Published: Monday, 22nd February, 2010 10:00am

Battling Bees tame Wildcats

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Adam Marashi enjoyed a rare start for the Bees against Guildford last week.

Bracknell Bees plundered five unanswered goals in a scintillating middle period to earn a crucial 6-3 win over rivals Swindon Wildcats in the race for the English Ice Hockey Premier League play-offs.

Neither side could afford to lose and it was Claude Dumas' men who came out 6-3 winners on the night to go six points above rivals Wildcats.

It takes them one step closer to a top-eight finish, but it was not always plain sailing at The Hive as the Bees went two goals behind before mounting an astonishing recovery in the second period.

Dumas conceded: "We played well in that first period but Swindon took their chances and we found ourselves behind.

"We had to battle hard in a great second period.

"After we scored our first we never looked back. We turned it around completely."

Bees gave themselves a mountain to climb when Jan Krajicek struck on a powerplay and the Wildcats man-of-the-match then added a short-handed second.

But Dumas rallied his troops at the interval and they were soon level through Michal Pinc and Nicky Watt.

Former Wildcat Watt then edged Bees in front, before Adam Bicknell set up captain Terry Miles for his side's fourth.

And Jaroslav Cesky completed the stunning turnaround with a penalty-shot to make it 5-2 and send Bees fans into a frenzy.

There was a late wobble when ex-Bees player Matt Foord netted an impressive third for Wildcats.

But, with the visitors' netminder Chris Douglas pushed up the rink, the hosts grabbed a sixth right at the death when Dumas' set up Cesky as the Bees bounced back from defeats to Guildford and Basingstoke to notch their first win in four.

Dumas added: "This was a four-point game and we knew the result would make a big difference to us or Swindon.

"We all knew how important it was so, when we fell behind in the first period, I told the players not to panic.

"As soon as we scored the momentum came back to us and the crowd really got behind us.

"Saying that, we were 3-1 up at Basingstoke then gave five goals away in a row so it can work for or against you."

CLAUDE Dumas claimed his players' minds were not on the job as they crashed 6-1 at Basingstoke Bison.

The Bees player coach felt most of his squad were already thinking about their critical match-up with Swindon Wildcats the following night.

"Basingstoke are playing very well and we had a bad start," he argued.

"We had a big game the following day against Swindon and I think it was playing on our minds because we never got going."

Ondrej Lauko set the tone by netting with the Bison's first shot on target after 65 seconds.

Nicky Chinn and Shaun Thompson made it 3-0, but Bees did hit back with a Michal Pinc powerplay goal.

However, that was as good as it got as Chris Wiggins, Tony Redmond and Lauko wrapped things up as Bison made it 10 home league wins on the trot.

Adam Marashi, who faced 58 shots, was the Bees' man-of-the-match.

BEES were stung 4-3 by Guildford Flames in overtime - but player coach Claude Dumas was far from unhappy.

Flames' Martin Masa delivered the killer blow on 62.12 after a courageous display from the under-strength hosts at the Hive last Thursday.

And Dumas stated: "We were short of one or two players but we played well defensively and there were plenty of positives."

The Bees led 3-2 through Jaroslav Cesky, Greg Martyn and Nicky Watt.

But Flames' Lukas Smital equalised in the 57th minute allowing Masa to steal the show in overtime, with Gary Clarke and Nathan Rempel Guildford's other scorers.