Heading into the final set of regular season games in the 2017-18 season, AWARE had first place sewn up and the Sukhumvit Spitfires had clinched second spot but Hertz and Expedia were still battling to determine third and fourth place overall.

The first game saw SHL history made as two woman players competed against each other: Carly Hill a regular defenseman for Hertz and Caley Steinert, a defenseman, substituting for AWARE – both played university hockey in Canada. 

Hertz started the game like a house on fire jumping into a 4-0 lead in the first period on goals by Mike Triacca, Champ Supadilokluk, Carly Hill and Kim Lidberg. AWARE regrouped, storming back in the second narrowing the lead to 4-3 on two goals by Jouni “Finnish mitts” Heinonen and one by Beer Thamwongsin.

In the third, it was Hertz time to regroup, and determined to clinch third overall they pumped in two more goals by Brandon Vick and a short-handed effort by Andy Brine to clinch the win and third spot with a 6-3 victory. Carly earned Rolling Stone Pizza player of the game honours for the second time this season for her stellar offensive and defensive play. Lance Parker stopped 34 of the 37 pucks fired his way for Hertz while Patrick Leduc stopped 28 of the 34 shots sent his way for AWARE.

AWARE lost for the second straight game and it proves how much their offense depends on Corry Day and how much their defense depends on captain Patrick Lundback, who both missed the last two games of the season as did defensive stalwart Christian Oloffson.

In game two, missing five regular players including captain Brad Wilson, the Spitfires added Scott Whitcomb, Tim Suphankomut and Top Rutthapong as substitutes. Expedia was missing star defenseman Juhani Ijas. Alas, the match was over six minutes after it started as the Spitfires jumped into a 1-0 lead on a goal by Jason Bitter. The Spitfires held this lead going into the first period but Scott Murray, Scott Whitcomb and Michael White increased that lead to 4-0 by the end of the second period.

Tim Suphankomut scored 3 points subbing for Sukhumvit on the night.The onslaught continued in the third with Sukhumvit scoring five more unanswered goals with Whitcomb and White each collecting their second goals of the night and Suphankomut, Harrison Oztemel and Ernesto Bauer adding singles. Both Whitcomb and Suphankomut had three-point nights, turning in solid games at both ends of the ice.
Sukhumvit veteran Jason Bitter took the Rolling Stone Pizza Player of the Game as he earned a goal and assist but Sukhumvit keeper Dream Ungkulpattanasuk did put in a claim for a fourth straight PoG honour, earning a shut-out as he turned away all 31 shots he faced. Expedia goalie Yves Gaboriault had a rough night letting in 24 of the 32 shots that came his way.

So, the final regular season SHL standings see AWARE atop the leaderboard with a 14-4 record; Sukhumvit in second spot with an 11-6-1; Hertz in third at 6-12 and Expedia in fourth spot with a 5-13 record.

Hertz’s Andy Brine is on top of the SHL stats race with eight goals and eighteen assists; Expedia’s Juhani Ijas is in second place with 20 points (eleven goals, nine assists) while AWARE’s Devin Michael and Sukhumvit’s Harrison Oztemel and Michael White are in a tie for third spot with 19 points, though Harrison is the league’s leading sniper with 15 goals.

The best-of-three SHL semi-final playoffs starts this Thursday February 22nd with AWARE playing Expedia at 8:30pm and Hertz playing Sukhumvit at 9:30pm. Admission is free and the games take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX.

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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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