The Novotel Spitfires and Siam Mandalay continued their early success in 2021 winning for the second straight week as Novotel defeated KCG 2-1 in an overtime thriller in game one on Valentine’s Day and Siam Mandalay beat Aware 4-1 in game two.

Novotel tool a 1-0 lead late in period one when two wily veterans combined as substitute Steven Sproule found Scott Murray who sniped a snapshot by stunned KCG keeper Leo Liao.

KGG battled back and when Scott Murray took a hooking penalty the KCG powerplay went to work and Thai national team star Jan Isaksson snapped one past Ben Kleineschay from Punn Phasukkjwtana.

The play was pretty much even throughout as Novotel outshot KCG 30-28 and both keepers made a number of key saves to send the game into overtime.

Thirty seconds into overtime Spitfire defenseman Christoph Anliker rambled up ice and cut behind the KCG net to feed a perfect centering pass to Tomas Stastny who fired it home with a blast reminiscent of his father slapping one home for the Quebec Nordiques.

Game two saw Thai national team player Kim Aarola play his first game for his new team Aware since coming out of quarantine and he did draw an assist on Aware’s only goal by Roger Promthong midway thru the first period.

This game was much closer than the score indicated as Siam Mandalay only lead 2-1 for most of the game on markers by captain Jordan Ashton and Tan Limpinphet.

They added two goals in the final two minutes as first Mike Wilson on a nice wrist shot scored the clincher and then Tan with a beauty and his second goal of the night send a sizzling wrist shot past Aware keeper Lance Parker to make it a 4-1 final. Tan’s second goal earned him the Jerky Monster play-of-the-week award.

For his end-to-end rush that set up Tomas Stastny’s OT-winning goal Novotel’s Christoph Anliker earned the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game in game one. Dream Ungkulpattanasuk making 18 saves in the Siam Mandalay net took up the pizza honours in game two.

After ten weeks of action, the Novotel Spitfires sit atop the SHL standings with a 9-1-0 record for 18 points. KCG sits in second spot with a 5-3-2 record for 12 points. Siam Mandalay, the only team to beat Novotel, is in third position with a 5-4-1 record for 11 points and Aware is in the cellar with a 1-9 record.

The Novotel Spitfires still dominate the SHL race as Mike Freeson is in first spot with 20 points, Ken Kindborn is in second spot with 17 points and Tomas Stastny is in third place with 15 points. KCG teammates Jan Isaksson and Patrick Forstner are in fourth and fifth place with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

SHL action at the Imperial Samrong continues on February 21st with Siam Mandalay facing off against KCG at 9pm and Novotel playing Aware at 10pm.

Game one of week seven action in the SHL saw Siam Mandalay play their second overtime game in as many weeks and this time they came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat heavily favoured KCG. Missing captain Jordan Ashton – stuck in the Trang airport – things looked grim for Siam Mandalay early and got worse as KCG took a 2-0 lead heading into the third period on goals by Jan Isaksson and Mel Dhiranusonkit.

Patrick Forstner started the Siam Mandalay comeback early in the third period with assists going to Yean Thanakroekkriat and Non Aekkasemnarong. And then Siam Mandalay’s infamous Crash Line (Darius Konotopetz, Mitch Morrison and Turner Johnson) put it into high gear. They just kept banging and plugging away creating havoc and scoring chances. Konotopetz tied the game up from Yean with 1:16 left in regulation time. Then in a thrilling 3-on-3 four minute OT stanza Turner Johnson scored the winner on a spinorama move with 58 seconds left in OT as his teammates jumped the boards and swarmed him, celebrating their second victory of the year. Johnson earned himself the Jerky Monster play-of-the-week award for the second time this year.

Another one of Siam Mandalay’s Bam Bam Brothers, Ernesto Bauer found himself ejected with a game misconduct halfway through the third period frankly for just being Ernesto.

The Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game went to KCG defenseman Mel Dhiranusonkit, who had an outstanding night at both ends of the ice as he scored KCG’s second goal and made a number of key defensive plays. Leo Liao made 27 saves in the KCG net, while Dream Ungkulpattanasuk made 16 saves earning the victory in the Siam Mandalay goal.

The night’s other match wasn’t nearly as close as the Novotel Spitfires won their seventh straight victory 7-3 over Aware. Novotel jumped into a 5-0 after two periods on single goals by Ken Kibdborn, Tomas Stastny, captain Mike Freeson and two markers by Major Ingkharratphithakon.

Aware then staged a comeback reminiscent of their classic OT victory the week before as Masato Kitayama and Brandon Vick scored to narrow the lead to 5-2. But Novotel captain Freeson rallied his troops as he and Major scored within three minutes of each other restoring Novotel’s five-goal lead. Aware’s Peam Jaratwuttipreeda scored the final Aware goal with ten seconds left in the game.

With a five-point night Tomas Stastny continued to impress and easily could have been the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game but that honour went to Thai left winger Major (2Gs. 1A) who speed was very apparent as he was all the ice like a waterbug.

Lance Parker facing his old teammates for the first time stopped 24 shots in the loss while Ben Kleineschay continued his stellar play stopping 27 of the 30 shots he faced.

The last set of SHL games in 2020 will be played at the Imperial Samrong arena on December 13th with Aware taking on KCG at 9pm and Siam Mandalay facing off against Novotel at 10pm. After that, the league breaks until January 10th.

