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Post by quoththeraven on Feb 2, 2009 12:46:09 GMT
Yeah also we're the first team in the Northern Conference to have definitely made the playoffs. Well done lads . Not the greatest game of the season last night - neither goalie was overly tested in the first, the Lions got in going in the second only to be pegged back right at the end, and Newcastle made us work very hard for our two points. In customary style they tried to cheap shot the Backup a couple of times towards the end, but nowhere near the antics that apparently took place up in the Toon. Good to see Mills settle in - on a few occasions last night he combined his speed with good awareness and was able to get onto long passes. No disrespect to Dean but I was even more pleased to see Joe Wightman back in the lineup - even moreso than Mills, Joe's speed caused problems for Newcastle's defence, even if the scoresheet doesn't reflect this. Who was wearing #2 for the Lions? He looked like Joe Graham, he carried the puck up the ice like Joe Graham, he checked like Joe Graham, but unlike Joe Graham he was reluctant to unleash that cannon of a shot and instead either passed or skated into trouble. Promising signs though. I thought the referee - John Jobling, non? - did a good job of letting it flow - I never thought I'd see a Newcastle game in which there were only 6 minor penalties called throughout. I think he realised that by turning the occasional blind eye to hooking and holding (except for the blatant stuff) he could control the game better than someone who calls everything and gets this sort of team wound up. Next weekend sees us take on Benny and the Kingston Jets in Kingston, and then we take on Whitley in a make or break game. If you've not seen the Lions play yet this season, what are you waiting for? This is the perfect chance and I hope to see you there
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 6, 2009 13:33:15 GMT
Just as a reminder for those that are not travelling to Hull on Sunday for the Panthers game..
Lions take on Whitley Warriors on Sunday night, face off 7.30pm.
It's really a "winners take all" scenario. At the moment, both the Lions and the Warriors can finish on a maximum of 47 points. However, with the results between each team currently standing at Lions winning 2, Warriors winning 1 it's going to be close if we happen to finish level on points. Also the Lions have scored 11 against the Warriors, having conceeded 7. Lions have to win all of their remaining games - including 2 tricky trips to Hull to play the Kingston Jets.
Sheffield are not out of the race either - although they beat the Warriors last Saturday, they drew 3-3 with Billingham on Sunday, meaning their maximum number of points is now 46.
This year's race for the title will be closer than ever, and we need to do all we can to take the maximum number of points. So please come to the NIC if you can on Sunday to cheer on the Lions.
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Adam
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Post by Adam on Feb 7, 2009 19:58:14 GMT
Taken from THF: Kingston Jets 1 v 6 Nottingham LionsKingston went straight into a 1 goal lead then Lions pulled it back within a minute or so then never looked back. Some more strange decisions by the ref both ways.
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 7, 2009 23:02:03 GMT
A good result for the Lions, in a game that could have been a potential banana-skin!
Period scores 1-3, 0-3, 0-0. PiM 4-2, 2-2, 8-4 Shots on Goal: Holmes (Jets) 16+12+14 = 42 Levers (Lions) 8+15+8 = 31
Jets scorers: Haggar 1+0; Florence, Hackford 0+1. Lions scorers: Ben Bliss 3+1 (1PP, natural hat-trick); Ward 0+3; Stewart Bliss 0+2; Bullas, Norton, Wightman 1+0; Graham, Maynard 0+1.
Jets started the brighter, and I think their goal at 6.41 woke up the Lions and we soon equalised and then took control. The score could have been higher as Holmes made a great save after a fantastic move between Colegate, Wightman & Bullas. Lions seemed to take it easy in the 3rd, but the game was won by then and no real need to risk anyone - not a tactic the Lions usually play but we have to look at tomorrow's game against Whitley.
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Post by quoththeraven on Feb 8, 2009 11:42:15 GMT
Excellent stuff! Bring on the Warriors! If it starts snowing and the temperature outside drops below freezing, will some of the Whitley have cigarette packets tucked up the sleeves of their jerseys? In all seriousness it's the most important game of the season tonight. I can't wait and I hope to see plenty of support for the Pride of Nottingham
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Post by carolle on Feb 8, 2009 23:34:09 GMT
Score from tonights game...Lions 5 - whitley 0.
A very physical game on Whitleys part!!!
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Feb 9, 2009 0:01:13 GMT
Well, that was one hell of a game!
