Thanks to Bobblehat for this report.
The Bees handed this one to the Panthers on a plate. When will the Bees' defencemen realise that an opposition forward just outside the crease is not there to admire the view!! The Ref for this game was Kirkham, and after his Steelers/Storm debacle of the night before we feared the worst - we were not to be disappointed, but more of that later.
The first period opened fast and furious with both sides launching good attacks. Brian Pellerin took a 2 minute penalty for holding 2mins. 35 secs, and the Panthers capitalised on this at 3mins 17 secs when Marty Dallman, just outside the crease, shot through a crowd of players past an unsighted Bernie. Why he was allowed the time and space to put away the goal only the Bees defence can answer. After this both sides continued with a spell of great attacking hockey and were seemingly well matched. At 10 mins 9 sec Steve Carpenter received a 2min slashing penalty, but must have said something that Kirkham took exception to as he also received a 10 minute misconduct penalty at the same time. This probably annoyed him as for the rest of the game he seemed to take his frustration out on the Bees' players. The Panthers' net had a charmed life in the 12th minute as shot after shot rained in on their net, but Robbins was having an inspired evening and he and his defence stood firm. Another Panthers' attack saw the Bees defence at sixes and sevens and there was that man Dallman - again just outside the crease with no Bees defenceman near - give no chance to Bernie as he lifted the shot into the net at 13 min 59 secs. The bees got another powerplay when Dallman was sent to the bin for holding at 16min 32 sec and this time their powerplay was effective as, at 18min 7 secs, Joe Ferraccioli finished off a good series of quick passes by mis-hitting his shot which deceived Robbins and the puck lazily looped over the Netminders shoulder. 13 seconds later Derek Laxdal resumed the Panthers' 2 goal lead after Greg Burke had obligingly passed the puck to him inside the Bees blueline. Score at the end of the first period 3-1 to Panthers with the Bees the architects of their own misfortune. We didn't know it then but we were to see no further goals in the game.
The second period saw the Bees defence early on just as shaky as at the end of the first period as they were not picking up the opposition forwards quickly enough, and we in Block 5 feared an of goals was about to take place. However the defence seemed to get over this sticky spell and the attack also began to look a little more effective, especially the "young" line of Jeff Johnstone, Denis Burke and Tom Gomes. At 25 minutes, Jeff Johnstone won the puck on the Bees' left wing and in a carbon copy of a goal scored against the Cobras released a spot on pass to Denis Burke steaming in from the right. Us Block 5ers were screaming goal as Denis shot the puck into Robins left hand top corner but somehow out came his glove and he had stopped the shot - magnificent goal minding!! There followed a frenetic 10 minutes of play with the Bees just ahead on points. At 28 minutes the Chief had a shot well saved by robins, and Carpenter coming up behind cross- checked him to the back of the head right in front of Kirkham who just looked away.. At 29 min Bernie made a point blank save from a Panther who again was allowed to shoot from just outside the crease. At 29min 30 sec Matt Cote's stick was blatantly held - no penalty, a few seconds later the Panthers had 6 men out on the ice for what seemed like 20 seconds - no penalty at 30 minutes Premak was all over Brian Pellerin as he tried to get onto a pass near the Panthers' goal - no penalty, again a few seconds later Carpenter punched Joe Ferraccioli in the back of the neck - no penalty, the Chief was then tripped - no penalty. At 31 min 17 sec a Panther across the front of Chris Brant and fell down - guess what? A penalty against the Chief for tripping!!! A few seconds after this Carpenter, again, hooks Bucsis around the neck with his stick behind the Panthers goal - no penalty. At 33min 22 secs Kirkham must have realised he might have missed one or two things and perhaps have given a wrong call against the Chief, because for no apparent reason he called Neil Morgan for tripping, which even the most ardent Bees supporters didn't see. No wonder fans and players get frustrated when they see this sloppy officiating. At 37 minutes there was mayhem in front of the Panthers goal as the young line really put the Panthers defence through it with good attacking hockey, but the defence held firm with Robins again outstanding. The rest of the period was a bit of an anti-climax as both side seemed to pause and take a breather.
Not much to report for the third period except that at around the 50min mark Robins hooked the puck out of play - no call for delay of the game; at 51min Robins made another blinding save from the Chief; at 53min 30sec Scott Campbell wondered if he would ever father children as he took a slap shot in the goolies (can I write that on e-mail?) - play stopped which was a shame as the Chief had just broken out of defence with the puck and was bearing down on the Panther's goal. Scott picked up his bits and pieces off the ice and skated off with eyes watering. And that was it.
Overall the Panthers just about deserved their win as they were faster on the puck and the Bees defence was too charitable. The Bees must get their powerplays working as there is a lot of good movement but it seems no-one wants to provide the finishing touch. One good thing for the Bees was the new line of Johnstone, Burke and Gomes who, given a bit of time, will shake up a few defences.
This is not sour grapes as I thought you deserved your win, but I'm sorry Panthers your guy Carpenter is a menace. I know that hockey is a physical game, but there is a line between good physical defending, and downright dangerous play. Tonight we saw Carpenter cross that line and it wont be long before he does a serious injury to someone - although wasn't he involved with something like this when he played for the Blaze?. This is where we need good officiating to stamp out this kind of play and unfortunately tonight we had Kirkham who, IMHO seemed overawed by the occasion and either made no calls or got panicked into making wrong calls. I know its a tough job and I couldn't do it, but the ISL deserves officials of the highest calibre and that includes linesmen and goal judges. At the moment, we at the Hive have seen precious little of any improvement in standards of any of these. Still its early days and we will see what the start of the season proper brings.