Cardiff Huskies celebrate their 3rd title in in a row after their away win at Peterborough (Photo by Rob Walker Photography)
Cardiff
Huskies won the league title for the third year in a row after a narrow 5-3
defeat away to Peterborough Phantoms left both teams on the same number of
points at the top of the table.
Goals from Ali Amini and D-Jay Hall gave the Phantoms an early lead but a strike from Huskies Tyler Christopher on 12 minutes saw the score standing at a very close 2-1 at the first period break.
It was a similar story in the second period with two goals for Peterborough’s top scorer Gary Farmer and one from Cardiff’s Josh Campbell. 4-2 with one period of the regular season left to play.
It was honours even in the third period with Hall scoring again for the Phantoms and Christopher on target for Cardiff, and the game finished in a 5-3 win for Peterborough.
This result saw the closest possible of finishes at the top of the league table with both teams on 18 points from their 6 wins.
Peterborough actually had the better goal difference across the league season with +24 as opposed to Cardiff’s +13 but, in ice hockey, teams tied on points are separated by the combined results in matches played between the two of them.
With Cardiff having beaten Peterborough in the Welsh capital 5-1 earlier in the season, the Phantoms’ 5-3 weekend victory was not enough to overturn that, so the Huskies were crowned champions.
Phantoms’ Gary Farmer ended up with the most points for the season with 28 goals and 2 assists from 8 games while Cardiff’s Tyler Christopher was second with 17+7 from 7.
Manchester Mayhem’s Karl Nicholson and Sheffield Steelkings’ Connor Grocock and Daniel Clarke also made double figures while Steelkings’ Jake Oakley had the most assists with 9, along with 9 goals.
Cardiff’s Dan Hutchinson had the best netminding record with a miserly 0.75 Goals Against Average and a 95.52 Save Percentage. Mayhem’s Darren Pomfrett was the only netminder to play all 360 minutes of the league season and he picked up the most shut outs with 2.
All eyes now look to the end of season play off weekend to be held in Nottingham on 14th & 15th September.
League champions Cardiff will play 4th place finishers Mayhem in their semi final match, while second place Peterborough will play third place Sheffield Steelkings.
The winners of the two semi-finals will progress to the play off final on the Sunday, with the two losers meeting in a 3rd place game beforehand.
You can see up-to-date league standings, player statistics and match summary sheets for the 2024 sledge hockey season on our unofficial stats website HERE.
