Hockey in Great Britain.

[braveheart]

If any one is interested,the Play off finals for the Elite Icehockey League here in Britain is;1st semi final; Sheffield Steelers(regular season champions) v Cardiff Devils,2nd semi final will be between Nottingham Panthers v.Manchester Pheonix. Both games are being played at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham this saturday 3rd April. The winners of both ties will contest the final on Sunday 4th April.This weekend is when all the hockey fans from the 8 teams that play in the Elite League,come together and enjoy the hockey with some serious partying also involved .I will let you know the out come as soon as i get back.

[DanCan]

We will look forward to your report from the British hockey weekend. Tell us all about, and, if you like, also about the OT off the ice.

[sammy]

Hello Braveheart. Good to see another Brit join the gang. Hope you enjoy yourself.

[Balder]

Howdy Braveheart!

Cool name you've got there
Braveheart is my favorite movie see..

[nothrow199]

Just discovered this forum and it looks great! Never thought I would find a GBR thread anywhere!

Hopefully, someone can answer a few GBR related questions I've had for a few years now but have been unable to get good answers.

First of all, does anyone have any idea why Dave Stevens never played for GBR in IIHF tourneys? Only 34, I hope to see him represent GBR some day. He's been putting up great numbers in Germany for a few years now. Here are his stats:

hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=17437

Secondly, does GBR have a website that would give hints or news as to their rosters for upcoming tournaments. I'd love to see if Cavallin (sp?) and Watkins will be in the nets again next week for the Div. 1 WC. Those guys were absolutely bombarded last year but somehow managed to keep GBR in nearly every game. They faced close to 50 shots per game but kept their GAA at or below 3.00.

Thanks,
Paul

[DanCan]

Hey Paul,

and welcome to the board.

I hope that Braveheart and Daffy can help you with your first question.

2nd question:

Official site of icehockey UK

At that site you will also be able to find UK's roster and match reports from the World Championships in Norway. But you will also be able to find the match report at our board.

UK's roster

[braveheart]

Hey Gang,sorry to be late with my report of the Elite league play-offs last weekend,but i will tell all tomorrow --friday. cheers Braveheart.

[braveheart]

Hi Gang,Right,i,m back and raring to go.Last weekend, the British Elite League play-offs were held at the N.I.C. (national ice centre) in Nottingham Unlike other leagues through out the world,we dont have a best of 3,5,or 7 series of games and hold the Finals over a Saturday and Sunday at the end of the season.In the regular season there are 8 teams,the top 6 teams qualified for the end of season play-offs,Sheffield Steelers(regular season champions),Belfast Giants and Manchester Phoenix,qualified for group A,and Nottingham Panthers, Cardiff Devils and Coventry Blaze,went into group B. Basingstoke Bison and London Racers failed to qualify The top two teams from group A and B,went on to the finals weekend,Sheffield and Manchester from group A and Nottingham and Cardiff from group B. The 1st semi final was between the Steelers and the Devils which the Steelers won 2-0 goals from Marc Lefevbre and Mike Peron,who captained Raonoke Express in previous seasons getting the Steelers goals.The other semi,seen the home team,the Panthers destroy Phoenix 6-1. Manchester opened the scoring in under a minute and we thought that there may be an upset in store,but the Panthers gained control and with some fine play and sloopy defening from Manchester,ran out easy winners ,with John Craighead scoring a hat-trick. The final was preceded by The England under 19's against their Scottish counterparts.Now with me being Scottish and living in England for the past 7 years,there was a lot of good banter from my friends as England's youngsters ran out 3-1 winners.Another game took place.the Milton Keynes Lightning v Peterborough Phantoms from the English National league,which is the 3rd tier in British icehockey.A very intertaining game that the Lightning won by 2-0. So to the final,the top two teams in the land.Sheffield had celebrated their league championship success in Nottingham in February after winning in Belfast and London Racers had shocked the Panthers the night before.The Panthers had recently beaten the Steelers over 2 legs in the Challange cup final,1-1,first game and 3-2(o.t) 2nd game so there was much to play for as the teams took to the ice in a sell out 8,000 crowd.After a very cagey 1st period with few chances for either team,the Steelers took the lead at 20.56 with a goal from Gerard Adams tipping in a shot from Kevin Bolibruck .The game started to get exciting by this stage and not many penalties were handed out,unusual when these teams get togeather, then the Steelers were called for tripping,Panthers on a 5 on 4,they buzzed around the Steelers net but could'nt make a breakthrough,then 30 seconds after the first call Bolibruck was sent to the bin for cross checking .The Panthers made most of this when Mark Cadotte re-directed a mis-hit shot from David Struch past goal tender,Christian Bronsard.Time of goal 31.41. Steelers uped their game and came storming back,they won a face off in the Panthers zone,and the puck was passed back to Kirk Dewaele who lashed an unstopable shot through a ruck of players and past the goalie to put them back in front. 2-1 at the end of the 2nd period and a very nervous 3rd period awaited both sets of fans plus the many other fans from all the teams in the league for this festival of hockey weekend. The 3rd period,the Steelers held on to the lead with some stout defending and kept the Panthers at bay to secure their 2nd trophy of the season. . After the celebrations,the team......

