Manchester Mayhem 2-11 Cardiff Huskies
A battling and spirited effort couldn’t prevent the Manchester Mayhem suffering an 11-2 defeat in their home opener at the hands of the double winning Cardiff Huskies at Widnes on Sunday, as the score line doesn’t fully reflect on how well the side played. It was always going to be a tall order for a much changed Manchester side to contend with, especially with an opposition that was littered with experienced GB Internationals in the Huskies line-up and so just trying to keep the score close was the main objective.
Cardiff, as expected, came out as the aggressors from the opening puck drop and saw Darren Pomfret being called into action almost immediately for the home side. Despite a good start by Manchester who kept it scoreless for nearly half the period, they would eventually fall behind to a goal that Pomfret would want back, as a long range effort by Jon Le Galloudec saw it squirm under the goalie for a 1-0 lead with 6.12 gone. Last year’s top scorer in the league – Nathan Stephens, saw him quickly doubling the visitors lead 55 seconds later for 2-0, as the Huskies outshot their hosts 20-1 with the Mayhem opting to employ Dean Lahan as a forward instead of his usual role as defenseman early in the game.
Play in the second saw the home side trying to be more adventurous and force some potential plays, but sadly their attempted build up plays were stifled by the much quicker Cardiff side, as misplaced passes going awry also hindered their advances. Manchester held out for eight minutes in the second period, but a fast break up ice saw Tyler Christopher and Nathan Stephens on a 2-on-0 attack, with Christopher playing the puck across goal for Stephens to tap in for a nice move and have the Huskies 3-0 ahead. The Welsh forward then completed a ‘natural’ hat trick soon after, as the forward cut through between two Mayhem players like a hot knife through butter and scored past Pomfret for 4-0; while Christopher and a second for Le Galloudec made it 6-0 heading into the third period.
Sides thank the crowd – Pic: Manchester Mayhem FB Page
It would have been easy for heads to drop on the Manchester side while Cardiff were cutting them to ribbons on the scoreboard. But instead, it saw the side never giving up and seemed to become stronger as a team with every goal that they shipped. Manchester’s character and fighting spirit in the game saw them grabbing a goal out of nowhere. As a rare defensive error in the Cardiff zone saw a defender skate without the puck and that allowed captain Mark Colquitt to gain possession and find Tom Kimm out front, who saw his effort rebound off the pads of Burgess-Gould and straight to Dean Lahan who was on hand to fire the hosts on the scoreboard to a massive pop in the crowd with 33.17 gone. Cries from the Manchester bench of “We want two” was said partly in jest, but they got their wish anyhow, as Captain Marvel Mark Colquitt fired the puck on net and saw it turned in by Jon Le Galloudec into his own net for 6-2, and see the belief in the home side growing more and more.
Those two goals seemed to stun the Huskies, and see a minor bit of panic with the away side, but the Welsh side soon turned the screw on their opponents by putting their top line out and saw both Stephens and Christopher added two goals each to the total. Paul Furber, who did almost everything but score in the game, he would pick up three assists in the late flurry of goals for the Huskies as the South Wales club moved into double figures. Prior to those two goals scored by the Mayhem, Cardiff looked content to just play the game out. But having their shutout being broken led to an avalanche of chances and shots on goal reading 25-4 in favour of the champions. Mayhem’s netminder Darren Pomfrett faced an incredible barrage of shots in the game, as he faced 61 efforts with 50 saves made to register a save percentage of 82.0%.
While the scoreboard doesn’t fully lie that Cardiff were by far the most deserving winners in the contest – it is perhaps the effort and grit by the home side that will have certainly pleased new coach Karl Nicholson; as his team put in a hell of a shift and performance in what was a losing effort.