Tigers Tamed

Bison 2 Telford Tigers 1 (penalty shoot out)

27/9/14

A tough game last week and a tough game this week. The Telford Tigers paid their first visit of the season to Planet Ice. Notwithstanding that it may conjure up images of corporal castigation and other dubious practices when described thus, it is true to say that the Tigers had been the “whipping boys” of the EPL for a number of seasons. But all that has changed and a financially invigorated and much improved Tigers, led by their Canadian captain Jason Silverthorne, a point a game man in 390 Elite League games, are now tipped by many for the EPL title. But Bison have their title tippers as well and this encounter had all likelihood of being a titanic struggle. So it proved.

Bison snatched a vital lead, one which they held for the remainder of the period, on 5 minutes. And the scorer was Tigers’ old boy Tomas “Grandmaster” Karpov. He received a pass from Kurt “The Scissors” Reynolds and pushed the puck into the corner or maybe Kurt himself put it there (not sure about that one). Anyway Karpov scrapped for it with a Tigers player and took possession. He was now clear with no-one to obstruct his path to goal. As he bore down on Tom Murdy in the Tigers’ net, his movement was hasty, in a hurry, lively and rapid. He executed a clever deke to bambozzle Murdy and slid the puck across the line. Honest Pete, goal judge at the far end, saw everyone in the Bison blocks were behaving like a load of joyous raving lunatics and his opposite number’s the goal light shining forth like a lighthouse beacon on a stormy night. He surmised it must be a goal and so it was. 1-0 Bison.

It was an early setback for the Tigers, but they weren’t going to roll over and have their tummies tickled. Far from it. They came on strong. Typical of their play occurred when they defended a power play after Peter Szabo tripped and took a trip to the box. They didn’t allow Bison a single shot in the 5 on 4 which ensued. By the end of the period they had outshot Bison by 13-6, but, as yet, had nothing to show for their efforts.

Was it going to be more of the same from the Tigers in P2? Yes it was and their persistence was finally rewarded in the 34^th minute with a levelling score, just when it was looking like Dean “Deano” Skinns could not be beaten after a series of fine saves. Nobody dared mention the “S-word”, but, following one last Sunday at Peterborough, some must have been thinking “Could he?” Well alas for the Bison backers he couldn’t. After 99 minutes of stopping everything thrown at him by the Manchester Phoenix, the Peterborough Phantoms and the Telford Tigers, Deano was finally undone. Tigers’ skipper Silverthorne proved to be a thorn in the side of Bison as he set up Nathen Salem for a back door tap in. It was 1-1. Bison old boy Sammy Zajac was awarded the second assist.

A bizarre call was made as the period drew to a close. Long Ciaron Long and Blahoslav Novak, both wearing no. 89, came together in an untidy heap of 89s mid ice. Long Ciaron was clearly held as he tried to extricate himself from the tangle. When he finally did so, he was called for kneeing (strange one that) and Novak was called for holding (plain as a pikestaff that one). Into their respective institutes of penal reform went the 89s.

P2 came to a close and the Tigers had looked by far the stronger side from where I was sitting with my half empty glass. Nevertheless, Bison had managed to get their shots in and the shot count had been a surprising 9-9.

Was the game to be decided in P3? Well no, but not through lack of effort. On 47 minutes Andy “Machine Gun” Melachrino was cynically brought to the ice by a trip from Sammy Zajac when in on goal. The crowd became ugly. If their reaction had to be measured on a scale it would have been at the “purple throbbing vein” end of such a scale. Had the game been played under the disciplinary rules of the British Navy circa 1800, Zajac would have been given 50 lashes with the cat-o-nine-tails or even keelhauled. Fortunately it wasn’t and the much more civilised punishment imposed was 2 minutes in the box. Those amongst the Bison backers who had called for a penalty shot were disappointed.

However, before the Bison backers adopt a “holier than thou” stance, the same occurred, but in reverse, on 56 minutes. Scott McKenzie, sporting a beard so bushy that he is beginning to look like a cave man (or indeed Long Ciaron Long), was in on goal. Before he could get his shot away, he was brought down by the considerably less hirsute Rabbit’s Foot Joe Baird. A roar of protest erupted from the away fans. It would not be accurate to describe their mood as one of mild vexation. Far from it. They flew into a spleen venting spasm of convulsive proportions. Many of them must have been close to rupturing a blood vessel. “Penalty shot” they cried, but none was awarded. Had Joe been the infamous pirate Blackbeard, he may have been told by the referee, “You’ll hang from the highest yardarm for that.” Fortunately he wasn’t and the offence attracted merely a punishment of 2 minutes in the box.

