With twenty-three players missing in total (six each from AWARE, Sukhumvit & Expedia; and five from Hertz) due to injury, other commitments or visits to Pyeongchang to watch the Winter Olympics, SHL management was sent scrambling in search of replacement players on February 15th. Patrick Forstner, Stephen Sproule, Top Rutthapong and Benoit Hardy-Chartrand all pulled double-duty on the night, subbing in both games and Alistair Boulton got his first taste of SHL action, subbing in the first game for AWARE, while Ichiro Hara also subbed for Expedia in game one. A big thank you goes out all these players for allowing each SHL team to meet their minimum player requirement thereby avoiding forfeit.

Heading into the games, there was some skepticism that the games wouldn’t be very competitive, but they were. Each side skated ten players in both games with Expedia and Aware getting three subs each in game one and Hertz and Sukhumvit getting two subs each for game two.

Then the drama began: AWARE, without their captain Patrik Lundback steering the ship, lost for the first time in eleven games, while Expedia’s losing streak ended at ten: final score Expedia 4 AWARE 2 with grinder Andrew Shusta winning the Rolling Stone Pizza player of the game award as he earned a goal and his assist. Andrew’s cheering section was up in force when he scored the first goal of his SHL career, “He Shusta, he scores!!”, they hollered.

Expedia never trailed in this one jumping into a 2-0 lead on goals by First Kulrat & Shusta before Darius Konotopetz scored with 32 seconds remaining in the period making it 2-1 Expedia going into the first intermission. Ichiro Hara and Patrick Forstner then scored for Expedia as it held a 4-1 in the middle of the third before AWARE’s Mangkorn Sukwiboon scored to make the final 4-2. 

In game two, two goals in just over a minute by Harrison Oztemel early in the game staked the Sukhumvit Spitfires to an early 2-0 lead over Hertz. The first goal saw Harrison finish off a beautiful three-way passing play from Ernesto Bauer and Patrick Forstner with a nice tip-in past Hertz keeper Lance Parker. Forstner with his rocket-quick wrist shot upped the ante to 3-0 for Suhkumvit before Mike Triacca struck for Hertz, making the score 3-1 in Suhkumvit’s favour as period one ended. Brandon Vick on a nice set-up from Andy Brine brought Hertz to within one midway through the second period, but Forstner and Oztemel scored for Sukhumvit again late in the second period giving the Spitfires a 5-2 lead going into the third. Hertz captain Justin St. Denis scored early in the third and his team kept pressing with Sukhumvit keeper Dream Ungkulpattanasuk turning back wave after wave of Hertz attackers.

As the final minutes ticked down Michael White scored for Sukhumvit making it 6-3, Alasdair Fawcett quickly replied for Hertz making it 6-4 and then Ernesto Bauer fired the puck the length of the ice with one second on the clock making the final 7-4 for Sukhumvit.

Dream, for the third straight match, was the Rolling Stone Pizza player of the game (an SHL record) as he stopped 45 of the 49 shots he faced on the night and made a number of outstanding saves, throwing his hat into the ring for SHL MVP consideration. As St. Denis said, “he was the difference in the game”. Lance Parker stopped 20 of the 27 shots sent his way in the Hertz net.

The SHL standings see AWARE atop the leaderboard with its 14-3 record; the Sukhumvit Spitfires are in second spot at 10-6-1; while Hertz and Expedia sit in a tie for third spot with identical 5-12 records.

Hertz’s Andy Brine continues to sit atop the SHL stats race with seven goals and seventeen assists; Expedia’s Juhani Ijas is in second place with 20 points (eleven goals, nine assists) while AWARE’s Devin Michael sits in third place with eleven goals and 8 assists. Sukhumvit’s Harrison Oztemel, the league’s leading scorer sits in fourth spot with fourteen goals and three assists, and AWARE’s Yean Thanakroekkiat rounds out the top five with 10 goals and six assists.

The last set of games in the 2017-18 SHL regular season take place this Sunday February 18th with AWARE playing Hertz at 8:30pm and Expedia playing Sukhumvit at 9:30. Admission is free and the games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX.