If our resident Lions statistician is right (and she's rarely wrong) that's the first time the Lions have ever shut out Whitley. One hell of a performance from the whole team - and we could easily have given the MoM to the whole team - but in the end it was shared between captain Chris Colegate for his natural hat-trick (the first 3 goals) and netminder Alan Levers for the shut-out. Joe Wightman got goal #4, and new man to the Lions, Dean "Mad Dog" Mills got the fifth... as he had a bout of fisticuffs as well I was hoping he'd get a Gordie Howe hat-trick, but sadly - no assist. I think I also heard it said that one of Chris Colegate's goals (the 3rd?) was the Lions' 100th goal this season. Not too shabby...
A very tense game, and one that - until partway through the third period - was in no way assured to be a Lions victory. This one was crucial, a real 4-pointer against one of our rivals for the league title... and I was sure that it was going to be a close one - no more than a goal or two in it. And I was still thinking this as the third period started (we were 2-0 up at that point).
Most of the previous meetings between these two teams have been a lot closer (although maybe our 7-1 victory on our last visit to Whitley wasn't such an oddity?) - the Lions' speed and skill, concentrating on offence... against the Warriors' toughness and defensive outlook.
The difference this time? Discipline. The Lions had it... Whitley most certainly did not. I thought I was watching the Newcastle Vipers at one point! Goonery, gobbery... they were out of control. And it cost them. I mean... Whitley always play fairly high on the tough/nasty scale, but they usually manage to keep their heads. Not this time. It was tempting to give Simon Leach the Whitley MoM, as he did a hell of a lot to help us out! One of the more veteran Lions observers swore blind that Leach didn't even touch the puck once in the first two periods... but he got a few sit-down sessions in the sin-bin. Powerplays, lots of possession, PP goals... that'll do nicely, thank-you!
The league title is NOT in the bag, not by a long chalk! A visit to Kingston next Sunday (despite our winning record against them, they're always capable of dishing out a nasty shock or two) and then hosting Coventry - inconsistent, but dangerous. Win both of those and it's happy days... but it's still all to play for.
Come on you Lions...
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Adam
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Post by Adam on Feb 9, 2009 0:21:50 GMT
Good win for the Lions, well done to all!
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 9, 2009 11:43:02 GMT
Again, top post by Shaggy - summed it up perfectly.
Chris' first goal was Lions 100th of the season, but he didn't actually get a hat-trick - Joe Wightman got the 2nd & 4th goals, with Chris getting the 1st & 3rd. Dean Mills got his 1st Lions goal too.
Alan Levers faced 23 shots for his shutout - his 2nd of this Season and our 3rd overall.
It was a fantastic TEAM performance, and the Man of the Match award could have gone to a number of players, in fact we almost gave it to the whole team, but Chris & Alan just stood out. Alan put in two excellent performances this weekend.
I certainly didn't expect to get a 5-0, I said that at the end of the 2nd that they were still in it, and expected them to get a goal back. I thought that it would come down to a last minute winner (for either team) and that the winners of the game would go onto be League Champions.
Will we win the title? I don't know. We have 2 games left, Sheffield 5 and Whitley 7. Sheffield still have to play Whitley, and Whitley still have to play Billingham 3 times. However we've now got a good a chance as any, and we'll have to wait and see what happens in 2 weeks time.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Feb 9, 2009 12:10:54 GMT
Congratulations lads, massive win!!
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Post by quoththeraven on Feb 9, 2009 12:29:35 GMT
Indeed a fantastic performance by the Lions, all of whom (include the ones I usually complain about - Messieurs Graham and Neil please continue to play like last night as you were both very good). This was, as the programme put it so well, a "winner takes all" match. Indeed, as far as I have calculated, should all the top three teams win all their matches, it would be Lions on 47 points, Sheffield on 46 and Whitley on 45. In short, if that's correct, the title is ours to lose. We've still got to play Kingston and Coventry, both of whom are tough opponents, but both of whom we've beaten at least twice (Kingston thrice, our other game was a draw with Coventry), so we have to believe we can do it.
So what went right last night? Well, as Shaggy said, we played excellently disciplined hockey - Whitley always look to start some trouble and the Lions, as ever didn't react. We took 12 minutes of penalties in the whole game - Warriors' alternate Bryan Dunn took more than that in the first period. That having been said Dave Goodwin did a lot to let the game flow and other referees may have made more calls than he did. Despite the hysterical shrieking from my right - sorry but you did get carried away a little - I thought that on balance Goodwin made the right call most of the time. His misconducts were interesting talking points - he gave one person 10 for an illegal visor, which is as per the rules. He gave Dunn 10 for backchat after he had twice told him to shush, and he gave Wilson 10 for incitement because after a couple of our goals Whitley insisted on breaking up the celebrations by trying to start a fight.
