Thursday January 18th saw the eleventh set of games played in the Sport Corner Siam Hockey League. The opening contest saw AWARE continue its dominance beating Expedia 7-3, while the Sukhumvit Spitfires hung on to defeat Hertz 7-6 in the thrilling second match of the night.

AWARE continues to look like a juggernaut, winning its sixth straight game, as we head towards the SHL championship on March 17th. Switching back to Patrick Leduc, who had yet to lose a game in the SHL, AWARE jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a goal by captain Patrik Lundback and two nice markers by Darius Konotopetz, the second being a nifty rush in from the blue line with a sweet top-shelf finish.

Expedia’s Juhani Ijas then scored the first of his two goals on the night but AWARE’s Corry Day quickly countered using his Roadrunner-like speed to mystify Expedia keeper Yves Gaboriault, making it 4-1. It was Gaboriault’s first start in 2018, and he looked a tad shaky, but the talented Quebecois goalie should soon regain the form that saw him garner SHL goalie-of-the-year honors last season.

AWARE’s Ollie Moyse made it 5-1 but Ijas then scored his second of the night, so at end of the second period the score was 5-2 for AWARE. Yean Thanakroekkiat scored two goals in the third, lengthening AWARE’s lead to 7-2, then sub Stephen Sproule scored for Expedia with 90 seconds to go to make it a 7-3 final in AWARE’s favour: Ijas assisted on the play, giving him three points on the night.

The game was chippy at times but referee Jeremy Hutchins did a good job of keeping it under control. Midway through the second period, Expedia defenseman Remo Remo Nyffenegger took his second hooking penalty of the night. Objecting to the call, he pounded his stick first off the glass in front of the penalty box and then off-the-glass inside the penalty box drawing first a ten-minute and then a game misconduct.

Then as the second period ended Expedia captain Mike Wilson earned a roughing penalty. Irate, he mimicked Nyffenegger’s actions drawing his own 10-minute misconduct.

Yean, who also had two assists on the night, earned the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game honours for his four-point performance. AWARE had 25 shots on goal on the night, while Expedia had 21.

The second game was a succession of momentum shifts with Hertz jumping out to a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period: Sukhumvit came back to lead 7-4 late in the third and Hertz put on a furious finish in the final minute, scoring twice and almost tying it as Andy Brine set up Hertz captain Justin St Denis with 53 seconds left and then scored himself with 23 seconds left. Brine, who had three points on the night (1G, 2A), was a force to be reckoned with every time he touched the puck. Justin St. Denis also had a big night (2g, 1A) and deserves a lot of credit for rallying his troops in the final second as Hertz fought for the equalizer.

Harrison Oztemel had two goals and an assist for Sukhumvit, turning in another strong game, and Michael White continued his stellar play, turning in three assists. White has been exceptional in the short time he had been with Sukhumvit, generating scoring play after scoring play in each game he has played.

Substitute Patrick Forstner won the Rolling Stone Pizza player-of-the-game honours for his hat-trick performance, as his line with White and veteran Scott Murray did a good job of playing tic-tac-toe with the puck. Sukhumvit outshot Hertz 34-27 on the night.

The SHL standings have AWARE atop the table with an 9-2 record; the Sukhumvit Spitfires are in second spot at 6-5; Expedia is in third with a 4-7 mark; and Hertz is in last with a 3- 8 record.

Expedia’s Juhani Ijas and Hertz’s Andy Brine lead the stats race with 15 points each; AWARE’s Devin Michael is in second spot with 12 points and Expedia’s Jordan Ashton and Hertz’s Bill Bredesen are tied for third with 10 points each.
The SHL continues play on Sunday January 21st 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 by Dom Dumais & Christian Oloffson

The Sukhumvit Spitfires and AWARE continued to put up “W’s” on the score sheet in SHL action on Thursday January 11th. In the opening contest, Sukhumvit struck first in its match with Expedia when at 9:15 of the first period some tic-tac-toe passing saw Krittapad “Peam” Jaratwuttipreeda finish off a nice three-way passing play from Michael White and Adrian Meyers. Things then got a little physical near the end of the period when Expedia’s Chayutapon “First” Kulrat was called for body checking.

Michael White scored his first goal of the night early in the second period when he took a pass from Chanokchon “Tan” Limpinphet. Just five minutes after his goal, White was called for hooking when Yutaka Kariya took a stretch pass and White prevented him from getting a breakaway by hooking him to slow him down. Sukhumvit managed to kill that penalty, but Chaval “Richie” Jiaravanon was then called for bodychecking 11 minutes into the period, which led to Juhani Ijas’ power play goal, assisted by John Schachnovsky and Kariya.

Just shy of a minute into the third period, Rob Taylor collided with Pattarapol “Dream” Ungkulpattanasuk causing both men to go crashing to the ice, resulting in Taylor getting a goaltender interference penalty. But Expedia was able to kill the penalty and keep the game within one.

With less than four minutes left in the game, Jiaravanon put on a performance that would have earned him lots of YouTube views if there was video footage available. He picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and deked his way around a couple of Expedia players before making an incredible move around defenseman Pratch Siridhara on the blue line. It was almost like the game decelerated and everyone was moving in slow motion. In-all-alone with the goalie, he made a couple of fancy moves and showed off his silky mitts before eventually tucking in the puck behind a sprawling James Cox in the Expedia net.

With a minute-and-a-half left in the game, Expedia pulled their goaltender in hopes of bringing the score within one, but with just two seconds left in the game, White took a pass from Tewin “Thor” Charsuwan and slid the puck into the empty net to seal the game. The Spitfires earned a solid 4-1 win, though Expedia did outshoot Sukhumvit 24-22. Michael White earned his second straight Rolling Stone Pizza Player of the game honours for his three-point effort (two goals and an assist).

In the second game of the evening, HERTZ was looking to turn their season around and start their climb in the standings. But league-leading AWARE had other plans and jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with goals from rookie sensation Phu Suwachirat and consistent point producer Devin Michael. It looked like it was going to be a long night for the HERTZ team. But that is when HERTZ leading scorer, Andy Brine, decided to take matters into his own hands. He skated swiftly up the ice and used the big frame of defenseman Yean Thanakroekkiat as a screen on a powerful blast from the neutral zone to get HERTZ back within one.

The momentum proved to be short-lived, however, as Devin Michael was not done yet and extended AWARE’s lead to 3-1 early in the third. Yean would also get his revenge on Andy when he went end-to-end, skating past Andy, and fired his patented laser wrist shot through the legs of goalie Lance Parker.

Phu would add his second goal of the game to earn the Rolling Stone Player of the Game award. In the dying seconds of the game, Carly Hill made history as the first ever female player to score in the SHL when she showed off some strong net-front-presence to round out the scoring. The final score was Aware 5 Hertz 2 with AWARE outshooting Hertz 31-25 on the night.

After nine weeks of action, AWARE sits atop the leader with a 7-3 record: Sukhumvit is second with a 5-4 mark; with Expedia in third at 4-5; and Hertz is in last spot with a 2-7 record.

Juhani Ijas sits atop the SHL scoring race with 6 goals and 6 assists; Jordan Ashton and Andy Brine are tied for second spot with 10 points apiece (Jordan on ten goals, and Andy with five goals and five assists). Tewin Chartsuwan and John Schachnovsky are tied for third with eight points each (John with four goals and four assists: Thor has three goals and five assists).

The season resumes Sunday January 14th with the Spitfires playing AWARE at 8:30pm and Hertz playing Expedia at 9:30pm. Admission is free and all games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX.

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