The SHL games on Sunday March 7th were the second of two games in a back-to-back series with KCG beating Aware by a 6-4 score in the evening’s first match and Novotel Spitfires defeating Siam Mandalay 6-1 in the evening’s second game.

Aware took an early lead in game one as Masasto Kitayama scored the first of his two-first period goals and then Pann Hongswadhi tied it for KCG midway in the first but Masato’s second goal saw Aware head into the intermission with a 2-1 lead.

Three second-period goals by KCG in quick succession from Punn Phasukkjwatana, Jan Isaksson and Jesse Starosta saw KCG take the lead 4-2 heading into the second period. Patrick Forstner and Peam Juratwuttipreeda staked KCG to 6-2 lead midway through the third period. Aware did stage a late rally on two goals by captain Justin St. Denis but it was a case of too little too late.

Pann Hongswadhi earned himself the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game award for the first time in his career with his three-point performance (1G, 2A).

Game two saw Tan Limpinphet open the scoring for Siam Mandalay and they had a 1-0 lead going into the second period but that’s all the scoring Jordan Ashton’s team could muster on this night.

Substitute Michael White tied it up for Novotel halfway through the second period and then Mangkorn Sukwiboon hit Novotel captain Mike Freeson with a long pass sending him on a breakaway and he deked out Siam Mandalay keeper Dream Ungkulpattanasuk with a nice move for what would prove to be the winning goal on the night. Freeson added another goal late in the period to send Novotel into the second intermission with a 3-1 lead.

Seb Verdy scored for the third time in three games to put Novotel ahead 4-1early in the third period. And then Thai national team captain Ken Kindborn made the score 5-1 with a beautifully placed wrist shot that normally would have won him the Jerky Monster play-of-the-week but that honor this time went to Major Ingharratohithakon for the final Novotel goal where he put the puck through his legs and lifted it from behind his back to finish off the scoring on the night.

Novotel captain Mike Freeson was awarded the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game award for three-point performance (1G, 2A) and game-winning goal.

After thirteen weeks of action, the Novotel Spitfires sit atop the SHL standings with a 12-1-0 record for 22 points. KCG sits in second spot with a 8-3-2 record for 16 points. Siam Mandalay, the only team to beat Novotel, is in third position with a 5-7-1 record for 11 points and Aware is in the cellar with a 1-12 record.

The SHL scoring race still sees Novotel claiming the top three spots with Tomas Stastny at 27 points, followed by teammates Mike Freeson with 22 points and Ken Kindborn with 23 points. KCG teammates Jan Isaksson & Patrick Forstner are in fourth and fifth place respectively with 22 & 20 points each.

SHL action in this back-to-back series continues at the Imperial Samrong on March 14th with KCG playing Novotel at 9pm and Siam Mandalay facing off against Aware at 10pm.