TCW Live will be providing live text updates from tonight’s game. Please click on the link below from 7pm.

TCW Live – Panthers v Blaze

By the time Monday comes, will this have been known as a defining weekend in Panthers season or will it be known as the weekend where our title challenge probably ended?
Match ups with the Blaze have become the modern-day equivalent of our games with the Steelers when we played out of the old barn. While Blaze games will probably never match the intense rivalry that we have with the Steelers, but the contests have become a rivalry in there own right, bourne out of the sheer dislike that both sides have for each other.

Current form suggests that the Blaze are in much better form. Since the teams last meeting in October Coventry have won 10 and lost 3 of their 13 games, while the Panthers have won 7 and lost 6, easy to see why Blaze have taken over from Panthers at the top of the table.
Panthers do hold a 3-1 advantage in games played this season, outscoring Blaze 12-10. Blaze have yet to win at the NIC this campaign and that should give Panthers confidence to take the points, however much will depend on the form of Blaze netminder Peter Hirsch, who finds himself on top of the netminding rankings. The key to winning both games is beating Hirsch, while KSP in the Panthers net needs to have two solid games and stop giving up the odd soft goal.

Two Panthers wins and we’re still in the hunt, a 1-1 split will keep us up there, two Blaze victories and it’s probably goodnight Vienna! It should be a very interesting weekend.

Not the greatest game that’s ever been seen at the NIC, but two points is all that matters if we are to continue to stay in the title hunt. Panthers started the match like a team possessed, they dominated the Devils out shooting them 18-9, but had precisely zero goals to show for their dominance. The best chance fell to Bruce Richardson but his stick broke with an empty net at his mercy! The end of the first saw what became a running battle between Dominic D’Amour and Brad Voth. Voth turned down D’Amour’s offers to dance a few times throughout the game. Both got 2 each for roughing right at the end, Voth got a further 10 minutes for an altercation at the end of the period.

Into the second and it was inevitable that Devils took the lead after all Panthers superiority, Phil Hill netting on the powerplay after a rebound by KSP. Panthers found their scoring touch soon after, Cameron Mann finding the net after Corey Neilson had left the penalty box and started the move. Shortly after it was 2-1, McAslan finding the top corner with a beauty of a wrist shot.

The third was a bit dull, I was expecting Cardiff to come out all guns blazing and Panthers to try and grab a game winner, but it never really happened. The most interesting thing to happen was Voth running KSP, then cross checking Neilson (I think) in the face!  Voth somehow only got called 2 for interference, I thought he’d walk for that to be honest, but he didn’t and we move on. I don’t expect there will be a media witch hunt and hysterical fans calling for a lifetime ban because of it! After the hooter had sounded Voth and D’Amour finally dropped the gloves, both fighting to a stand still, both got in some good shots, but I’d call it a draw, perhaps Voth edging it.

Two points is welcome, but we still have issues. The powerplay is a worry and we need to be scoring more for the amount of shots we are having on net. Still, two points keeps us in the hunt and that will do for me.

TCW Live will be covering this game from 4pm today. Please click on the link below for live text coverage:

TCW Live – Panthers v Devils

Sheffield Steelers have complained that the standard of refereeing by Marco Coenan cost them two points in Newcastle on Sunday, not the fact that they are a festering pile of shite as first thought.
Steelers GM Mike O’Connor said “Some people may think this is sour grapes from a bunch of sore losers, and they’d be quite right, let’s face it you can’t change the habits of a lifetime!” He went on “Dave Matsos and I looked over the video on Monday, it was quite obvious that the referee ignored offences that would have been given to us in the past, mind you it’s very difficult to buy them off when you don’t have any money, eh?” When reminded that Steelers forward Matt Hubbauer looked to have got away with supposedly breaking his stick over Jeff Hutchins back, O’Connor looked uneasily at the floor and nervously fidgeted while mumbling something about what terrible weather we’re having.
Newcastle coach Rob Wilson was furious when he heard of Steelers complaints. He said “Typical Steelers, trying to deflect attention from yet another demoralising defeat. I would say it’s taking away from a hard fought victory by my boys, but then again it wasn’t that hard, it was only the Steelers we were playing, you sure don’t have to try as much against them these days!” Wilson continued “I think they felt intimidated by the crowd, we had over four thousand people in here on Sunday, their guys are not used to playing in front of those sort of numbers!”

