The sixth set of games in the 2018-19 Sport Corner Siam Hockey League (SHL) took place on Sunday, November 18th. AWARE walloped TRUE 9-2 in the first match while the Novotel Spitfires stomped on Hertz 9-3 in the second game of the evening.
Each team has played each other twice so far and we don’t have a split in any series: AWARE has won all its games; Novotel has swept its matches with TRUE and Hertz and been swept by AWARE; Hertz has lost its games to Aware and Novotel, but swept TRUE; and TRUE, unfortunately, is still looking for its first win.
Game one on this evening, saw AWARE score three goals in each period jumping out to 3-0 first period lead on goals by Ryan Yaden, Harrison Oztemel and Phu Suwachirat. Yaden, again, Devin Michael and Dmitrii Maslov added second-period markers, and then in the third Keer, again, Bill Bredesen and Juhani Ijas, finished off the AWARE scoring. Winnie Luckanatinakorn with two assists on the night was named the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game, a high honor for the Thai teenager, playing his first season in the SHL. Roman Larin had three assist for AWARE in the game.
TRUE who was missing four regulars on the night, battled hard and Jordan Ashton and Ith Vatanapanyakul scored for them. Unfortunately, Ashton was ejected late in the second period after arguing a cross-checking penalty he had just received and as he is tied for the team’s scoring lead with captain Mike Wilson, his presence was missed in the third and final period.
AWARE’s Patrick Leduc turned aside 26 of the 28 shots fired his way, making some key saves along the way, while his counterpart in the TRUE twine Lance Parker had a rougher time of it stopping only 30 of the 39 shots he received. To be fair to Lance though, AWARE just has so many weapons (7 different scorers on this night) and they come at you in waves.
Game two saw Hertz jump out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by captain Justin St. Denis but they didn’t score again until the third period after Novotel had scored seven unanswered goals. Brandon Vick was the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game in this game with his terrific 4-point night (3G, 1A). He has teamed with Corry Day and Michael White to form the most potent line in the SHL this season. The linemates each had four points with White chipping in two goals and two assists and Day adding four helpers. Outstanding rushing defenseman Ken Kindborn had his own 4-point night (1G, 3A) and dominated play when he was on the ice. Mangkorn Sukwiboon and La Chamnanrattanakul also scored for Hertz.
In a bizarre incident late in the second period, Hertz’s Andy Brine started arguing with the referee after thinking he’d been called for a slashing penalty – he hadn’t. Unfortunately, his actions led to an unsportsmanlike minor and then as the incident escalated a game misconduct (plus automatic one-game suspension) for abuse of an official. Without Brine, their best player, Hertz had to skate into the third period against a Novotel attack, which is hard enough to defend against even when you have a full team.
Gabor Toth stopped 22 of the 25 shots fired at him by Hertz shooters while Dream Ungkulpattanasukturned aside 22 of the 31 missiles he faced on the night, but in this game, Gabor made the key saves at the right time while Dream struggled after delivering a number of outstanding performances earlier in the season.
After six games, Novotel’s Corry Day continues to be the SHL’s scoring leader with 17 points (9G, 8A); linemate Michael White is in second spot with 14 points (5G, 9A); AWARE’s Harrison Oztemel (6G, 4A) is tied for third spot with 10 points with teammate Roman Larin (4G, 6A) and Juhani Ijas sits in fourth spot with 9 points (4 G, 5A).
SHL action continues on Thursday November 29th with Hertz playing AWARE at 8:30pm and Novotel playing TRUE at 9:30pm. Admission is free and all games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX.
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