Coupled with disciplined hockey, we took our chances on the powerplay. We scored two goals in 5-on-3, including a rare delayed penalty 5-on-3 goal - I've not seen one of those for a long time.
Finally, and big thank you to the whole Lions roster, staff and volunteers for this, we started to clear the zone more effectively. Last night was one of the best sleeps I've had all season and I have to think that the defensive play by the Lions is a factor.
Colegate and Levers, as the team's leaders (i.e. captain and starting goalie), rightly took the plaudits with their joint MoM award, but everyone on the Lions team who drank an MoM beer (and also those who are too young to drink beer in public) deserves the praise for their performance last night.
Next week is Kingston, and I think, if we beat them, we will go to 45 points and eliminate Whitley from the title picture based on results between the teams. Bring on Benny and the Jets!
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Post by tonofnor on Feb 9, 2009 12:32:52 GMT
What a great win win for the boys last night, really stood up firm to their intimadatory tactics and Whitley could just not handle the speed of our guys and got what they deserved out of the game, think you will find though Lions Press that Sheffield and Whitley have completed their league fixtures against each other
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 9, 2009 12:38:09 GMT
think you will find though Lions Press that Sheffield and Whitley have completed their league fixtures against each other Yes you're right - I blame duff info, and not having a copy of the gamesheet or programme with me today!
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Post by quoththeraven on Feb 9, 2009 12:56:09 GMT
Whitley do still have to play Billingham three times, which means three especially tough games. Over the last couple of seasons, it has been Billingham's efforts at being a thorn in the side of Whitley that has ultimately thwarted the Warriors.
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 9, 2009 12:58:44 GMT
They have back to back games next weekend, then the final game between them being on 15th March.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Feb 9, 2009 13:45:40 GMT
Chris' first goal was Lions 100th of the season, but he didn't actually get a hat-trick - Joe Wightman got the 2nd & 4th goals, with Chris getting the 1st & 3rd. Dean Mills got his 1st Lions goal too. Oops! (Must have been changed afterwards... because the 2nd goal was definitely announced as being Colegate's. Ah well... And he didn't have an easy time of it... made some quality stops. Let's hope that you were right about that last bit! Very true. However, it is often said... it's better to have the points than the games in hand, and that is very true here! Our fate is in our own hands... if we win the last two games, then we have won the title regardless of what others do. Although it would be nice to win away at Kingston next weekend and find out that our challengers have dropped points, making the Coventry game irrelevant!
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Post by panthers4ever on Feb 9, 2009 16:00:51 GMT
well done lads great win
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Post by quoththeraven on Feb 10, 2009 12:27:17 GMT
Chris' first goal was Lions 100th of the season, but he didn't actually get a hat-trick - Joe Wightman got the 2nd & 4th goals, with Chris getting the 1st & 3rd. Dean Mills got his 1st Lions goal too. Oops! (Must have been changed afterwards... because the 2nd goal was definitely announced as being Colegate's. Ah well... I think you'll find Tony Hand was also later credited with an assist on the second goal However, it is often said... it's better to have the points than the games in hand, and that is very true here! Our fate is in our own hands... if we win the last two games, then we have won the title regardless of what others do. Although it would be nice to win away at Kingston next weekend and find out that our challengers have dropped points, making the Coventry game irrelevant! Coventry game irrelevant? Well, I don't want to tempt fate so I won't say too much. It could turn out to be "irrelevant" for us, but Coventry are fifth and breathing down Billingham's neck at the moment. While the Bomb Squad have a greater chance of making the playoffs, the Coventry will come to us all guns blazing (pun fully intended) and hopefully we'll get a decent game to give us momentum into the playoffs.
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 10, 2009 13:06:26 GMT
Coventry game irrelevant? Well, I don't want to tempt fate so I won't say too much. It could turn out to be "irrelevant" for us, but Coventry are fifth and breathing down Billingham's neck at the moment. While the Bomb Squad have a greater chance of making the playoffs, the Coventry will come to us all guns blazing (pun fully intended) and hopefully we'll get a decent game to give us momentum into the playoffs. Not sure about that one - both ourselves and Coventry ENL are sending players to China for the World Student Games. We're missing 4 players, but Coventry are also missing goalie Steven Fone. Now the Elite Blaze are also playing on that day, so we don't know who they'd be bringing in goal. The first game against Coventry was a narrow 3-2 win at the NIC, the 2nd was a 5-0 rout - in which we could, and should have scored more. The last game we played was a 5-5 tie, and apparently we were rubbish! It would be nice to go into that game knowing that the result didn't matter, but that won't make a difference on how we prepare for the game! It will be treated as a must-win.
