I’ve never seen a longer or more persistent queue for the shirt off the back.
That’s star power for you. It was near enough up to the double-doors when I walked in. It’s funny, sitting in the stands you always get the same reaction of momentary shock from newcomers and day trippers when they see his face on the jumbotron. Yes, that is the Petr Čech.
I would hazard a guess that Saturday was the club’s most lucrative shirt off the back raffle, ever. It’s a fantastic bit of history to own but an absolutely enormous jersey. I tend to stick with my Sam Jackson game-worn in small, mainly because it’s one of the only ones that would fit me.
Amid all the glitz and glamour Haringey had a job to do on Saturday night, and that was to collect three points. Win all of their remaining league games in regulation and they confirm third place in the league, and in theory a stronger playoff seeding.
Chelmsford are a strange side, in that I don’t think they’re particularly good yet they’ve run us close in both the other games this year with the 4-6 road result and the 6-5 win at the Palace in the Eddie Joseph Memorial Cup. I think they’ll finish outside of the playoff berths, my guess is that Slough will clinch the eighth and final place, based on their remaining games. But we’ll see.
It’s by no means a vintage first period.
Stuart Appleby and Marton Szasz go back and forth across the slot but can’t find a way through. Chelmsford come the other way and wind up for a slapper between the hashmarks, only to swing and miss.
Ryan McFarlane with some fancy footwork to control the puck sees his shot gloved. He then finds Oli Cooper who has his shot saved from the right. Aleksei KhoKhlov a unit between the pipes for the Warriors all game.
Petr deals with a couple of routine saves from out wide and the blue line. It’s difficult for the Huskies to create really good opportunities. Chelmsford do very well in the first period in making it really congested between the dots whenever Haringey attack.
The best two opportunities fall to Marton and Carl Etuazim. Marton turns over possession, drives the net, slows at the crease and puts his shot wide. It’s another breakaway for Carl soon after, who skates from centre ice and goes backhand from the doorstep and is saved.
It’s a bizarre start to the second.
Marton flies away down ice, heads to the net and lifts the puck backhand into the roof of the net from the crease. Or did he?
I would have bet a Petr Čech game-worn jersey that Marton had scored, putting Haringey 1-0 up. Everyone who wasn’t on the ice seemed to feel the same way, judging from the looks of disbelief around the rink and on the bench as play continued.
Had the puck gone through the netting somehow? Had it gone in but bounced out and the ref not realised? The theories abounded where I was stood as the game carried on. It certainly wasn’t going to count, whatever happened.
The Huskies do take the lead moments later, however. Luke Martin carries into the zone, skates beyond the goal line and drops it off for Stephen Woodford who slaps it in from close. That one counts! Finally the Chelmsford resolve broken.
For all the huffing and puffing in the first period, Haringey dominate the second and find that cutting edge. Two minutes after their first, Ruskin Springer Hughes barrels down the right, finds Will Nowik in the slot who controls before finishing low to the right.
Their third soon follows, as Carl carries along the boards, cuts in centrally and fires low across goal. Really well taken. Everything coming off for the Huskies and Chelmsford looking flattened.
With a couple of minutes left in the period Carl’s at it again, carrying the puck into the offensive zone, holding off all types of pressure and finds Marton in the slot who jams away at the crease to make it four.
An absolute blitzing from the Huskies.
There’s more goals in the third, and it could have been even more for the Huskies, who put 66 shots on net across the game. Will Nowik fizzes a hard pass into Ruskin from the point who walks onto it, skates down main street and scores far side to the left.
Chelmsford do get a goal back with six minutes left through Canadian forward Robbie Dowell who gains the zone, drifts left and rips across goal into the top right corner. A great shot that beats Petr for speed. Dowell a decent pick up for the Warriors this year.
It’s eventually a routine win for Haringey after Chelmsford bravely held out in the first, but after the second period it never looked in doubt.
Elsewhere in the league, It’s looking very likely that NIHL South 2 2025/26 will be decided on Saturday 21st March, when Guildford host Peterborough. There are still many permutations as to how it might play out, but for the Phoenix only a regulation win will do.
Peterborough have led for a long time this year, but their recent 5-3 loss at Oxford has changed the complexion somewhat. What a way to decide the title though, on near enough the last game of the season. Talk about drama!
We’ll have our own drama this coming Saturday. The Eddie Joseph Memorial Cup final will be electric, and I wouldn’t like to call it either way. I think the difference may lie in whether Haringey can execute, whether they can be clinical in front of net. We’ve seen those games where we create chance after chance without capitalising against Peterborough and we know how those end.
We’ll be without forward Conner Smith through injury, which is a big blow, but as we’ve seen time and again this season we have a group here who are able to step up when called upon, and it’s a testament to them and the team that everyone’s contributed when asked.
I’ve said at some point that the EJMC represents our best opportunity for silverware this season, and here we are right on the cusp of it. There’s no second-leg this year, no aggregate score to contend with, just 60 minutes of hockey.
One shot, one game, one opportunity.
Let’s Go Huskies.
Photos by Phil Hutchinson
