Autocraft Telford Tigers played the second of back to back games against the bottom of the table Bees chasing a second consecutive four point weekend. Telford had beaten Bristol and Peterborough last weekend and had beaten the Bees in Slough on Saturday night to set up the possibility of a second weekend of double victories.
Tigers dominated the opening five minutes and deservedly took the lead when a Scott McKenzie shot was saved by Max Wright in the Bees’ goal but the rebound was turned in by Fin Howells.
Bees hit back straight away and were level twenty seconds later. Jacob Ranson reacted first to a save by Brad Day to turn the loose puck into the net to level the game.
Telford regained the lead in the tenth minute. A brilliant pass by Eric Henderson across the goal was fired home by David Thomson.
Early in the second period, Bees were level. A turnover in the Tigers’ defensive zone led to Marcel Balaz drawing the sides level.
Balaz added a second goal eight minutes later to give the Bees their first lead of the contest.
Tigers were not at their fluent best but managed to equalise in the final seconds of the period. Balaz was serving a hooking penalty when Thomson’s shot was saved by Wright and with a scramble for the puck in front of goal, McKenzie was able to score from close range.
In the third period, an unnecessary penalty for goaltender interference by James Smith gifted a power play to the visitors. The Bees regained the lead when a shot went wide of the Tigers’ goal and bounced off the boards landing perfectly for Ralfs Circenis to tap into the open net.
Tigers fought back and sent the game to overtime with a goal from Thomson who hit a shot into the roof of the net from the slot with ten minutes to go in regulation time.
Overtime was fractious with both teams going close but with thirty seconds left, a Telford shot was saved and with two players taken out of the play by a Bees defender preventing them from getting up the ice, Bees had a 2-on-1 breakaway and scored through Will Stead.
After the game had ended Josh Martin for Bees was given an unsporting conduct penalty for his unnecessary celebrations antagonising the Tigers’ bench and was escorted off the ice during the post match handshakes.
Tigers gain a point in the standings and with Solway picking up a point in their penalty shot loss to Bristol, Tigers remain in eighth place by a point having played a game more than the Sharks.
Final Score: Autocraft Telford Tigers 4 Berkshire Bees 5 (after Overtime).
Scorers: Fin Howells, David Thomson (2) and Scott McKenzie.
Man of the match: Brad Day.
After the game Head Coach Tom Watkins, commented, “I think we got more than we deserved this evening! Our battle and compete was poor, our grit/physical play was not good enough but the biggest issue was that I thought players put themselves ahead of the team which is unacceptable, too much me over we and it showed in our performance. We had too many no shows tonight.”
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