The period ended in controversy. With seconds remaining the Tigers prosecuted a final attack, hoping to snatch victory. The clock ticked down. 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second. The buzzer blared forth to mark the end of regular time. As suddenly as if some granny had driven her knitting needle into his left nostril, goal judge Honest Pete, who had had nothing to do in the game, both goals being scored at the other end, awoke with a start at the sound of the buzzer. As soon as he did, he saw the puck crossing the line. The Tigers players thought they had snatched it, but Honest Pete, when asked by Referee Cloutman, confirmed that the puck had crossed the line after the buzzer, and it was no score. Who would dare doubt Honest Pete’s integrity? None of us and not Clouts for sure.

At 1-1 at the end of regulation, we passed into overtime without the issue being decided. And so to the lottery of a penalty shoot out.

The Tigers were to shoot first and no.1 shooter was the cave man McKenzie. His clever deked failed to bamboozle Skinns and, once again Honest Pete’s goal light remained unilluminated. For Bison Lumberjack Joe Rand was to be their first shooter. He came in fast and ripped a snipe, a method which has borne him fruit in the past. On this occasion there were to be no apples or pears for Joe as Murdy saved. Peter Szabo was next for the Tigers. His shot thudded against Deano’s pad. He cheekily put in the rebound but, of course, it was no goal. Long Ciaron Long took Bison’s second. He bore down on goal drew Murdy to his right with a feint to take a forehand shot and then pushed the puck backwards, overskated it and reached behind with one hand on his stick to nudge it backhanded over the line. I think that’s what happened – Bison TV may prove me wrong. Suffice it to say it was an audacious effort. The goal light was on, but it wasn’t Honest Pete’s. He remained unemployed at the other end.

So, after 2 shots apiece and Bison leading 1-0, the Tigers final shooter had to score to keep them alive. That shooter was to be none other than former Bison favourite, Shoeless Joe Miller. The last time Joe took a penalty shot at Planet Ice was last season in his last game for Bison against the Dogs and it was a winner. Could he repeat the feat? Alas for Joe, Deano saved his effort and Honest Pete’s goal light remained unilluminated still. Bison had won it. Had there been present a happy horde of heartily hollering huntsmen from Huntingdon they would have blown their hunting horns, drained their stirrup cups and shouted “TALLY HO!” in celebration. But there wasn’t. Neither in attendance was there a number of nonsensical naysaying nincompoop non-entities named Nigel from Nantucket. Heaven knows what they would have done. But there was a bunch of boisterous Bison backers blissfully bellowing until blue in the face. It had been a hard fought victory against a top side.

Top Banana for the Tigers was netminder Murdy and the Bison award went to Tomas “Grandmaster” Karpov. Many thought that Dean “Deano” Skinns would have been a more worthy recipient of the box of beers. With a save percentage of 97% in the game and 3 penalty saves in the shootout, he, with a little help from Tom Murdy, ensured that Honest Pete remained sadly unemployed.

Footnote : it was nice to see the Bearded Rabble Rouser of Block A in attendance last night. His absence on two occasions already this season has been noted and it is rumoured he will be summoned to the Headmaster’s study to explain himself in due course.

Phoenix Undone by Bison Power Play

Bison 3 Manchester Phoenix 2

20/9/14

They came in their hundreds to witness this clash of the Titans – the naysayers, the yeasayers, the gainsayers, the soothsayers, even the assayers, but not Leo Sayers, at least not as far as I noticed. What were they expecting to see? After last week’s bench clearing scenes of extreme violence could it have been more blood on the carpet they craved? If it was they didn’t get it. Instead they were treated to a cracking game of hockey between two of the top sides in the EPL and a fine advert for the great game.

Phoenix were straight out of the blocks at the commencement of the game and snatched the lead after only 21 seconds. Set up by Shaun Thompson and Frankie Bakrlik, Robin Kovar hammered a slap shot from the point past Dean Skinns and it was 1-0 Phoenix.

On 4 minutes, Bakrlik found himself in the box for hooking. Bison took full advantage with their first of 3 power play goals on the night. It was a move off the drawing board with Coach Sheppard and Cuddly Joe Greener doing the spadework and Long Ciaron Long snapping home a drop pass past a screened Steve Fone in the Phoenix net. 1-1.

