Well after the previous night's close fought battle, I was expecting another exciting duel between these two. As it was Bracknell were disgraceful, and never matched a mediocre Storm team. Manchester were missing Askew, Jablonski and Ketola, all injured the previous night, and as usual started Pietrangelo (I'd just walk out if I was Timo!). Bracknell were unscathed and started again with Bruno in net.
The game picked up where it had left off the previous night - with a brawl. Rubaduk brought the puck into the zone on the left, and was hit from behind by Chasse. To be fair, Rubaduk dived. He was right in front of me, the contact was minimal, and if it wasn't a dive he must have been off-balance. Bevertheless, in steamed Brebant, of all people, to protect his team mate. And so began bout 45 between Chasse and Brebant. Others joined in, and everyone had to be dragged apart by the linos. The penalties were announced as 2 for checking from behind and 10 miscnduct for Denis, plus 2 minutes each to him and Brebant for Roughing. Storm scored after 7 minutes, with a hapless goal. The puck had been hit aimlessly down the ice, Kelman was skating back to collect, with Uniacke in not-too-close attendence. Bruno went to the side of the net to tap off the puck to Todd, but Todd thought he was going to wack it round the boards so he left it. The result was a loose puck, a few inches outside the crease, in front of Uniacke, and with Bruno stranded - no contest.
Johnstone found himself in the box a minute later, and Storm almost profited from the advantage. All four Bees were to the right side of the rink, and no-one saw Miller ghost in to the zone behind them till too late. He shaped up to shoot, but instead played it to Weaver free on the far post. Bruno fell over trying to reposition, and it should have been easy for Weaver, but he couldn't make up his mind what to do, and the pick trickled off his balde wide of the goal. Bracknell's first real chance of the night came as the penaty ended. McCosh steamed out of the zone and took a hard shot at Pietrangelo, which flipped into the air. Ferraccioli took a wild slash at it, but didn't make a clean hit. It still took smart reactions for Pietrangelo to get his glove up in time. Storm poured back into Bracknell's zone, and Campese was forced to stop Hurley's shot with his chest. The puck flew back into the slot, Bruno was wrong-footed and going down, and so Uniacke had no trouble hitting the empty net to double his season's tally.
The game settled now, into mediocrity, and it was several minutes before any action of note. Hurley broke down the ice and into Bracknell's zone, with Chief the only covering defender. Chief forced him to go round the outside, and looked to have done enough, but The Mincing Tart hit a hopeful one which, to be fair, he connected with sweetly (for once). It flew into the top right corner, but from that distance and angle Buno should have had it covered all the way. Instead, he seemed almost to jump out of its way. The period ended with Storm completely in control, yet without having broken a sweat, and with Bracknell looking hopeless and dispirited.
Bracknell returned to the ice with a change - Bruno was benched and Brian Greer took his place. Bracknell took a penalty in less than a minute, but Storm were caught out on a line change to cancel it. With Bracknell on the advantage, they should have scored through Jeff Johnstone. Stewart shot from the point, Johnstone was to the left of net and his downward flick bounced wide of the post. Bracknell kept the puck in the zone, Stewart passed across to the Chief on the other point, and he unleashed a trade-mark belter. This time, Johnstone got his stick to the puck and directed it the right way, apparently lifting it over Pietrangelo (who had gone low). A minute later Bracknell, who's line changes had been awful all night (at times w'd had 7 or 8 skaters on the ice), were also called for too many men. Bracknell were defending desperately, and had half scrambled clear several times, but a shot from Miller took a wicked ninety degree deflection off Rob Stewart to give Greer no chance.