[braveheart]

...headed 40 miles back up the M1 motorway to Sheffield to be met by 2,000 fans at the Sheffield Arena where they play,at mid-night. After about an hour cheering on the players as they celebrated,which involved soaking the coach,Mike Blaisdell and captain Dion Darling with beer from the cup, we had to head home and fell into bed at around 1.45am!!!! What a weekend and what an other successful season for the Steelers and of course the Elite league as this was its first season Cant wait till September now but in the meantime i have plenty of hockey to see over the next 5 months,NHL play-offs on tv and the World Campionships in Prague to start with. Cheers Braveheart. .

[marrella]

Wow, that's a lot of beer/ale being downed in your post! But it sounds like an extremely fun time.

[sammy]

Give me some warning next year Braveheart. It sounds like a place I'd like to be.

[braveheart]

Hi Marrella and Sammy,There certainly was a lot of beer consummed last weekend and its an awesome place to be.Some times its better for the fans of the teams that dont qualify for the finals weekend as they can go and relax and enjoy the games instead of being a bag of nerves like the rest of us .On Tuesday 6th April,the highlights of the games were shown on t.v here and they had to turn down the noise of the crowd incase the commentators couldnt be heard.

[braveheart]

Hi nothrow199,In answer to your question a few days ago about Dave Stevens,it looks like he played in the lower leagues in England and at that time the G.B. coaches seemed to only pick Dual national Canadians for the G.B. team then with the exceptions of Tony Hand, The Cooper brothers who played in Durham and Cardiff.Alot of the English lads were overlooked for the 'bigger'teams that played in the old Premier division back then as well.Its a shame that he isnt playing in England this year and was about 10 years younger,he may have been selected by a team in the league as a lot of the Elite league teams were icing British born players this year. Cheers,Braveheart.

[DanCan]

Braveheart, thanks for your report. I was a pleasure to read.

[DanCan]

From hockeyrefs.com:

The first year British Elite Ice Hockey League played its Championship Game Sunday.

Sheffield Steelers achieved the League championship and Play off double by holding on to a one goal advantage established in the second period of the play off final.

Somehow the opening period remained scoreless. Both sides had good chances in a frenetic start, with Nottingham getting the better transition but Sheffield the better shots. Most of Steelers' efforts fell to Gerad Adams. He met a cross right at the net, got a shot in from the wing and drove the net, only to be foiled on each occasion by Niklas Sundberg in the Panthers goal. Mike Peron had a long range effort saved for Sheffield, as did Lee Jinman at the other end for Nottingham. Despite a fair amount of niggle creeping into play, with Sheffield's Dion Darling and Nottingham's John Craighead squaring up to each other, no penalties were called. Sheffield took 10 shots and Nottingham four.

It was Adams who broke the deadlock, tipping home a shot from Kevin Bolibruck to give Sheffield the lead at 20.56.

The game lost a little intensity for a few minutes until the first, then second penalties of the game were called against Ben Bliss and Bolibruck of Sheffield, giving Nottingham a five on three advantage. Panthers moved the puck around and a misdirected shot from Lee Jinman fell to Mark Cadotte for the equaliser at 31.41. Nottingham's joy was short-lived, with Kirk DeWaele firing Sheffied back in front, his shot going through traffic and giving Sundberg no chance. Sheffield took eight shots and Nottingham seven during the period.

Sheffield erected an orange wall in the final period to be crowned the first Elite League play-off champions.

As they have all season they closed down the avenues to goal to seal a 2-1 win. A Bolibruck shot was sticked away by Sundberg, with Christian Bronsard making a quick glove save to deny Kristian Taubert at the other end. Mark Cadotte went close after a superb drop pass by Craighead set him free, but he was guided wide. When Cadotte was called for high-sticking with just over two minutes remaining, Sheffield were able to see the game out. Even by pulling Sundberg, Panthers couldn't create a good enough chance.

Shots: She 23 Not 18 total