Bees see off Sharks to secure play-off place
Dominik Gabaj’s side will play on into April after claiming crucial win
The TSI World Bees will play on into April and try to qualify for the finals weekend in Coventry after finally securing their end-of-season playoff place with victory over the Solway Sharks at the Slough Ice Arena on Sunday evening.
Dominik Gabaj’s team have been in eighth position for most of the past few weeks, and they finally saw off the challenge of the Sharks in Sunday’s 43 win.
The National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) has revealed the schedule of fixtures for the play-offs, which will commence on Friday, April 5 and run through to the Coventry weekend on April 27-28.
The Bees begin their end of season matches with a game against the fifth seeds at home on Saturday, April 6 before playing them away 24 hours later. They then face a double header against the Hull Seahawks at home on Saturday, April 13, and away on Sunday, April 14, before finishing off with two matches against title-winners, Leeds Knights on Saturday, April 20 (away) and Sunday, April 21 (home).
After Saturday’s defeat against the Romford Raiders, the Bees went into Sunday’s winner-takes-all clash with the Solway Sharks needing the two points.
The match proved to be an enthralling and competitive affair. The first period was dominated by penalties called against both teams, but at
19.23, the home side took the lead when Gabaj weaved his way through the Sharks’ defence to slam the puck home, with the assists going to Marcel Balaz and Vanya Antonov.
This gave the Bees a precious lead heading into the middle period, however, they didn’t hold onto it for long as the Sharks took advantage of a power play to equalise through Nolan Gardiner at 23.43.
The Bees responded almost immediately with Liam Morris slotting home the hosts’ second at 25.33, with Brendan Baird claiming the assist, while Marcel Balaz gave the home side a two-goal cushion with a third at 27.12. Vanya Antonov and Dominik Gabaj picked up the assists.
Another penalty called against the Bees enabled the Sharks to reduce the deficit once more on a powerplay, Gardiner slotting home his second of the evening to make it 3-2 heading into the final period.
When penalties were called against Gabaj and Harvey Stead early in the third period, the Sharks were swarming five on three, and Gardiner didn’t need much of an invitation to score his hat-trick and tie the game at 3-3.
The Bees knew they needed a regulation time win to secure their play-off spot and when a penalty was called against Solway’s netminder Callum Hepburn, they made the most of their extra skater with Gianni Vitali scoring the all-important game winning goal at 53.52. Ed Bradley and Gabaj were credited with the assists on the power play goal and the hosts managed to ward off any attacks from the Sharks in the final few minutes.