Thursday December 14th saw the seventh set of games in the Sport Corner Siam Hockey League (SHL) 2017-2018 season take place. The opening contest saw Hertz defeat Expedia by default, while AWARE dropped the Sukhumvit Spitfires 5-2 in the second match of the evening.
Thursday morning had Expedia look like they were going to dress their full squad for the first time this season. But by 5pm, Pratch Siridhara, Chayutapon (First) Kulrat and La Chamnanrattankul had all dropped out. So, Expedia captain Mike Wilson reached out for a replacement and Ichiro Hara was able to show at the last minute. Unfortunately, what Mike and the rest of the Expedia squad didn’t count on was Rob Taylor getting caught in traffic and Chap Kovitaya having a minor traffic accident causing Rob to miss the start of the game and Chap to miss the game altogether. This meant that at puck drop Expedia only had nine skaters and a goalie meaning they had to default the game.
Hertz and Expedia did play their game anyway and Hertz won 8-5, though the official recorded score was 1-0 and the personal statistics accrued didn’t count. Carly Hill took the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of- the-game honors, becoming the second woman to do so this year.
On Sunday, La will marry Yuri Nagayama, daughter of SHL photographer Tadamasa Nagayama and sister of Thai-Japanese star player Hideki Nagayama, now playing in Denmark. As many of the SHL players and their families will be going to the wedding, the SHL games originally scheduled for December 17th were switched to December 21st.
In the second game last Thursday, Jouni Heinonen, Corry Day, David Boere and Nicky were all missing from the AWARE roster, but they picked by Top Rutthapong as a sub, and Top, playing in his first game of the SHL season, did not disappoint, scoring a goal. Other goal scorers for AWARE included Devin Michael, Ryan Yaden, Phu Suwachirat & Mangkorn Sukwiboon. Richie Jiaravanon and Scott Murray scored for Sukhumvit in a losing cause with Stephen Sproule having a great game subbing for Sukhumvit as he set up both goals and was buzzing around the ice all night.
Juiz Lertitsiri subbed as the AWARE goalie, stopping 25 of the 27 shots fired his way. It was Juiz’s first appearance in the SHL this season and what a performance he put on, capturing the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game award outplaying Dream Ungkulpattanasuk, who stopped 13 of the 18 shots fired his way in the Sukhumvit goal.
After seven weeks of SHL hockey, AWARE sits atop the table with a 5-2 record; Expedia is in second with a 4-3 record (including a loss by default); Sukhumvit is in third at 3-4 (including a loss by default); and Hertz is in last with a 2-5 record.
Expedia’s Jordan Ashton and Juhani Ijas still lead stats race with 10 points each while super sub Tewin Chartsuwan sits in second with 8 points while Expedia’s John Schachnovsky and Sukhumvit’s Ernesto Bauer are tied for third with 7 points each.
The final games of 2017 will be held on Thursday December 21st with Hertz playing Suhkumvit at 8:30pm and Expedia playing AWARE at 9:30. Admission is free and all games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX.
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