Flames doused!

I would never expect the Phoenix to take a 4 point weekend from the Guildford Flames. As the 2 sides most would expect to be battling it out for the title, splitting the points over a weekend of back to back games would most likely be the norm.

Not this time.

Not contnent with travelling down to Guildford on Saturday and beating them in their own barn, the Phoenix only went and fucking did it again the following night in front of the Faithful at the Ice Dome.

OK, as is fast becoming the norm we didn't exactly do it the easy way, requiring a winner in OT after the Flames tied the scores with barely a minute left on the clock, but fuck me sideways it was exciting to watch. Sure, we are not the free flowing side of yore, but the shot count is steadily rising, and the team are showing some real balls out there on the ice. There were some handbags early on after form Phoenix player Curtis Huppe decided to get a little too cheeky behind the Phoenix goal, and it did look for a while that Guildford constant use of elbows and holding was going to cause the officials to lose control of the game entirely. Seriously, it has been many, many moons since I saw so much blatant cheating from a side coming to the Ice Dome. In fact, the last time I did, it was the Flames old netminder, with his kicking the nets of the moorings and diva-esque reactions.

It seems to me that the standard of officiating is going backwards this season. I'm sure a lot of this is down to the EIHAs efforts to bring younger refs and linos up from th ENIHL and junior ranks, but they should always be paired with an experienced set of officials too. Some of the officiating we have seen thus far has been so shit it almost beggars belief. You know that the standard is poor when you bitch and moan about it even when your own team have won the game.

Anyways, onwards and upwards! Dissapointed we lost to the Beavers, sorry Bison, last night but we have the Lightning at the DOme tonight who certainly don't seem to be the side they have been in previous seasons, so it should be an interesting one to say the least.

See you at the Dome (or the pub... your call).