A great weekend in Coventry…

I DON’T want to go all ‘Dave Simms’ on everyone, but every now and then it’s nice to be right! I’m pleased to say that I got the results at Coventry bang on, and for anyone who doesn’t already know, the results were:

Semi-finals

Guildford Flames   5-2 Swindon Wildcats
Manchester Phoenix   1-2 Slough Jets

Final

Guildford Flames   1-2 Slough Jets

For anyone that wants to read my reports of the games, they are up on Prohockeynews.com now. You can read

Slough's Gregg Rockman dives to make the save in the final - Photo: David Steadman

about the semi-finals by following this link, and the final by following this one.

I’m really pleased that Slough won in the end, mainly because the have a few ex-Romford guys playing for them. It’s great to see young Billy Phillips win a medal, and hopefully he’ll be back at Romford one day, while Munroe and Myers both deserve a bit of success after enduring a good portion of an awful season with the Raiders. I think the Jets deserved it overall as well.

“Gregg Rockman deserves a lot of credit.”

For periods of both games they were under heavy pressure, but Pete Russell has them really well-drilled. Their defencemen use the boards really well to clear and rarely make mistakes. Melichar in particular was superb, and logged a lot of minutes alongside Adam Greener and Billy Phillips, while Paddy Ward anchored the second pairing with Munroe. Gregg Rockman also deserves a lot of credit. I thought he was solid against Manchester and absolutely superb in the final, and he was definately deserving of his man-of-the-match award.

Slough captain Blaz Emersic scores the final-winning penalty shot - Photo: David Steadman

“Emersic was superb, as he has been all season.”

As far as forwards go, the Jets are able to send out three really strong lines. I was more impressed with Jasik than I was expecting – he has good speed and loves to take players on, beating them the vast majority of the time, which takes a lot of pressure off his D. Emersic was superb, as he has been all season, and he scored three quarters of Slough’s goals at Coventry, including his slick penalty shot when under enormous pressure to win the final. Also, while all the brits played well, I have to say I was very impressed with Ryan Watt. I’ve never met the Watt brothers but I’ve heard from a few people that they are troublemakers and disruptive at times, which outweighs their skill on the ice. I don’t know what he’s like in the dressing room but Ryan Watt played two good games at Coventry, and the fans and his teammates all seemed to love him.

Swindon never really looked like beating the Flames in their semi, but they brought a lot of fans and they were excellent throughout, very noisy. I should know having sat behind them! Guildford looked pretty good in both games and could easily have won it. I also loved their fans’ ‘moneybags Guildford’ t-shirts. The rest of us might not like it but the reason they can spend so much money is that they’re a well run club that put a lot of money into promoting a few years back, so while I don’t particularly like them as a team, they’re a great business model for an EPL club.

Manchester brought a lot of fans, and along with the Basingstoke fans made the arena a lot busier than it was last year. Though I’m sure they were disappointed not to beat Slough after going ahead, most came back to watch the final and

Swindon's Chris Douglas earns himself the man-of-the-match award with one of many saves - Photo: David Steadman

that helped to create a great atmosphere. The MKL Barmy Army was also brilliant, and probably the loudest set of fans, despite their team not even being there!

Overall it was a great weekend. I spent far too much money, and failed to win the 50/50 yet again, but it was really enjoyable, and I’ll definately be there next year even if Romford are no longer in the league. So that’s it for the EPL season! Keep reading the blog, as I’ll still be doing at least one post a week throughout the summer. I’ll look at player signings as they are announced, as well as having the odd interview with players and coaches. I’ll also follow the NHL playoffs on here for anyone that watches that.