Suddenly, as the end of the period approached, in my ear, very near, but not very clear came the anguished voice of the Howling Man at mega/uber/ultra decibels. The guitarists amongst us will know that Marshall amps go up to 11 on the volume scale. The Howling Man tops 12 easily. And like a Marshall, the louder he gets the more distorted the sound becomes. And so, despite being in very close proximity to the protestant, I was left to guess the nature of his complaint. I failed.

It had been an even 1^st period, but that was about to change with a Bison onslaught in the 2^nd. The differences between the two teams in P2 were as great as those between a mackerel and a makelaar (a what? A Dutch estate agent of course), as Bison fired in 21 shots on Fone with Phoenix managing a mere 6 on Skinns. But Fone, who has proved himself to be a consistently top EPL goaltender for many years, looked as solid as a rock, The Rock and the Rock of Gibraltar all rolled into one. He was beaten only once and only then by a clever piece of skill from Cuddly Joe Greener on 24 minutes. It was all a blur to me and I was left thinking how did he get that one in? But I was reliably informed by Duracell Man, a close observer from Block D, that Joe came around the back of the net, emerging at the back door and lifted the puck over Fone’s grounded pad. Had there been present a party of vociferous and vile vomiting vagrants from Ventnor they would have broken out the meths in celebration. 2-1 Bison.

A minute later Robin Kovar was given a misconduct penalty. “You will spend 10 minutes in the institute of correction that is the Sapphire Cleaning penalty box” said referee Thompson. Kovar was unhappy about the decision and smote the door of the penalty box before taking his seat. That was enough for Mr. Thompson and he slapped a game penalty on the petulant Kovar. Off to the locker room he went.

Bison thought they had advanced the score to 3-1 in the 31^st minute when Tomas “Grandmaster” Karpov smashed the puck past Fone, but the goal was washed off (for high sticks someone said). Murder most foul. There was no need to call in Columbo, Morse, Sherlock Holmes or Poirot to investigate. It was obvious to all that the murderer was referee Thompson. He had killed the goal. The reaction of the Bison crowd at the decision had to be seen to be believed. Incandescent with rage, they reach unprecedented heights of apoplexy.  Some went purple in the face, others burst blood vessels, whilst others still foamed at the mouth. But it was no good. Mr. Thompson had made his decision and, quite simply, the “goal” …… wasn’t.

Things were starting to become a little unclear. The Man in the Charlestown Chiefs shirt remarked that rink was beginning to resemble a “duel at dawn” scene as mist rose in ever increasing quantities from the ice. The Man with 3 Ear-rings wondered if they were going to need a glow in the dark puck soon. “Fog on the Tyne” and “I Can See Clearly Now” blared from the PA – a masterpiece of track choices from Bavvy as usual. How does he do it?

Back to the game. Things were to go from bad to worse for Phoenix before the period ended with import D-man, the very scary looking (have you seen his profile picture on the Phoenix web site?) Johan Burlin, breaking a skate and being able to take no further part in the game.

With 2 imports down, a goal to the bad and a rampant Bison bombarding their net, Phoenix had to turn things around in P3 or they would sink without a trace. As for Bison, was their inability to find a way past Fone, apart from the Greener goal, going to prove costly? In between P2 & P3, the crowd meditated, ruminated and cogitated. As they did so Bison’s own Man of Steel cracked a walnut with his biceps. The Bespectacled Youth flicked his flow. The Lettings Agent read a Notice to Quit. What were they thinking? I have no idea.

Well Phoenix did manage to turn it around. The 3^rd was a much more even contest, but, unfortunately for Phoenix, they fell even further behind before pulling one back to set up a rousing finale. On 52 minutes the whistle blew. The referee was calling a penalty for an offence, which I must admit I hadn’t seen. Had he caught a player “playing with too many sticks”? (Eh? You think I’ve made that one up don’t you? I can assure you that is a genuine penalty call and, if you don’t believe me, see footnote). No it was nothing so exotic as playing with too many sticks, merely a common-or-garden slashing offence and the offender was Bakrlik, who had only one stick, which he had used in an illegal manner.

