Haringey Huskies 3, Bristol Pitbulls 2
24th October 2026
Storm Boelo comes hot on the heels of Austen.
Brackish, rain whipped wind gusts for most of Saturday. There’s a febrile, uncanny quality in the air as I walk up The Avenue off Alexandra Park Road.
There’s no one around.
In the half hour it takes for me to walk to the Palace I’ve seen two people. Backs to me, hoods up. The scaffold sheeting on one of the multi-million pound properties threatens to rip loose, bulging and spasms in the wind.
I’m looking for signs, portents.
There’s a scene in The Omen (1976, not the ridiculous remake) where the inimitable Patrick Troughton surveys a similar scene as Father Brennan, before being speared by a lightning rod.
This leads to the obvious question: were we to shave the heads of the Haringey players, who would bear the number of the beast? I’ll let you speculate but I have my suspicions.
Bristol traveled without talisman Oli Shone, nor the experience of Josh Dolphin on Saturday, and if you’re looking for omens you couldn’t fail to miss that one. The Pitbulls have had some decent results this year, but which version of them would turn up at the Palace?
Petr Čech gets the nod, with Max McEwan, Ryan Payne, Stuart Appleby, Marton Szasz, and Chris Beckett completing our starting six.
Nathan Long shimmy’s past two along the boards finding Ruskin Springer Hughes who forces a pad save from the right.
We score early. Robbie Rejna keeps it alive in the offensive zone, pokes towards Jordan Liddell in the slot who scores backhand short side. Great goal, and great work by Robbie to keep the move going.
Bristol respond within 30 seconds though, and it’s a similar tale. Bristol bring it around the net, out in front and it’s a onetimer on the backhand that goes across goal into the bottom corner. Very well taken.
What to make of this? Certainly not what I was expecting. My take on the tea leaves a complete misread.
Courtney Grant with a snapshot from the left. Ruskin, Nathan, and Conor Pollard combine down the left. A lovely move, one touch hockey but it’s fired wide.
Jordan Liddell intercepts at the blue line, his slapshot blocked spiralling into the netting and out of bounds. Ruskin shoots wide from the faceoff.
Haringey with loads of possession so far in the first, Bristol breaking with speed. Joe Malfatti and Haydn Lee were threats all game.
The Pitbulls miss from the slot having found the free skater in space. Ryan Payne with a saucer across the lines on the tape for Courtney who can only shoot over the bar. What a pass from Ryan.
Robbie, Johan Persson, and Conor again find a move that almost pays off with Conor at the backdoor. The first period is really good I thought. Our passing, setups, patterns of play were slick and fast, and it’s unsurprising we outshoot Bristol 20 to 8. Lots of possession and shots but only one goal.
Johan tries a reverse pass at the post but it’s blocked. Ryan does well around the boards. I thought our forecheck was fantastic, particularly Courtney, Chris and Johan. Marton carries from the neutral zone but can’t fashion a shot. The period drifts and it ends 1-1.
The second promises much but delivers little. Stu cuts out the pass in the slot on the penalty kill then ties it up on the boards to kill the clock. Great play.
It should be two for Haringey, it has to be. It’s whipped across from the right, Conor at the doorstep with the goal at his mercy but sees the puck loop over the bar and the chance come to nothing. What an opportunity.
We have a four minute powerplay including some 5-on-3 hockey which we can’t capitalise from. Marton’s gloved form the left then we hit the post, Ruskin with the shot and Courtney with a tip?
Lids guides it through traffic from the right for a pad save. Petr is equal to a breakaway, smothers and gets clear. Robbie with hands behind the goal line, comes to George Hagon who puts a bouncing, squirming puck on net that’s batted away.
Max has a couple of looks from the blue line, both wide. Haringey with a lot of chances, a lot of possession, but Bristol waiting to stretch the game the other way. Emil Savy doesn’t bat an eyelid as he moves past two skaters and out of the defensive zone.
We toil.
Again, the shot count only tells one side of the story with the Huskies outshooting the Pitbulls 18 to 5, but Bristol continue to be a threat on the breakaway. There’s some afters between Jordan and Joe Malfatti after the buzzer which threatens to boil over but eventually subsides.
The third is where the action really takes place. Twenty seconds after the restart, there’s confusion at the net after a faceoff on the left spot. It pops up somewhere near the backdoor and Marton’s alert to it and snaffles it home at the back to give Haringey the lead.
Conor shoots wide. Nathan coast-to-coast, over. Chris spins, shoots, scooped behind the goal line. He’s back on D moments later, hits the ice and does enough to recover the puck.
Johan almost, almost with a redirect from Conor. Stephen Woodford kicked out from the right. Petr called into action, one nearside a half-hearted wrap-around attempt, the other from the blue line. Suddenly the game’s alive.
He deals with three more, equal to all and gloves the last. The Pitbulls gaining momentum, maddening how it can shift, completely ephemeral.
Bristol do get the equaliser on the powerplay. Petr deals with the initial shot from the point but Bristol react fastest and it’s scored on the rebound. 2-2 and less than 10 to go.
It’s a scrappy, scrappy end.
There’s a tension and uncertainty. Push and go for glory, but risk a Bristol breakaway or hold until overtime. There was only ever one answer.
Chris rings iron but Conor’s there at the backdoor after a scramble at the net. 3-2 Haringey, four excruciating minutes left.
The Pitbulls call timeout. With a minute-and-a-half on the clock Bristol pull the netminder.
It feels like an hour-and-a-half. The extra skater making things so uncomfortable. Petr makes a massive save from the slot with his leg, fizzed into the slot from the right and hit first time low, but it’s blocked.
Haringey urged to shoot every time they have the puck. We hit the post with an empty net, I think it’s Richie Pickering from the defensive zone, Huskies’ fans desperate for it to go in. Finally, finally, the buzzer goes and the Huskies take all three not-so-straightforward points on the night. A very hard fought match.
We step away from league action next weekend as the Invicta Mustangs travel up for our second tie in the Eddie Joseph Memorial Cup. Forward James Laming is currently the South 2 leading goal scorer with 12 and will be one to watch on Saturday.
I’ve enjoyed our last two performances a lot, and we’re playing some really good stuff at times and long may that continue.
The signs are good.
Let’s Go Huskies.
Photos: Luke O’Donovan
