 |
Sheffield Steelkings - Play Off Champions 2025 (Photo by Sheffield Steelkings)
Sheffield Steelkings won their third Play Off title in a row at the recent play off weekend in Lee Valley to go with their BPIHL title for an impressive 2025 double.
The event was staged at the Lee Valley Ice Centre in
East London over the weekend of 13th and 14th September
as the governing body is keen to introduce para ice hockey to new locations to
help raise the profile of the sport.
Based on the final league table placings, the play
off semi final pairings were Steelkings (1st) against Manchester
Mayhem (4th) and Peterborough Phantoms (2nd) against
Cardiff Huskies (3rd).
The first semi final on the Saturday saw Steelkings beat
the Mayhem 3-0 but they didn’t have it all their own way as the short-benched Mayhem
put in a battling performance.
A goal in each period – from Jake Oakley, Daniel Clarke
and Rachel Oakley, in that order – sealed the win for the Steelkings and a place
in the final.
The second semi-final saw Peterborough Phantoms beat
Cardiff Huskies 7-3.
Gary Farmer scored 5 times for the Phantoms with the
other goals coming from Callum Shakespeare and DJ Hall. Tyler Christopher bagged
a brace for the Huskies with the other strike coming from Jon le Galloudec.
The third place game on the Sunday saw a bit of an
upset as Manchester Mayhem beat Cardiff Huskies – who they had lost to both home
and away in the league - 3-2. Karl Nicholson scored a hat-trick for the Mayhem
while Tyler Christopher and Jon Le Galloudec responded for the Huskies.
The final went pretty much as most people expected
with the Steelkings – who had gone all season without losing a game, and only
conceding 8 goals in 9 games – beating the Phantoms 5-1.
The Sheffield goals went to Jake Oakley (4) and Matt
Clarkson (1), while the league’s top sniper Gary Farmer fired in the
consolation for Peterborough.
Note: This is a bit late and I have to say that the reason
for that is that no detailed match information has been made available by the governing
body for any of the 4 games over the play off weekend - neither via the Gameday
online system nor with copies of paper gamesheets, despite numerous requests.
Not being able to attend the play offs in person, I have
had to rely on other people’s reports and the excellent match videos that have
been uploaded on YouTube in order to compile this summary of events.
You can see full games from the 2025 BPIHL Play Offs
– with excellent commentary from Petter Bradders - on YouTube HERE