Though AWARE and Sukhumvit have first and second place locked up, Hertz and Expedia are still battling to determine third and fourth place overall. The tie-breaking format follows the sequence below if the two teams have the same number of points when the regular season ends on Sunday:

• Most wins
• Head to Head record between teams tied in Points
• Formula = (GF) / (GF + GA)
• Lowest Goals Against
• Lowest PIMS

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The first game on February 11th was the most exciting of the season so far with AWARE extending their winning streak to a record eleven games as they beat the Sukhumvit Spitfires 4-3 in a six-round shootout with AWARE captain, Patrik Lundback, the SHL’s best player, fittingly scoring the winning goal in the shoot-out, as a four-minute three-on-three session overtime failed to produce a victor.

The game was back and forth all evening with Sukhumvit taking a 1-0 lead early in the first period on a goal by Harrison Oztemel before AWARE scored twice on markers by Olly Moyse and Corry Day taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. Scott Murray and Harrison Oztemel, with his second of the night, staked the Spitfires to a 3-2 lead midway through the second and then Yean Thanakroekkiat, with one of his patented blasts, tied it at three heading into the second intermission. There were plenty of chances on both sides in the third, but both goalies (the Spitfires’ Dream Ungkulpattanasuk and AWARE’s Patrick Leduc) were outstanding, turning away opportunity after opportunity.

Sukhumvit’s Ernesto “Buzzsaw” Bauer took a holding penalty with nine seconds left in the game, leaving Sukhumvit shorthanded going into the 3-on-3 overtime stanza. But Sukhumvit killed off Bauer’s penalty, only to find him take another holding penalty almost as soon as he got back on the ice at 1:59 of overtime. Again, Sukhumvit weathered the AWARE storm with Adrian Meyers playing exceptionally well, as he played all but twenty seconds of the overtime stanza.

That led us to the shoot-out, which came down to AWARE’s sixth shooter (Lundback) before the outcome was finally decided. It was a heartbreaking loss for Sukhumvit, but they proved they could play with AWARE, and AWARE, which has romped through most of the regular season, was given a true test of their mettle. Dream, for the second straight match, was the Rolling Stone Pizza player of the game as he faced 44 shots on the night and made a number of key acrobatic saves.

The second game produced more frustration for Expedia as they lost the battle of third place to Hertz 5-3; But not from a lack of trying as Hertz led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, but each time Expedia came back to tie up the game before Hertz put it away with two unanswered markers in the third to capture the victory.

Andy Brine, who has been on fire of late, scored the opening goal of the night for Hertz. Substitute Stephen Sproule scored with two seconds left in the first period for Expedia, to leave the score tied at one heading into the first intermission.

Kim Lidberg staked Hertz to a 2-1 lead early in the second before SHL president John Schachnovsky let an Ovechkin-style blast go earning Expedia’s second goal. Brandon Vick put Hertz back in front 3-2 before Expedia’s Win Khuhakeaw tied the score at three as the teams headed into the second intermission.

Hertz just proved to strong in the third period and scored twice, with Lidberg, scoring his second of the night, and Mike Triacca doing the damage. Lidberg, who missed the first four games of the season, has proven to be a nice pick-up for Hertz, earning Rolling Stone Pizza player of the game honours. Hertz outshot Expedia 31-25 in the match.

The SHL standings see AWARE with a stranglehold on first with its 14-2 record; the Sukhumvit Spitfires are in second spot at 9-7; while Hertz has jumped into the third spot with a 5-11 record and Expedia is in the final spot with a 4-12 record.

Hertz’s Andy Brine continues to sit atop the SHL stats race with 7 goals and 15 assists; Expedia’s Juhani Ijas and AWARE’s Devin Michael are tied for second place with 11 goals and 8 assists each. Expedia’s Jordan Ashton and AWARE captain Patrik Lundback are then tied for third overall with 16 points.