In the ensuing power play a flowing move between Tomas “Grandmaster” Karpov and Cuddly Joe Greener ended with Andy “Machine Gun” Melachrino forcing the puck past Fone from in front of the net. 3-1 Bison. An assist to Karpov to compensate for his washed off goal and a second assist for Cuddly Joe for 1 + 2 on the night and 4 + 4 (oh yes and a match penalty) in only 2 games. Joe is on fire at the moment, but, thankfully, not literally.

At last a bit of breathing space for Bison, but not for long. Only a minute later it was 3-2 as Michal Psurny (with a silent P) tapped in a rebound shot with assists going to James Neil and the perennial Tony Hand. The goal caused the crowd to behave as if drugs had been distributed amongst them – uppers to the Phoenix fans and downers to the Bison backers. It was going to be a nerve-wracking or even nerve-racking final phase with both teams visibly tiring after a 100 mph contest. As Phoenix pressed forward Bakrlik had a nasty fall. Hip checked by Marvellous Miroslav Vantroba he hit Lumberjack Joe Rand on the way down, causing him to rotate and fall heavily on his hip. You could hear the thud in Block C. He stayed down for quite a while, but eventually he was able to leave the ice, although clearly in a great deal of discomfort. I confirmed the details of the incident with Marvellous Miro himself after the game. He said “yes” to everything I said. Either I got it completely right or he didn’t understand a word I was saying. Who knows?

The injury to Bakrlik was a serious blow to Phoenix, leaving them with only a single import from the 4 who started and needing to prosecute a final bombardment of the Bison goal with less than 2 minutes to play. Things went from bad to worse as the clock ran down and with Coach Hand desperately looking for an opportunity to pull Fone to give Phoenix a 6 on 5 advantage. Joe Graham was called for kneeing and Bison had another power play. Phoenix had 32 seconds in which to score a short handed goal. It wasn’t going to happen and didn’t. At the final buzzer Phoenix looked exhausted and as crushed in defeat as if they had been ridden over by the Mongol hoards of Ghengis Khan, the Tour de France peloton and a stampede of angry stoats all at once. But they could hold their heads high. They had contributed in no small part to a pulsating and thoroughly entertaining game. Cuddly Joe Greener was Bison’s Man of the Match and there could, of course, be only one candidate for the Phoenix Top Banana award – Steve Fone. Without him it could have been a runaway victory for Bison.

Footnote : When a player plays with more than one stick he will be called for “Playing with too many sticks”. For example, if a goalie were to lose his stick and a player from his team picks up the goalie’s stick and then, while holding both his and the goalie’s sticks, he attempts to touch a live puck with either stick, that will be an offence. There I told you it was a genuine penalty call.

OUTRAGE!

Bison 6 Peterborough Phantoms 4

18/9/14

Heavens above! Where to start? What we expected was a good competitive hockey game with Bison running out comfortable winners against a spirited (no pun intended) but poor Phantoms team. Well “spirited” they were – too spirited. And, due to a night of utter madness from their import goaltender, Janis Auzins, who will surely be flying back to Latvia in the morning clutching his P45, what we got was a game containing more violence than the Gunfight at the OK Corral, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and World War 2 all rolled into one. Not even Mystic Jo, Nostradamus and Paul the psychic octopus (remember him?) with their combined predictive powers could have foreseen what was to happen. More about that later. Let’s not forget a hockey game was played and won.

P1 could be described as a feisty affair with penalties galore. Bison picked up 5 x 2 minute minors and the Phantoms 7. Despite this neither side could take advantage of their respective power plays. The Phantoms did, however, take an unexpected lead in the 7^th minute with an unassisted goal from Edgars Bebris. His first shot was saved but the puck rebounded into the slot and he slotted it home at the second attempt. 1-0 Phantoms.

3 minutes later we had the first indication that goaltender Auzins might be a fugitive from a mental institution when he received a slashing penalty for an assault on Lumberjack Joe Rand after a goalmouth scramble. An unseemly altercation ensued and Joe was given a 2 + 2 roughing penalty with 2 roughing each for the Phantoms’ Norton and Hutchinson. Joe’s card was now well and truly marked as we shall see.

Bison levelled it on 12 minutes with a well taken goal. Tomas “Grandmaster” Karpov worked the puck to Andy “Machine Gun” Melachrino from behind the goal. The latter fired an across the crease pass to Cuddly Joe Greener at the back door. A snap shot through the gap between goaltender and post and it was all square at 1-1. The Phantoms D had proved as soft as the pastry at the bottom of a Pukka Pie soaked in brown mushy whatever-it-is.

