With the Huskies very short-benched, this was a game in which those who made it to Guildford were just hoping wouldn’t be a cricket score.
The first period felt fairly even with a couple of penalties for both teams including one of the best penalty kills we’ve seen all season. Even when Guildford attempted a breakaway while the Huskies were on the power play, it was contained and controlled remarkably quickly. Despite being short benched, and even though it has often been the case Haringey play better when short benched, us the fans were still quite surprised at the effort, power and strategy coming from this team.
Guildford did win the period 1-0, with a shot straight from a faceoff which Dyan blocked, unfortunately rebounding to the stick of a Guildford player. After the first period there was a hope that, despite expectations, we might not have a slaughter after all.
The second period Guildford came out strong. We all know about the Haringey second period, but this was a period where all the D-men really stood out. One D-man was always laying low, continuously moving, sticking between the red line and blue line preventing Guildford from getting that breakaway. This appeared to disrupt Guildford’s game plan with them going for an uncertain dump and chase rarely seen from this Guildford team.
Haringey were working with 2 and a half forward lines and 2 defensive lines. This mostly consisted in defense; Ryan MacFarlain with Ryan Payne; Cameron Pow with Peter Toth; with the forward lines consisting of Bennet Beldecos, Conner Smith, Robby Rayner; Stuart Appleby, Marton Szasz, Carl Etuazim; with Cortney Grant and Ihor Palchevskyi, his first call up from the Haringey juniors, with Stuart doubling up for their centre for the third line. As you can imagine every one of the Huskies bench got ice time.
So Haringey’s first goal. This came from Robby Raynor who managed to get through a tight Guildford defence and at an acute get it past Stoodley in the Guildford next. It didn’t take long for Guildford to reply with a wrap around that we believe took off Dylan’s skate blade. However, the fans were slightly nervous at this point as we saw Dylan limping off! All bets weren’t off.
10 minutes or so after that 2nd Guildford goal it was commented that Conner Smith looked like he had a spark that had been missing from previous games and he would likely score our next goal. 2 minutes from that comment Conner Smith did. Conner was forced wide but took a chance near the post lifting the puck over Stoodley shoulder and into the pack of the net 2-2.
On to the third period. How were the Huskies legs doing? We all know about the Guildford 3rd period. Naturally Guildford usually save their all to the final period plus Haringey are short bench. Guildford appeared really flustered while still having their usual forecheck and physicality. However, Haringey were not letting them down the middle or allowing them to get their usual “slap shot from the blue line” shots in. This lead to them having to dump and chase a lot which is not their normal style and this showed.
Both teams had their moment of attack but the Haringey defence never stopped moving and also never went deep into the attaching zone meaning that when Guildford did want to forecheck they were usually contained.
Guildford started then asserting themselves almost camping in the Haringey end. While trying to skate off the ice for a player change Marton was hit heavily by a Guildford player leading to much worry as to whether he’d even be able to get up. He was taken off with minutes left on the clock and Haringey now a player down. It was the Haringey grit that allowed the clock to tick down leaving the score 2-2 and into overtime.
While we may not know all the coaches had planned to do in the overtime period we started with a line of Stuart Appleby, Peter Toth and Benet Beldecos. Guildford took initial possession. Somehow the puck got to Stuart who broke away down the ice chased by all three Guildford players. Toth and Beldecos seemed to stay low in a defensive setup. Stuart was caught and pushed to the far left of the goal by a Guildford player on his right side making it look impossible that he’d be able to even lift his stick take a shot. Take a shot he did. Back of the Guildford net it went. 36 seconds is all it took.
To say the team and the fans were happy would be an understatement! Somehow our first ever win at the Guildford rink. Yes it might be an overtime win but a win is a win and that point could affect Guildford’s title chances as our win again Peterborough last season affected theirs then. Massive credit to all the players and even though the Player of the Game for us went to Carl Etuazim it could have and deserved to go to all of the players as well as the coaches for a game plan that worked against this Guildford team. There are many players who had their game of the year so far.
Photo: Phil Hutchinson