Bracknell wasted an excellent chance to pull the scores back again. A hasty clearence down the ice was missed by a Storm defender, and Ferraccioli was clear to chase it. He picked it up behind the net, had time to turn and look, and flipped it onto the trailing Chief's stick. It should have been a goal, but Pietrangelo came up big again. Storm almost added when a shot bounced off Greer's chest and onto Chief's skate, but the Chief was able to turn it away. On the powerplay, Junkin should have put home an easy chance, but sent it wide. Ferras then sent the puck out from behind the net, to Chasse in the slot with his back to goal, but his quick backhand was well stopped. Towards the end of the period, Rubaduk spurned a golden opportunity. A beutiful pass from one blue-line to the other sent him free in on Greer. He tried the deke, lost control of the puck, but was still able to shoot high. The shot hit Brian on the shoulder and he had to leap to punch it clear of the goal. But the game was degenerating now into a nasty display of cheap shots, which were ignored by Boniface.
By this point, I was so disgusted with the Bracknell team, that I didn't retake my seat after the interval, but stood up with the drummers, trying to make some noise for Bracknell. I therefore didn't make any notes, but there was precious little action anyway. R$ight at the start, Paxton Schulte (who'd been searching for a fight) went mad for Brebant, I think. He had to be pulled from the ice, and even tried to jump out of the box a couple of times. Needless to say, he sat for a long time. After his penalty had expired, Coach Whistle said a quiet word in his ear, and Paxton didn't reappear that night. Bracknell were unable to create anything in the period, and Storm were just saving their energy for the semi-final, so the last period was quite dull. As predicted, at the handshakes another barny kicked off, with I think Chasse, Schulte and La Sclala all involved (no surprises!).
Bracknell were a disgrace, and I was despondent and almost ashamed last night. I wasn't ashamed so much by the goonery - which is part and parcel of ISL hockey these days - but rather the way Bees played. There was little effort to create strong attacking play, the players didn't play as a team, and several (see above) were intent just on continuing the previous night's feuds. There can be no pride in Bracknell's efforts last night, and I'm not wholly convinced they were even trying 100%. No doubt Whistle will spin out some bullshit about it being tough playing away from home, or how we were beaten by a great team, but in truth we weren't. Manchester never really inspired tonight, certainly they weren't lighting any candles. That's what hurt - we were totally outplayed by a mediocre team (on the night, mind, not the season), and we didn't have the wit or desire to try and change that. It now looks like we won't meet Manchester in the play-offs, and probably just as well, because we'd be wasting our time. Chasse and La Scala are only intent in knocking heads when they're in M2, and Schulte's always been a mindless idiot.
I still don't know what to make of Bracknell's chances. On Thursday night, although it wasn't pretty, we matched Manchester and could have beaten them. Last night, we were plain out-classed. Our inconsistency will be our undoing. That, and indiscipline. In previous years, we've had one of the lowest penalty couts (*and* still finished in a record high place), a fact I've been proud of. This year, we'll probably still finish fifth but have two or three times as many PIMs. I hope in the summer we can off-load some of these wasters, like Chasse and maybe La Scala. Chasse is a good player, which is why he's a waste of space when he goes looking for a fight. This was my first chance to see Nemirovsky, and I felt sorry for him. He obviously has talent (at one point in the game, he deked three players to skate through on net, in a beautiful and out-rageous piece of skill), yet he has no support, and so is ineefective. Drouin was skating around the whole looking like he was going to burst into tears. The man is so gifted, but he needs help. Everytime he did something great, he would look for team-mates, but they'd be on the blue-line hitting people.
No one really stood out from either team. Certainly not from Bracknell, except, possibly, Shayne McCosh - who kept his head whilst all around him lost theirs, and played a competant game at the back. Giving the award to Greer was a cop-out, but he was pretty solid, and calmed things down at the back. I don't think Bruno was terrible so much as unfortunate. The first goal was a misunderstanding (although, if in doubt, get it out!). The second was bad defending not keeing. The third I would blame him for, though. For Storm, Uniacke scored through being in the right place at the right time, rather than skill.Weaver had a mare (again), and the rest were unimpressive. Only Pitrangelo can really look back in satisfaction, IMO.
So, whither Bracknell?....