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| Photo by Barcud Photography |
The Mayhem sledge team will be looking to finish their season on a winning note as they head down to Lee Valley in East London this weekend to take part in the British Para Ice Hockey Play Offs.
The Widnes–based team rounded off their regular season schedule with a narrow 1-goal defeat to league champions Sheffield Steelkings and then picked up a tremendous 6-9 win away to Peterborough Phantoms in their last game and, therefore, go into this weekend tournament on a bit of a roll.
The top four teams in the league qualify for the Play Offs with the league winners playing the 4th place finishers in one semi final and 2nd v 3rd in the other one. Both semi finals take place on Saturday and the winners go through to the final on Sunday while the losers meet in a 3rd place play off. This means that the Mayhem will play Sheffield in the first semi final facing off at 2.15 on Saturday and Cardiff will play Peterborough, starting at 5pm.
Sheffield Steelkings are probably the favourites to take the Play Off crown to add to this year’s league title. They went through the league season unbeaten and only conceded 8 goals in their 8 league games. But league form counts for little in the Play Offs and one –off games on neutral ice can throw up surprises – as happened back in 2017 when the Mayhem only finished 4th in the table but went on to win the Play Off title beating Cardiff 5-0 in the final at Hull.
The Play Offs are being held at Lee Valley Ice Centre this year which is a new venue for Para Ice Hockey. The event was staged at Nottingham last year – another new venue – as the sport’s governing body British Para Ice Hockey works tirelessly to try and broaden awareness about the game across the country.
