Disappointing Weekend for Northern Cyclones Seniors

Posted on December 3, 2008 at 10:17 pm by Clark Caughey

Sunday 31st November seen both senior Cyclones teams back in action in the NIIHA. The first team was up against the old enemy the Belfast City Bruins with a much depleted bench through the injury of 3 key players. Cyclones netminder Colum Miskelly faced a barrage of shots conceding just 4. Although the Cyclones dug deep and it seemed like a come back was on the cards when they scored 3 quick unanswered goals, but unfortunately the short bench took its toll and the Bruins killed the game off with about a minute left on the clock. Although this was a set back other results in the league so far this season mean that this blip isn’t as harmful as it could have been in previous seasons.

In the dressing room the disappointment was clear to see on the faces of the Cyclones as they wished the Cyclones “A” good luck in their game against Armagh Stars. A game that most people expected the Cyclones to win comfortably as they had played each other in the pre season. The Stars had other plans though, as they scored first in what at the time could have been described as against the run of play.

The Cyclones battled and piled on the pressure looking for the equalizing goal however a series of penalties from Chris Millar put the Cyclones “A” on the back foot. The penalty killers took to the court and played an effective defensive system, keeping the Stars to speculative shots from the high points.

One of these shots was deflected by the returning captain Gary Jackson, who instantly controlled the bobbling puck and played an inch perfect break out pass to Johnny Knox behind the stars defence, who deaked the goalie as he slotted home, continuing the proud Cyclones tradition of scoring shorthanded. Unfortunately the celebrations were short lived as the Stars instantly replied with a power play goal. This was the start of an eventual rout of a Cyclones team playing without a doubt their worst performance so far.

In the second period the Cyclones tried to mount a comeback putting the Stars goalie under a lot of pressure. They were rewarded at the mid point of the 2nd when Chris Millar made up for his early penalties by earning the primary assist on a one-time shot from alternate captain Clark Caughey.

The early lead built up by the Stars however proved to be too much for the Cyclones to pull back and a string of late penalties put the game out of reach as a well-disciplined Stars team ran up the score against a Cyclones team who appeared to be shell-shocked.

So all in all a weekend the Cyclones hockey would rather forget, but some important lessons to be learnt and every player is chomping at the bit to get back to training this Wednesday night to prepare for the next round of games and get back to winning ways.

Next Cyclones senior games are Sunday 14th December, both teams play Scottish team East Coast Lightening, and Cyclones “A” also take on Bangor Chiefs in the North Down derby.