returned to the bench this week despite still recovering from knee surgery.
“We had to address that this week. We had to reset and get back to us.
“Last night was a big performance, and we got the job done in a tough place to go.”
Looking back on the weekend’s dominant performances, Davies reflected on the importance of the forward line of Bobby Chamberlain, Owen Sobchak and Emil Svec.
“We know how good they are as a line, but recently we saw a drop-off in their performances together and they needed some time apart to sort out their own individual games and as a bit of a wake-up call.
“Over the two matches this weekend, they have shown what a real threat they are and that they are one of the best lines in the league.”
Looking ahead, Davies anticipates a challenging game on Tuesday night when the Seahawks head to Ice Sheffield to face the Steeldogs.
“It is on us to go out there and put in a big performance. I know what we can do when we play the right way.
“It’ll be a tough match. It always is against them. But we’ll go there with a positive attitude and with the aim of getting those valuable league and cup points.”
By Mark Bateman