 |
| Craig Riley was the Mayhem MVP away at Cardiff (Photo by David Tattum) |
Saturday 30th May 2026 – BPIHL Match #2: Cardiff Huskies 5 – Mayhem 4
The
Mayhem sledge team put in a battling performance in their second game of the
new British Para Ice Hockey League season, narrowly losing out 5-4 to Cardiff
Huskies in the Welsh capital.
The
two teams had already met up in Widnes two weeks earlier, with the Mayhem
winning 2-0 but both teams had additional players available for Saturday’s
clash, with GB internationals Karl Nicholson and Tyler Christopher lining up
for the Mayhem and Huskies respectively.
Cardiff
opened the scoring early in the first period and went on to double the lead
before Karl Nicholson pulled a goal back for the Mayhem with just 23 seconds
left on the clock.
The
Huskies scored again on 26 minutes but Nicholson fired in for the Mayhem again
two minutes after that and the score stood at a very close 3-2 with one period
left to play.
The
Mayhem had plenty of chances on goal in this game – hitting the post 4 times – and
actually narrowly out-shot the Huskies by 25 to 23 over the course of the game but
were just not able to make them count. Cardiff edged further ahead again with a
goal 2 minutes into the third period and, once again, Karl Nicholson responded
almost immediately with his hat-trick goal.
The
game continued on a knife-edge and the tension mounted around the South Wales
rink as the clock slowly ticked down.
The
Huskies scored again with two minutes left to play but Dean Lahan pulled a goal
back for the Mayhem with just 32 seconds left on the clock. Unfortunately, it was too late to spark a
late rally and the game finished in a narrow 5-4 victory for the Welsh team.
Carl
Riley – playing only his second ever Para Ice Hockey match – was named Player
of the Game for the Mayhem.
Head
Coach Peter Hagan commented afterwards:
“Lady Luck wasn’t with us today but there was some good play out there.
There are few things to look at to improve upon - but we can take lots of
positives from the game. We are definitely on the right track!”
The
other game of the weekend saw the Sheffield Steelstings - the Steel City’s “development “ team – trounce last year’s
league runners up Peterborough Phantoms 8-1.
The
Steelstings have been the league’s whipping boys in recent years and only
managed to score two goals in their 8 league games last season - so this was
quite a turn-around in fortunes.
Senior
Kings players Jake Oakley and Barry Grayson have switched to the Stings for
this season to give some extra
experience and depth to the development side that had 6 new players icing in
their first ever game and, judging from this initial result, the BPIHL
competition is going to be a lot closer this year.
The
weekend results saw the Steelstings take over at the top of the BPIHL table –
quite possibly for the first time ever- leading a pack of 3 teams that all have
1 win each.
The
Stings are top of the pile on goal difference while the Mayhem are in second
due to a superior playing record over Cardiff in the games between the two
teams. Peterborough have “null points”
from their defeat away in Sheffield and the Sheffield Steelkings – last year’s
league and play off champions - have yet to play this season.
The
Mayhem are at home this Sunday 7th June when they take on the Steelkings at
Planet Ice Widnes, 5.15pm start off.
Find out more about the Manchester Mayhem on their official website HERE
and about the British Para Ice Hockey League HERE