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Post by quoththeraven on Feb 11, 2009 19:16:56 GMT
What I meant was, our season may be finishing but Coventry still have a lot to play for, so even without their GB players they aren't going to come to Nottingham to coast through the motions. Even at full strength the games have not exactly been one-sided so I reckon it'll be a tough encounter - maybe not the highest quality, as last week's win over Whitley and the Billingham games have set a high benchmark, but it'll still be a good game, and anyone in two minds about coming to it should definitely come along.
Also, I've just heard the juiciest rumour about who is running the game in Kingston. Let's just say the Lions should be practising their powerplays even more than normal on Thursday night ...
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 12, 2009 17:56:15 GMT
Seeing as we're all concentrating on the top of the table, it's time to have a look at the bottom. As we've known all along, it was confirmed last night that Newcastle will be the first team to be relegated from ENL North 1. Their 7-2 loss to Whitley has condemmed them to ENL North 2 for next season.
Also at the bottom, Blackburn's win last weekend has leapfrogged them over Kingston, and as it stands at the moment if the teams finish level, Blackburn would have the higher posititon meaning it would be the Jets that would face the relegation playoff...
So, down the League it's still all to play for! The Championship is still to be decided. The final Playoff place is still to be decided. The relegation playoff is still to be decided.
Exciting stuff!
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Post by quoththeraven on Feb 15, 2009 19:14:54 GMT
result is 5-5. Not there so don't know what happened but I am told we were awful through two periods and clinging on. I'm sure the real reasons for this will come out soon.
The upshot of this is that we can get a maximum of 46 points, which would leave us level with Sheffield. This means the Scimitars are in the driving seat for the title as they hold the tiebreaker advantage over us. Obviously you'd hope the Lions will still be up for what is no longer an irrelevant game next Sunday as those two points are now incredibly vital in the quest to defend our title.
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 16, 2009 13:17:45 GMT
I'm really struggling to put my thoughts into words on this one. To be honest, at 3-0 down we were lucky to get back into the game - 3 goals in just over 5 minutes meant we went into the final period level at 3-3. Rich Griffiths didn't have a bad game, but swopping to Levers did seem to give the team the lift they needed, and that may have had it's part to play in us levelling the game. Sam Bullas' first just rolled across the line, but it was Joe Wightman who scored 2 PP goals - first when the Lions were 5-3, and the 2nd just a minute or so after on the 5-4.
We soon managed to score 2 more through Chris Colegate and Dean Mills but just couldn't hold onto the lead.
In hindsight maybe we should have postponed our final 2 games until after the 4 come back from China, but who is to say we would have beaten Kingston even then? We looked a completely different team to the one that played last weekend.
So what does it mean for the League? Quite simply we have to beat Coventry next Sunday - any less and it's all over. However, even if we beat Coventry unless Sheffield drop a point somewhere in their final 4 games the title is theirs as they have the better goal-difference in head-to-head games against us. However, they have to play Blackburn, Kingston and another double-pointer, this time against Newcastle so it's difficult to think where that loss or draw will come from - although both Blackburn and Kingston are locked in a battle to avoid the relegation playoff, so those games can be unpredictable.
I know the players were gutted about yesterday, and will do what they can to ensure that we finish the season on equal points with Sheffield, even if we can't win the title.
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Post by tonofnor on Feb 16, 2009 13:30:15 GMT
Are you saying that we had the choice to have postponed the final 2 games, enabling the Lions to put the strongest side out possible to give ourselves the best chance possible of retaining the title, if this was so it seems rather a strange choice not to have taken up when the team after a bit of a stuttering start to the season, have worked so hard to have gotten to the last 2 games and put themselves in with a good shout of taking the title, be interesting to know the thoughts of others.
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Post by Nottingham Lions on Feb 16, 2009 14:31:20 GMT
Yes, there is an option for a club to reschedule any games (with no penalty) where they are missing 3 or more players away on International duty.
I don't know the exact reason why (but I'm guessing it's ice-time related) the Lions elected not to do this and to play the 2 remaining games missing 4 players.
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