Bees brought back down to earth

Published 15 Feb 2010 10:00 0 Comments

There was no love lost between old rivals on Sunday evening as the Bracknell Bees suffered an 8-4 defeat at home to the Slough Jets.

Valetine's Day saw a reunion with some old friends but it was the Jets who left with the points.

Bees netminder Carl Ambler suffered a disastrous start as his skate blade broke which allowed Jan Melichar's innocuous shot beat him with just 14 seconds gone.

"The first goal was a catalyst for them. It is already hard against good teams, but when they get a goal like that it doesn't help," admitted head coach Claude Dumas.

"They put pressure on us from there but we came back into the game and I thought their fifth goal was on the outside, but the whistle was blown for a goal and we didn't have the luck.

"After that we didn't have anything left in the tank and they ran out winners."

As Ambler needed to go off to get his equipment repaired, he was replaced by Adam Marashi who faced a dozen shots in less than 10 minutes.

Goals from Slava Koulikov and Michael Bowman stretched the Jets lead to 3-0 after just 9.13, at which point Ambler returned to the ice.

Bracknell settled somewhat and began to threaten the visitor's goal, but they did not manage to score until there were just four seconds left in the opening period.

With Adam Greener joined by Blaz Emersic in the sin-bin, Jaroslav Cesky blew a fierce shot past Gregg Rockman for a powerplay goal, leaving the score 3-1 after the first period.

Jamie Milton then bundled a shot home from close range to restore Slough's three-goal lead, but in front of a decent crowd at the Hive the Bees fought back.

Bracknell man of the match Ashley Calvert, replacing the absent Adam Bicknell on the second line, battled down the right wing before firing a cross towards the net, where Terry Miles tapped in from the edge of the crease at 25.11 and Michal Pinc then reduced the deficit to one.

But Peter Poljacek struck for Jets at 31.45 and when Dan Davies added a powerplay marker at 37.38, they were again three goals to the good.

In the final period Bowman's second gave the visitors a 7-3 lead with just under 15 minutes to play and the game seemed to be drifting to a tame conclusion.

However, when Cesky was called for slashing, this seemed to incense some Slough players, leading to ex-Bees Adam and Joe Greener each being handed 10 minute misconducts.

The latter's penalty had concluded when he finished off an almighty melee around the Bees net with just 16 seconds left to play. Despite so little time remaining, Danny House and Billy Phillips tangled, before Greg Martyn's shot from the right wing beat Rockman to finish off the scoring.

LEAGUE leaders Milton Keynes Lightning proved just too strong for the battling Bracknell Bees as they won 4-2 on Saturday.

Defenceman Mike Farn opened the scoring with only 2.17 elapsed, assisted by Adam Brittle and Monir Kalghoum.

Whilst Bracknell managed to keep MK down to only 11 shots in the period, they did find it difficult to put the opposing goal under threat, with Alex Mettam facing just six in the first 20 minutes.

Milton Keynes started the middle session in much the same manner as the first, with Grant McPherson hitting the net just 2.32 after the restart.

This time the Bees found a reply as the first line combined for Jaroslav Cesky to score at 24.01.

The game started to become a little more open, but Bracknell did manage to survive two Lightning powerplays without conceding.

The first goal of the final period was always going to be important and with Michael Wales penalised for charging, the Bees had a good chance.

But they were not able to convert the powerplay and, to make matters worse, Leigh Jamieson did score two seconds after the penalty had expired, giving the hosts a 3-1 lead at 44.28.

Within two minutes Andre Smulter had added another goal to the tally, but Bracknell rounded off the scoring with Michael Pinc's powerplay strike at 56.01, assisted by Andrius Kaminskas and Greg Randall.

"We had a good game against Milton Keynes," remarked head coach Claude Dumas. "I thought we did what we wanted to do and kept them on the outside.

"We were there until the end. We never took the lead and that is something that you have to do against the good teams.

"They were just too good on the night."

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