There was no more scoring in the period with Bison looking unlucky to finish on level terms after dominating the period with a 15-9 shot count in their favour. However P2 was to prove all Bison, who romped into a 4-1 lead and were cruising. The first of the 3 goals was scored by Cuddly Joe Greener (again). On 21 minutes Will Weldon was called for tripping. The dictionary defines “tripping” as “causing to stumble”. It doesn’t say anything about making someone fall flat on his face in an embarrassing and ignominious fashion, which is what Weldon did to Long Ciaron Long. Referee Dave Cloutman said “TRIPPING!” and the hapless Phantoms D man had to take a trip to the box. However, his incarceration was short as Bison snatched the lead only 8 seconds into the 5 on 4. Karpov set up Greener whose shot from the slot beat Auzins catcher side. 2-1 Bison.

Goal no 3 for Bison and Greener’s hat-trick came on 24 minutes. The set up was beautiful to watch as Maple Leaf Doug Sheppard turned back the clock with a masterpiece of skating and stick handling which had the Bison backers open mouthed in admiration. Furtively and with feint and fourberi he flounced his fleet footed form through his frayed and frustrated fighting foe’s formulated but flaky defences. What? Oh never mind. A pass to Cuddly Joe, who 5-holed the unfortunate Auzins. 3-1 Bison. The goaltender was beginning to tick.

Shortly after Rand was in Auzins’s face again after he saved a shot from Nicky Chinn. The red mist descended and the nettie shoved Rand in the face. How he escaped a penalty for this I don’t know but what he did receive was a stern lecture from Mr. Cloutman, who doubtless warned him in no uncertain terms about his future conduct. One can only assume that Auzins doesn’t speak English because he completely ignored Clouts’s friendly advice as we shall see.

Lumberjack Joe further endeared himself to the Phantoms players with a massive hit on Luke Ferrara, who made the mistake of putting his head down as Joe steamed in. He collapsed to the ice like a ragdoll and stayed down. The whistle had to be blown. Eventually Ferrara recovered. No penalty – it was a clean hit. However, the incident must have added fuel to the fire, although it wasn’t until halfway through P3 that the powder keg was to go up in and spectacular style in.

Bison romped into a 4-1 lead on 29 minutes with another power play goal with Jason Buckman in the slammer for high sticks. Set up by Marvellous Miroslav Vantroba and Cuddly Joe Greener, “Grandmaster” Karpov set himself for a slap shot from the point. As the shot came in, goaltender Auzins must have been hoping he was the right man in the right place at the right time. It was indeed the right place at the right time but, alas for the netman he was the wrong man and he failed to stop the shot. Straight through the 5-hole, which must have added further to his teeth grinding frustrations.

P3 started with 3 penalties carrying over from the end of P2. After a solitary second Bison’s penalty expired giving them half a minute of 5 on 3. They took full advantage and fired in a 5^th goal – another explosive slap shot, this one from Marvellous Miroslav Vantroba, set up by Joe Greener, who now had a tally of 3 goals and 2 assists for the game. Marvellous Miro’s clapper from the slot flew past Auzins, who could only wave his catcher at the passing puck. It was 5-1 Bison and the purple veins in the frustrated netminder’s temple were beginning to pulsate (OK I admit I couldn’t actually see that).

The Phantoms reduced the arrears with a goal on 46 minutes. The Ferrara brothers set up Milan Baranyk who skated in unopposed and fired in Luke’s pass from behind the goal.

5-2 it was, but not for long as Long Ciaron Long restored Bison’s 4 goal advantage only 19 seconds later. Coach Sheppard broke up play in mid ice and fed Long Ciaron, who barrelled forward and beat Auzins with a dazzling backhand/forehand deke. 6-2 Bison and time for celebration. Had there been present any fugitive fish fryers from Featherstone, Faisalabad or Fukushima they would have thrown their battered cods into the air in celebration. But, if there were such individuals present, they remained incognito, like the Man from MI5, and any battered cods which they may have had concealed about their persons remained unthrown. As for Auzins he was moving closer and closer to the edge (and I’m not talking about the U2 guitarist).