The second-last set of games in the 2017-18 SHL season take place on Thursday February 15th with AWARE playing Expedia at 8:30pm and Hertz playing Sukhumvit at 9:30. Admission is free and all games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX. Though AWARE and Sukhumvit have first and second place secured, Hertz and Expedia are still battling to determine third and fourth place overall.

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In our first game of SHL action on February 4th, we had Expedia facing off against the Sukhumvit Spitfires. Expedia just can’t seem to find a way to get into the win column, having lost their last eight games.

The first period saw lots of action, with plenty of shots on net, but both netminders were on their game, not letting anything by them until there were just over three minutes left in the first period when Adrian Meyers hit Ernesto Bauer with a pass, and Bauer put the puck past Yves Gaboriault.

The second period saw the play moving quickly up and down the ice, with both teams getting a number of scoring opportunities, but neither team could capitalize on their chances and the second period ended with the Spitfires still leading 1-0.

Just over two minutes into the third period saw Meyers attempting to clear the puck out of the Spitfires zone, but sending it over the glass instead, causing him to get a delay-of-game penalty. Expedia took advantage of this penalty and substitute Stephen Sproule found Jordan Ashton who tied it up one goal apiece.

At 4:45, Jari Eerikainen was called for slashing, and a minute into the power play the Spitfires’ Meyers hit Michael White with a long pass, who relayed it to substitute Patrick Forstner who put a move on Gaboriault and then slid it past him to put the Spitfires back in the lead.

With just over nine minutes left in the game, Bauer laid a solid bodycheck along the board, but it sent him to the box, to put Expedia on their third power play of the night. With thirty seconds left in the Spitfires penalty kill, Meyers found Chanokchon “Tan” Limpinphet behind the Expedia defense with a long stretch pass to send Limpinphet breaking down the ice, and he fired a wrist shot past Gaboriault to put the Spitfires up by two. A minute later, Expedia doing some fancy passing from Ashton to Phandaj “Win” Khuhakeaw to Expedia’s captain Mike Wilson resulted in a score that brought Expedia back within one.

With two minutes left in the game, there was a bit of a scrum in front of the Spitfires net as Spitfires’ captain, Brad Wilson cleared out a player with a crosscheck, which sent him to the box for the rest of the game. Expedia called a timeout, pulling their goalie to try and take advantage of the power play, keeping the puck mostly in the Spitfires zone, but they just couldn’t finish it off. With eighteen seconds left in the game, Meyers was called for his second penalty of the night, this one for tripping, but the Spitfires stayed strong to finish this one off 3-2 with Expedia having a slight advantage in shots, 33-27. The Rolling Stone Pizza Player of the Game went to Pattarapol “Dream” Ungkulpattanasuk for stopping 31 of 33 shots.

Aware came into the second game, atop the standings having won their last nine games while Hertz came into this one losing a tough one to the Sukhumvit Spitfires last week. Things didn’t look good for Aware in this one, with them missing quite a few players, but they started well at 5:20 of the first period, when sub Arthit “Beer” Thamwongsin received a pass from Sittipan “Nicky” Sukpanichcharoen and put the puck past Lance Parker. Hertz stayed strong after this, not allowing many more scoring opportunities for the rest of the first period.

The second period saw Darius Konotopetz get a delay-of-game penalty early on when he tried to clear the puck out of Aware’s zone and sent it out of the rink, but Aware’s penalty kill did a great job of clearing the puck from their zone, even generating a few scoring opportunities of their own. Thamwongsin got his second of the night after receiving a pass from Devin Michael just over six minutes into the second period. With just shy of a minute-and-a-half left in the second period, David Boere of Aware scored off of a pass from Ollie Moyse.

Four-and-a-half minutes into the third period saw Sukpanichcharoen lay a crushing bodycheck on a Hertz player, earning a bodychecking penalty for his efforts, but again, Aware’s incredible penalty kill rode this one out with no problems. With 1:30 left in the game, Hertz pulled Parker from the net to try and break Patrick Leduc’s shutout, but they just couldn’t score and with 1:18 left in the game, Sukpanichcharoen passed to Aware captain Patrik Lundback who spotted Thamwongsin behind the Hertz defenders, hitting him with a long stretch pass, which Beer turned into an empty-net goal to give him a hat-trick on the night and earn him the Rolling Stone Pizza Player of the Game award. Patrick Leduc notched his first SHL shutout in Aware’s tenth straight win, as AWARE dominate the shots on goal 37-19, for a 4-0 final.