Where do you start with such a shocking performance? Personally I wish I had been delayed a bit longer in Belfast then I wouldn’t have had to witness that shower of shit last night! If only the Panthers players I put in as much effort as I did to make the game!

After a close game in Belfast on Friday night I was expecting the Panthers to really take this game by the knackers and really go for it. Unfortunately we got what I consider to be one of, if not the worst panthers performance in the NIC era.

One of the biggest reasons for our insipid performance last night was the antics of Belfast hard man Sean McMorrow. We allowed him to come into our barn and run the show. We were so preoccupied with McMorrow that less attention was paid to Colin Shields, Brandon Benedict and the outstanding Jeff Szwez, and the Giants made us pay big time.

McMorrow basically took the piss for the 35 minutes and 40 seconds he was on the ice, what really annoyed me is that no-one took him to task for it. With a couple of exceptions, we played like a bunch of fairies, running scared of the hardman! I will say this though. The cross-check that McMorrow put on the back of Mario Larocque’s neck was straight out of the bush league. I lost a lot of respect for McMorrow after that, I always had him labelled as an honourable fighter, but that was a deliberate intent to injure which could have done some serious damage. The league needs to look at that incident and hand out some supplemental discipline as he can’t be allowed to get away with that.

Only 19-year old Brit Stevie Lee stood up to him, body slamming McMorrow to the ice and for that he deserves a great amount of credit. Even when McMorrow skated to centre ice inviting a fight not one of our so-called hard men grew a pair and took him to task. He did his job to the letter (apart from the cross-check) and had a big hand in Giants win. I hope the team watch the video from last night and take a long, hard look at themselves!

TCW Live will be bringing you live text updates from the crunch clash at the Odyssey Arena between Giants and Panthers (connection permitting). Join me from 6.55pm on the link below.

TCW Live – Giants v Panthers

TCW Live will be providing updates from tonight’s game if it goes ahead. Many thanks to Tom Martin who will be operating TCW Live from the rink tonight.
Coverage will start when the game starts, expected to be around 8.45pm at the moment! Please click on the below link to follow the action.

TCW Live – Devils v Panthers

As an alternative The Inferno will also be covering the game through their Match Night Live service on the link below

The Inferno Match Night Live

Traffic chaos on the M1 meant the game faced off late at 6.15, defensive chaos on the Stingrays blue line meant Panthers were 2-0 up after two minutes!
The first was scored by cult hero Bruce Richardson, tapping into the net at the far post with Tommy Sandahl nowhere. 17 seconds later Cameron Mann made it 2-0, again easily beating Sandahl in the Stingrays net. Panthers were comfortably on top and continued to slice through the Hull rearguard at will, Mann was particularly rampant during this period, the puck seemed to be glued to the end of his stick!
The now obligatory fight happened in the middle of the first, though not from the usual protagonists! This time it was Marc Levers and Lee Mitchell who dropped the gloves. I’d say Levers edged it and the video appears to back that up: Panthers continued to cruise and the period ended 2-0.
The second started similar to the first, Richardson scored his second and Panthers third after some great work by Jade Galbraith, who beat two defenders and drew Sandahl wide before slipping the puck across for Bruce to fire into an empty net. Panthers continued to dominate, but started to run into penalty trouble which gave the Stingrays a route back into the game. Lee Mitchell scored two power play goals to give the Panthers a far narrower lead of 3-2 going into the final period.
Stingrays started to up their game and hit the pipework as they cranked up the pressure looking for an equaliser. However Panthers finally made their superiority count as Dominic D’Amour blasted in the fourth from the blue line. As the Panthers went to celebrate, Adam Knight caught Bruce Richardson, which saw Knight’s evening end with a 2+2+10 for attempted spearing, idiot!
From the resulting powerplay Sean McAslan made the game safe, firing home from a tight angle, making the final score 5-2 in Panthers favour and consolidates our position at the top of the Elite League.
Full video highlights of the game by the Stingrays are available below.

There will be TCW Live coverage from Hull tonight (traffic problems permitting) as Panthers look to mantain their top of the table status. Coverage will start from around 5.25pm, please follow the link below.

TCW Live – Stingrays v Panthers

To understand some of the terms and abbreviations used in TCW Live coverage, please take a look at the TCW Live Glossary