Could the Phantoms come back from this? Only 13 minutes remaining, 4 goals to the bad, playing poorly in defense and with a very mediocre goaltender. There seemed more likelihood of Albert Steptoe becoming Mr. Universe. But what was becoming an increasing probability was another loss of control from Auzins and this is exactly what happened with 10 minutes of the game remaining. What I am about to relate is a mere snapshot of the proceedings without the benefit of video replays, so please, dear reader, do not take this as a comprehensive account of all that happened. Please read on….

It all started with a breakaway. Grant Rounding was in on goal but, before he could get his shot in, the whistle blew – for a penalty call on Brendon Baird. By now Rounding was virtually on top of Auzins and I can only assume that his momentum took him into him or that he gave him a tap on the way past. Verily I say unto you that the enraged goalie did leave his crease to confront the Bison forward on the boards. His did smite his opponent causing him to fall to the ice. A general melée ensued, this escalating into fisticuffs, which was enough to earn Joe Greener a game penalty. The linesman attempted to usher Cuddly Joe off the ice, but clearly he had a score to settle with Luke Ferrara, who by now was back on the other side of the wall. The ugly confrontation quickly escalated into a fight with several Phantoms players steaming into Joe – 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th men in? By now the entire Bison bench was on the ice milling around as was most of the Phantoms bench, so what happened next wasn’t exactly a “bench clearance”, but that was the effect. Everybody steamed into everybody else. Suddenly we saw Matt “the Tank” Selby and the obnoxious provocateur Greg Pick circling round each other centre ice. They came together in a slugging match in which both of them landed telling punches before finally grinding to an exhausted draw. Finally everything calmed down, both teams left the ice and the officials were left with a lot of work to do. How they decided who did what with which to whom without the aid of video review perplexes me. Almost certainly most of the players got away with it. I won’t mention any names, but to say the fists had been flying in all directions would be an understatement.

What was to be the fate of goaltender Auzins? “FLOG HIM! BIRCH HIM! HANG HIM! CUT OFF HIS RIGHT HAND!” shouted some of the more radically minded spectators. But Mr. Cloutman had no power to order any of those things. The villainous Latvian received a match penalty instead as did Greener, Selby and Pick with a game penalty for Long. There were also a number of minors, which bizarrely ended up with Bison having to defend a 4 minute power play when play restarted.

We were lucky the game restarted at all as Coach Koulikov came out of the locker room all on his own and was locked in conversation with Coach Sheppard and referee Cloutman. It appeared that he was arguing for the game to be abandoned. I can only presume that Mr. Cloutman had no intention of abandoning the game and lectured Coach Koulikov about the dire consequences of failing to complete the game. Eventually the Phantoms came out and must have been pleased that they did because they grabbed 2 power play goals, both scored by Milan Baranyk, the second in dubious fashion with a Phantoms player lying on top of Bison goalie Dean Skinns as Baranyk slotted home his hat-trick goal.

There were still 7 minutes to play. Could the Phantoms pull off a remarkable comeback? What was I saying about Albert Steptoe becoming Mr. Universe? No he couldn’t and no they couldn’t. However, the game had a heart stopping climax for the Bison backers as the Phantoms, initially with the 4 minute power play and then with a pulled goaltender giving them a 6 on 5, which became a 6 on 4 with a hooking Vantroba hooked into the box, dominated the final stages of the game. Alas for them their hopes were finally dashed as Dean Skinns, down on the ice with Phantoms players raining blows upon his person, causing Speedway Girl, holder of the Dean Skinns Appreciation Society membership card number 001, to rise from her seat in indignation, smothered the puck with 2.6 seconds left on the clock. A rendition of the “Great Escape” started up and rose to a deafening volume – no.11 on the Marshall scale.

So ended an interesting evening and probably also the Phantoms career of Janis Auzins. Bison play tough, physical and robust hockey. OK infractions are committed, rules are bent, chirps are chirped, but, if Auzlins can’t handle this from one of the more honest and skilful teams in the EPL, how on earth is he going to fare against the likes of the dirty dogs of Sheffield? You can bet your bottom dollar that Payette, Elliott, Duncome and the rest would relish the opportunity of sticking the knife into such an unstable individual, whose fuse is so short he appears not to have one at all. He should take a leaf out of the “Dean Skinns Book of Composure”. However, frustrated and battered Deano might get in a game you never see him lose his rag. And Auzlins isn’t a stand out goaltender anyway. In my view it’s an easy decision for Coach Koulikov. The man must be dismissed without references immediately.