The sixth week of the Siam Hockey League started with what has to be the most exciting game of the season. Aware, winless in their first five games, was looking for just about anything to give them the push they needed to get their first win of the campaign, and Siam Mandalay was looking to get their second win of the year, against the club they gained their only victory.

Aware had to be looking skyward and wondering what was going on when less than a minute into the contest, Siam Mandalay sniper Patrick Forstner found the back of the net from a sharp angle.

Most fans probably thought Aware would start to doubt themselves after that quick goal, however, the Aware squad seemed to find another gear they had been missing this season, and their first strike required a little “puck luck”, another thing Aware players had said they sorely needed. Aware captain Justin St. Denis gave the puck to Brandon Vick, who fired it on net. The puck ricochet off of both Aware pivot John Schachnovsky and Siam Mandalay captain Jordan Ashton, before making its way past Siam Mandalay goalie Dream Ungkulpattanasuk, to tie the game at one. After this tally, Aware really poured it on. Roger Promthomng kept his rookie-of-the-year caliber campaign going strong with a nifty goal after a feed from Arnold Vattanapanyakul. It looked like Aware would go into the first intermission up 2-1, when St. Denis gave the puck to Schachnovsky at the Siam Mandalay blue line. Schachnovsky saw Vick streaking to the net, and with one second remaining, passed to Vick, who redirected the puck over Dream’s shoulder: 3-1 Aware going into period two.

The second period began how the first ended, with Aware making the score 4-1 with only a couple of minutes gone by, when Roger picked up his second of the game with the assist going to super-sub Phu Suwachirat. Siam Mandalay got one back, making the score 4-2, when Ashton teamed up with pesky forward Ernesto Bauer for a grinding goal. Only a minute or so had passed when Devin Keer dished the puck to veteran sub Mike White. White tossed a nice backhand on net, with Schachnovsky tipping the biscuit passed Dream for his second tally of the night. Mitch Morrison kept Siam Mandalay close with a great shot passed Aware netminder Lance Parker, with assists going to Darius Konotopetz and Mike Wilson. The second period ended with Aware still in control 6-3.

Early in the third period, Arnold gave Aware their four-goal lead once again when he took a pass from David Boere and sniped it by Dream. But then, the game turned on its head. Siam Mandalay stormed back, scoring three goals in three minutes. Goals by Forstner, Wilson and Tan Limpinphet came in rapid succession as Siam Mandalay pure on the offense and Aware didn’t know what hit them. Assists on those three lamp-lighters were from Tan, Jordan, Ernesto, Homme Thaiyanont, and Patrick.

For the final 10 minuets, Siam Mandalay tried to get the equalizer and Aware tried feverishly to keep the lead. When Jaren Folden went to the penalty box with only a couple of minutes remaining, Siam Mandalay knew they had a chance, and with under a minute to play, Siam Mandalay got the equalizer, with Non Aekkasemnarong getting the important tally, with assists from Wilson and Patrick.

The three-on-three overtime was a fast-paced affair, but neither team could score. So, it went to a shootout. Round after round came and went with Dream and Lance standing tall each and every time. Finally, first-year standout defenseman Denis Omelka ended the game with the only goal of the shootout, also earning himself the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game award. Dream had 18 saves in the losing effort and winning goalie Parker had 27.

In game two, undefeated Novotel seemed to be ripe for the picking and maybe pick up their first loss of the season when they went up against the suddenly red-hot KCG squad. Behind captain Harrison Oztemel and new sensation Jan Isaksson, KCG looked across the ice and also saw no Ken Kindborn in the lineup and must have liked their chances (Kindborn suffered an injury playing in a tournament earlier that weekend).

And about five minutes into the game, KCG seemed to be on that path, when flashy rookie Time Phatigulsate eamed up with his Thai national teammates Mel Thanyalapark and Punn Phasukkjwatana to make the score 1-0. The first period ended with KCG holding that same lead.

If KCG felt this was their night, and the score was heading in that direction, then waking up Novotel captain Mike Freeson was a bad idea. The captain took his team and plopped them firmly on his shoulders and carried them from there.

A minute into period two, Phu Suwachirat (subbing in his second game of the night) gave the puck to Freeson who found a streaking Mangkorn. The fleet-footed Thai made an amazing individual effort and got the crown on their feet to tie the game at one. That play ended up earning Mangkorn the Jerky Monster play-of-the-week award.

Then the Mike Freeson show really began. Freeson scored the next three goals for Novotel, two in the second frame and one in the third with Leo out of the KCG net for an added skater. Assists on his hat-trick of goals went to Mangkorn and Ed Mcconnell

The Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game went to rookie goalie Ben Kleineschay, as he outshined last year’s player-of-the-year goaltender by making 35 saves. If not for his play, KCG would have surely put more than one on the scoreboard as KCG offensive powers Jesse Starosta, Oztemel and Isaksson all had multiple scoring chances at the Novotel net, but all came up empty-handed. Leo made 28 saves in the losing effort.

With only one game on the SHL docket in December, next week’s games are one of only two more sets of games in 2020. So, if you haven’t made it to the Imperial Samrong ice rink yet this season, please do to catch the fastest game on ice. Aware takes on Novotel at 9pm while Siam Mandalay faces off against KCG at 10pm.