10 years.
That’s pretty amazing.
In that inaugural season the Huskies finished 10th, with an 8-1-1-16 record. They missed the playoffs by four points. A 21-year-old Stephen Woodford put up 35 points to claim top point scorer for the club. How things have changed. Ryan Payne and Stuart Appleby featured of course, so perhaps not everything.
Having missed out on the Playoff quarterfinal against the Cardiff Canucks the weekend before with a bout of norovirus (the joys of being a parent of a nursery age child…), I was eager to make the most of the semifinal against Peterborough and travelled for the first leg on the Saturday.
It’s a tentative start.
There’s a scramble at the Peterborough net after Jaden Boolkah shoots from the point but it’s eventually cleared. Dylan Philips makes a slew of saves to keep Peterborough out, including two big ones on the breakaway. He really kept us in it that first period.
Matt Ganas is tireless on the forecheck, while Oli Cooper shows what he’s about along the boards to break out of the zone.
With two minutes left in the period Haringey take the lead, and it’s a brilliant individual effort from Carl Etuazim. Carl’s too strong and fast, and squeezes between two Phantoms’ players on the blue line, bears down on net and finishes from the slot. Wow.
It’s almost two. Carl doggedly wins possession, finds Ruskin Springer Hughes at the crease but he’s denied by the pads of the netminder.
The turning point in the game, for me, comes right at the end of the period.
Instead of taking the sting out of it, instead of making it scrappy for the final doings, dumping the puck, whatever to get over the line, there’s about 60 seconds of frantic end-to-end hockey which is exactly what Peterborough want.
Peterborough push and push with a frenzy of shots in the dying moments to try and draw level. There’s a nervousness to Haringey, desperate to get to the break 0-1 up, and Peterborough sense that vulnerability and prey on it.
It’s the very last of these Phantoms’ charges that leaves several Huskies’ players on the ice, the puck shifted across the slot to the backdoor and slammed in. Peterborough tie it up with 0.8 seconds remaining on the clock. Sickener.
It’s one of those goals that feels like it’s worth two, because of the timing, because of the momentum it shifts. From here, the game spools out of control for Haringey as Peterborough incrementally take any hope of another playoff final away, goal by goal.
Haringey come out in the second though looking to bounce straight back. Johan Persson feeds Ruskin at the near post who almost tips it over the shoulder of Luke Clark in the Peterborough net, but he ultimately makes the save. Nice play.
Peterborough’s second is bad. There’s all sorts of mix-ups behind the Haringey net, and Dylan’s caught out of position. Peterborough work it into the high slot and it’s a one-timer into the net with no one in the black and white of Haringey set or ready. A horrible goal to concede, and shorthanded as well.
Five minutes later and the Phantoms make it 3-1. It’s fed in from the left point and finds a tip in front to redirect. The Phantoms are smothering the Huskies and unsurprisingly outshoot them 27 to 8 in this second period.
Our best chance falls to Carl, who goes back and forth with Ruskin on the breakaway. It’s fed to the back door but Carl can’t connect and the puck fizzes wide.
Peterborough’s fourth was another poor defensive showing. With two left in the period Phantoms’ captain Conor Pollard is allowed to walk unimpeded, with no one seemingly aware, and he scores short side. Huskies rocked.
The Phantoms press on in the third period and score goals five, six, and seven, the last of which summed up our night; a defensive error, caught in possession and Peterborough forward AJ Herring dispatches from the slot top shelf.
A shame, as we’d done so well in the first and looked like we were going to make a game of it, but that Peterborough equaliser turned it on its head and we never recovered. Peterborough outscore us 7-1 and outshoot us 61 to 31 on the night.
It leaves Haringey with a mountain to climb on Sunday.
What could we do in response? It’s a far closer game, but the damage had been done the night before.
It’s an eerily similar start. Again it’s a slow first few minutes, again Haringey take the lead. Ruskin puts it on net from the point, and Marton Szasz is there with the tip to send it 5-hole into the net on the power play. They couldn’t, could they? Sadly not.
Peterborough draw level with five remaining in the period, after a shot from the point is saved with the rebound eventually finding at Peterborough stick and rifled into the top right corner from the slot.
Even Peterborough’s second goal mirrored their one from the night before. Petr Cech blows a tyre behind the Haringey net and Peterborough put it back out in front and it’s a simple finish into the open net.
This time, however, we respond instantly. Conner Smith shoots from the right and it’s jammed in at the crease by Robert Rejna. 2-2.
Luke Martin has a smart finish wiped by the officials before Peterborough take the lead again. It’s a breakaway carried down the left and finished from the D. They make it four a minute later, another breakaway and a scramble after Petr makes the initial save, but they find the puck and it’s sent whistling into the back of the net.
With 10 left, Haringey respond and it’s Ruskin with a shot across goal that finds twine, but Peterborough pull away again minutes later and make it 3-5.
Marton produces a sublime bit of skill, receiving and turning with the puck on the blue line but shoots over the bar. Will Nowik and Matt combine on the breakaway, but it’s a shot over the bar again.
The clock ticks down for Haringey in the third, but it’s made interesting by a Jaden Boolkah goal that brings us within one. Conner slides at the crease reaching for the puck but is stopped by Luke Clark. Pete Toth wins it and finds Matt across the slot who takes a swing and a miss.
There’s dribs and drabs and half chances, but it never threatens to be anything other than a Peterborough win, and they deservedly progress to the final. Haringey lose 4-5 on the night and 5-12 on aggregate.
I’m trying to think when my first game was and can’t remember, but I can see that the first tickets I bought online were for a South Cup game against the Invicta Dynamos on Saturday 30th November 2019. I still have the match programme (unfortunately I am that guy who keeps everything).
Woody’s Captain’s Log is hilarious, and runs the gamut from complaining about the team having beer thrown over them by the Invicta crowd to Ryan McFarlane’s burgeoning modelling career.
When I think back over what’s changed and improved in my short time supporting the club, it’s night and day. It hasn’t turned out how we’d all hoped this season, but I think this group of players are really exciting and I can’t wait to see what they can do next year. Onwards and upwards.
For the last time this season, Let’s Go Huskies.
