The Magnificent Seven Defeat Slough

Only seven players turned up on Saturday, April 28 to take on the Slough Satans - but that was all that was needed. The seven players (Ben Durcan, Paddy Durcan, John Cavanagh, Milan Kocybala, Michael Baker, John Leslie, and Steve Potts) faced a squad of 17 from the Satans, yet managed to pull out a win in a game that had everything in it including: fights, break-away rushes, crazy goals off deflected shots, a penalty shot (saved by Ben Durcan!), come-from-behind scoring, and real grit and determination from a very short Statesmen bench.

The Statesmen did well in the first period to control the pace and keep the game within reach until the final minute when exhaustion and mental fatigue took its toll and the Slough Satans scored twice just before the buzzer to finish the period 1-4.

In the second period, the Statesmen rallied back and, despite an unfortunate deflection that resulted in a Slough goal in the first minute of the period, the score was 5-5 after 40 minutes.

With the game tied going into the third period, the visiting Statesmen were feeling confident and optimistic about the possibility of not just finishing with a respectable scoreline, but stealing a win from the Satans. This confidence was tested early in the third period when Slough scored twice in the first 7 minutes. But Paddy Durcan, who provided a solid back line for the entire game, opened the scoring for the Statesmen in the final period. This was followed by Steve Potts, a pair from John Leslie, and a cracking goal in the final 90 seconds off a slap shot by Michael Baker to seal a 10-8 win for the elated visitors.

All seven Statesmen players rose to the challenge and played a great game which was a real treat for the supporters on both sides who braved the late night to come out and watch. Milan Kocybala had an impressive five assists, John Cavanagh was a real playmaker on the team with one goal and five assists, John Leslie put on the jets in the third period with two goals and two assists, and Steve Potts got Man of the Match with five goals and two assists.

A legendary game for the Statesmen!

Statesmen v Nationwide Knights (0-5)

Friday night saw us play against our old friends and rivals the Nationwide Knights to come out the wrong side of a 5-0 scorleine. Knowing that it was going to be a tough game and travelling with a weakened squad as some players pulled out at the last minute the statesmen defended resolutely and although under a lot of pressure kept a 0-0 scoreline till an error led to a breakaway and Ben had been standing on his head the whole game took it literally and slipped over to allow the Swindon player to score.
Ben deserves a lot of credit and kept the scoreline low until a couple of goals late in the 3rd all but sealed the win. The statesmen tried to avoid the shut out and came very close in the last minute but just couldnt put the puck in the net. It was a good contest and we will be looking forward to the return leg match April. MOTM - Neil Wells.

Player Stats

No	Name	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2	Ben Durcan	63	0	1	1	4
3	George Prich	16	16	3	19	37
4	Ritchie Zimmerman	41	20	24	44	24
5	Jake Switzer	11	4	5	9	0
6	Darcy Dando	10	17	11	28	0
7	Bob Heldley	17	5	10	15	2
8	Neil Wells	108	37	62	99	38
9	John Cavannagh	210	30	110	140	305
10	John Johnston	31	36	33	69	4
11	Michael Baker	288	21	70	91	120
12	Paul Martin	143	9	48	57	8
13	Steve Potts	62	38	34	72	10
14	John Weatherill	12	3	3	6	0
15	Mikko Rovamaa	3	0	2	2	0
16	Ty Chinnery	210	264	184	447	194
17	John Leslie	37	12	20	32	2
18	Lukas Hanus	17	27	22	49	22
19	Mark Freitag	16	15	6	21	4
21	Chris Hodson	8	0	1	1	0
22	Isaac Howard	70	31	30	61	6
23	Paddy Durcan	82	13	28	41	98
24	Mark Fenwick	52	30	39	68	30
25	Mike Holmes	23	8	11	19	4
25	Julian Matthews	20	3	5	8	2
27	Jyri Petri-Siljamo	25	6	5	11	55
29	Nigel Auguste	64	45	39	84	8
31	Chris Halls-Hayes	35	0	0	0	0
36	Jean Whitney	12	3	4	7	0
39	Graham D'Anger	147	0	9	9	14
40	Marcus Cast	16	12	20	32	4
44	Pete Holecek	1	0	1	1	0
55	Paul Danis	33	5	9	14	6
67	Tom Lahtinen	5	4	3	7	0
69	Stig	15	8	12	20	27
71	Brandon Paluzzi	21	1	4	5	2
73	Milan Kocybala	27	19	23	42	53
74	Frank Bruce	6	0	2	2	2
78	Freddy Karlsson	9	2	3	5	0
79	Jeff Round	3	0	4	4	0
80	Daniel Shreim	7	4	2	6	0
83	Dan O'Dell	82	17	46	63	40
88	Mark Wells	77	5	19	24	0
89	Gavin Lattimore	5	0	1	0	2
90	Paul Denaeghal	11	0	1	1	22
91	Jamie O'Dell	25	6	9	15	6
93	Jason Ashworth	5	10	2	12	2
97	James Wood	50	80	61	141	8
	Glen Moorhouse	5	0	0	0	2
	Richard Jones	5	1	2	3	12

Slovakia Tour - Aug 2006

Jyri trying to drink the club dry of vodka.

An excellent trip saw the statesmen go to Slovakia for the first time in August 2006 to play games in Bratislava and Trencin. We got stuffed but it was fun and drank lots of pivo (beer). All organised by our friend Jo (http://www.hockeyline.sk/) who's chance meeting in his shop in Bratislava is how the tour came about and who's Slovak hospitality made everyone more than welcome.


We played in the main rink in Bratislava (home of HC Slovan (7000 seater)), watched the national team train before the first game, but no one wanted to kick them out of their changing room and Jan Lasak watched us for a bit but I don't think the scouts were too impressed. A very good standard of hockey was played the classic quote coming that the last game wasnt that good to watch but one of our players saying 'we watched a very good game' and the trip was rounded off with a well deserved trip to the spa (and waterslides), I dont think anyone would have been able to walk without it.