The SHL standings see AWARE with a stranglehold on first with its 13-2 record; the Sukhumvit Spitfires are in second spot at 9-6; while Expedia and Hertz stay tied for third with a 4- 11 record.

Hertz’s Andy Brine continues to sit atop the SHL stats race with 20 points; followed by Expedia’s Juhani Ijas and AWARE’s Devin Michael are tied for second spot with 19 points each. Expedia’s Jordan Ashton sits in third with 16 points and AWARE captain Patrik Lundback is in fourth spot overall with 15 points.

The SHL continues play on Sunday February 11th with AWARE playing Sukhumvit at 8:30pm and Hertz playing Expedia at 9:30. Admission is free and all games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX.

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In the last weekend of January, AWARE stretched its win streak to nine, with a 7-4 victory over Expedia, thereby clinching first place overall in the 2017-18 Sport Corner Siam Hockey League season.

But prior to that game, the Sukhumvit Spitfires claimed second place overall with a 6-3 victory over Hertz. In that contest, Hertz came out looking to build on last game’s win with a pair of goals in the first period from Brandon Vick, but they just weren’t able to capitalize on the early lead.

In the second period, we saw Hertz slow down as the Sukhumvit Spitfires started to soar. Substitute player Tim Suphankomut scored Spitfires first goal just two minutes into the second period after he received a pass from Adrian Meyers. With five minutes left in the second period, the Spitfires scored three quick goals: first, an unassisted tally by Chanokchon “Tan” Limpinphet; second, Araya “Ith” Vatanapanyakul scored assisted by Suphankomut; and third, Michael White scored with just 15 seconds left in the period assisted by Limpinphet and Gary Cosby.

The third period saw Hertz try to mount a comeback two-and-a-half minutes into the third period when Jantaphong “Moo” Tengsakul broke out of Hertz’s zone, passed the puck to Chanchit “Champ” Supadilokluk who relayed it to Mike Triacca who beat Pattarapol “Dream” Ungkulpattanasuk. Just over two minutes later, things fizzled out for Hertz when Harrison Oztemel let a laser beam of a shot go, finding the back of the net after receiving a pass from Ernesto Bauer. With two minutes left in the game, Hertz again tried to mount a last-minute comeback by pulling Lance Parker from the net to give themselves an extra attacker, but they just couldn’t get it done. With five seconds left in the game, Spitfires captain, Brad Wilson broke up a play breaking out of the Hertz’s zone and skated in to tap in an empty netter. Hertz had the edge in shots in the game 44-37.

A lot of key players were missing for both squads in the second tilt of the evening between AWARE and Expedia. Most notably Expedia’s stellar defenseman Juhani Iljas and speedy forward Corry Day for league-leading AWARE.

Before the game, AWARE Captain Patrik Lundback urged his team to get a quick lead to build on, and he led by example scoring just one minute into the game on a nice pass by Jouni Heinonen from behind the Expedia net. Smooth skating and hard shooting Yean Thanakroekkiat made it 2-0 a minute later before Jordan Ashton got Expedia back within one, with a nice move on a breakaway. Yean would add his second goal of the night before the first period was over to extend the lead to 3-1 at the first intermission.

The second period ended in a tie with goals scored by Christian Olofsson and David Boere for AWARE, David had a strong middle frame that eventually led to him picking up the Rolling Stone Pizza Player of the game. John Schachnovsky and Jordan Ashton replied for Expedia. The tally from Jordan came in the dying seconds of the period to make the score 5-3, providing momentum to the Expedia team.

The third period saw AWARE take three straight penalties and being partially outshot by a hungry Expedia team trying to rally back. But they could not find a way to put the puck behind outstanding goalie Patrick Leduc, who made several key saves, especially in-tight in the final minutes of the game. Ollie Moyse finalized the scoring with an empty-netter in the final minute, extending AWARE’s record win streak to nine games.

AWARE fired 27 shots towards Expedia goalie Yves Gaboriault most of them coming in the opening two periods. Expedia mustered 26 shots on Leduc who has yet to lose a game in the SHL.

The SHL standings have AWARE atop the table with a 12-2 record; the Sukhumvit Spitfires are in second spot at 8-6; while Expedia and Hertz stay tied for third with a 4- 10 record.

Hertz’s Andy Brine continues to sits atop the SHL stats race with 20 points; followed by Expedia’s Juhani Ijas with 19. AWARE’s Devin Michael is in third spot followed by AWARE teammates Yean Thanakroekkiat and Jouni Heinonen, with 15 points apiece.

The SHL continues play on Sunday February 4th with Expedia playing Sukhumvit at 8:30pm and Hertz 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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As the SHL calendar, turned into the final third of the season, the second match on January 25th saw AWARE continue their hot streak with a 7-4 victory over the Sukhumvit Spitfires. The two top teams in the standings battled back and forward, with AWARE taking a commanding 4-1 lead in the first. The team in red got two goals from Devin Michael and singles by Corry Day and David Boere to put them ahead going into the first intermission.

The second period saw an offensive outburst by Spitfires that helped them climb back into the game, constantly buzzing in front of solid AWARE goaltender Patrick Leduc. Adrian Myers scored on a pretty passing play just 50 seconds into the period and sniper Michael White danced into the offensive zone and fired a well-placed shot, far side, just a minute later. A controversial quick whistle as well as a goal-crease violation had the Spitfire squad losing their cool and potentially also their momentum going into the final act.

Hard working forward Ollie Moyse pulled AWARE ahead early in the third to make it 6-4 and give his side a bit of breathing room. Veteran Corry Day, a big reason for AWARE’s recent success, finished off the scoring when he knocked down a clearing attempt and potted his third of the night with 7 minutes to go, deservingly earning the Rolling Stone Pizza Player-of-the-Game honours in the process.

AWARE had 39 shots on goal on the night, with Thai National team goalie Dream Ungkulpattanasuk making 32 saves for Spitfires. Patrik Leduc has yet to lose a game in the SHL as he turned aside 23 of the 27 shots fired his way. It was AWARE’s eighth straight win – a new SHL record.

Our first game of the night saw Expedia facing off against Hertz. The series between these two teams stood at two games apiece, heading into this contest. Expedia came out in this one all fired up, scoring two goals in the first ten minutes of the game, one by Juhani Ijas and the second by Peravit “Chap” Kovitaya. Hertz finally got on the board with just under four minutes left in the first period with a goal by Brandon Vick.

Hertz captain Justin St. Denis, scored his first goal of the night just over a minute into the second period when Hertz was on a power play when Expedia’s Chayutapon “First” Kulrat’s was penalized for holding. Just three minutes later saw Expedia take the lead again when Ijas scored an unassisted goal and the period ended 3-2 in Expedia’s favour.

The third period saw a flurry of action with Hertz getting early goals from St. Denis and Sebastien Ranger to take a 4-3 lead, then SHL president John Schachnovsky scored for Expedia to tie it at 4. Hertz’s Moo Tengsakul scored to put Hertz ahead 5-4 but Ijas replied with his third of the night to tie it at 5. Then Hertz’s Mike Triacca scored the winner, and final goal of the night, with just under four minutes left in the game, making it a 6-5 final for Hertz with Expedia outshooting Hertz, 37-29. The Rolling Stone Pizza Player of the Game went to St. Denis for his two goals and great offensive and defensive play all night long.

The SHL standings have AWARE atop the table with a 11-2 record; the Sukhumvit Spitfires are in second spot at 7-6; Expedia and Hertz are now tied for third with a 4- 9 record.

Hertz’s Andy Brine sits atop the SHL’s stats race with 16 points; Expedia’s Juhani Ijas is in second spot with 15 points: AWARE’s Devin Michael is in third spot with 14 points and AWARE’s Darius Konotopetz and Phu Suwachirat are tied for fourth with 11 points each.

The SHL continues play on Sunday January 28th with Hertz playing AWARE at 8:30pm and Expedia playing Sukhumvit at 9:30. Admission is free and all games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX.

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Reporting from Dom Dumais & John Schachnovsky

The twelve set of games in the Sport Corner Siam Hockey League (SHL) saw both AWARE and Sukhumvit win again, though the latter’s two-game winning streak pales in comparison to the former’s seven-game tear, which ties Sukhumvit’s all-time win mark set last season.

In game one, Hertz came out ready to play, and they were able to hold the top- Aware team to only one goal by the end of the first period, when Rakchai (Mongkorn) Sukwiboon let a quick wrist shot go to find the space between Lance Parker’s leg pads.

The first goal of the second period saw Aware’s dazzling power play prowess go to work when Yutaka Kariya was called for holding, and 30 seconds later Aware stretched out Hertz’s penalty kill unit with some precision passing, which allowed Corry Day to find the back of the net. Hertz continued to remain strong throughout the rest of the second period only allowing one more goal.

Hertz tried to mount a last period comeback with goals from Bill Bredesen and Mike Triacca, but a pair of goals from Jouni Heinonen as well as a goal from Phanuruj (Phu) Suwachirat and one from Papan (Yean) Tanakroekkiat took the wind out of Hertz’s sails. The final score of the game was 7-2 for Aware with Ollie Moyse being awarded the Rolling Stone Pizza Player of the Game for his goal and assist in this one.

Lance Parker faced 35 shots on net in the Hertz goal while 29 pucks fired at AWARE’s Patrick Leduc.

The second game saw the Sukhumvit Spitfires playing Expedia, with Expedia trying to end a season’s long losing streak. For this game, Expedia was missing team captain Mike Wilson and league-leading scorer Juhani Ijas, amongst others. While they had some quality substitutes, including super-sub Tewin (Thor) Chartsuwan, the lack of chemistry showed as the Spitfires pulled out the victory 4-2. Sukhumvit captain Brad Wilson did his best Connor McDavid impression when he skated through the entire Expedia team and finished with a backhand snipe over Expedia goalie Yves Gaboriault’s left shoulder. Before the end of the first period, Finnish superstar defenseman Jari Eerikainen made a similar full-ice rush and calmly deposited the puck past Spitfire goalie Dream Ungkulpattanasuk to tie the game at one, going into the first intermission.

The second period seemed to be all Spitfires. With Eerikainen in the box for tripping, Sukhumvit needed very little time to capitalize. Jason Bitter showed great hand-eye coordination as he deflected in a point shot from Tommi Hakkinen to restore the lead for Sukhumvit. Late in the second period substitute Stephen Sproule showed more amazing hand-eye coordination when he batted a Tan Limpinphet feed into the net. The third period saw both teams scoring, with Limpinphet getting the fourth Spitfires goal to give him a two-point night, securing him Rolling Stone Pizza Player of the Game honors. With the game well out of reach, Expedia scored a late goal to make the final a respectable 4-2.

The Spitfires fired 23 pucks at Expedia’s Yves Gaboriault on the night, while Sukhumvit’s Ungkulpattanasuk saw 22 shots directed at him by Expedia’s snipers.

The SHL standings have AWARE atop the table with a 10-2 record; the Sukhumvit Spitfires are in second spot at 7-5; Expedia is in third with a 4-8 mark, and Hertz is in last with a 3- 9 record.

Hertz’s Andy Brine sits atop the SHL’s stats race with 16 points; Expedia’s Juhani Ijas is in second place with 15 points: AWARE’s Devin Michael is in third spot with 14 points and AWARE’s Darius Konotopetz and Phu Suwachirat are tied for fourth with 11 points each.

The SHL continues play on Thursday January 25th with Hertz playing Expedia at 8:30pm and AWARE playing Sukhumvit at 9:30. Admission is free and all games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX.

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