Saturday’s fixtures are as follows:

09:00 – Cyclones A v Dublin Riot
10:20 – Cyclones A v Belfast Bruins
12:40 – Cyclones A v Kilkenny Storm
14:40 – Cyclones A v Blaze

09:00 – Cyclones B v Galway Lightning
11:00 – Cyclones B v Kilkenny Bandits
13:20 – Cyclones B v Cork Rebels
15:20 – Cyclones B v ECB

Downloads

Full Saturday Schedule
Full Sunday Schedule
Valley Vase Rules

After falling behind early the Cyclones dominated the remainder of the game. Defensively Glenn Norrie and Matthew Richey were solid, whilst goals from Nathan Dorrian, Shan McAteer, Stephen Eccles, Reece Floyd and Thomas McKinnon secured the 2 points that keep us in the hunt for the league championship.

On the back of another impressive season and 4 championships the Cyclones are nominated for “Sports Team Of The Year” and James Glover is nominated for the “Bruce Mulligan Award” for outstanding contribution to sport as a coach / official.

All of us at the Northern Cyclones are extremely proud of Glover’s achievement and wish him all the best.

The most notable of these changes involves former netminder Brian Morrow who has hung up his skates and taken over the reigns to become the fourth head coach in Cyclones history. Having first retired at the end of the 2007/08 season, Brian’s love for the team saw him back in the Cyclones goal only a matter of months after retiring. The two time NIIHA Playoff champion had originally planned to fill in for injury cover only but once again found himself as the starting netminder for a further two seasons before accepting the head coaching role at the end of 2009/10.

On the rink there has been a number of changes too. With Brian’s move to coaching, Steve Gilmartin returns to goal after injury with big shoes to fill as he steps into the vacant netminding position. Gone are forwards Mark Synnott & Chris Millar, who move stateside, as well as long time Cyclone Richard Grace, who lines up in the orange of Armagh this season.

The loss of 3 skaters over the break meant recruitment was one of Brian’s first tasks, adding puck moving defenceman David Clark from the Ballymoney Badgers and young Ross Gowdy from East Coast Blaze. Also new to the club are forwards Arnaud Dos Santos and Mikey Knox, older brother of Jonny, who provide added depth to the Cyclones bench.

As well as changes to personnel, the Cyclones were pleased to hear that their training sessions have returned to Bangor after spending the tail end of 2009/10 playing out of Banbridge Lesuire Centre.

So with a training slot secured, a new coach appointed, new players registered, new jerseys ordered and pre-season training underway the Cyclones look forward to shaking off the cobwebs and lacing up their skates for the new year. First up for the Cyclones are a pair of back-to-back friendlies with the Belfast Bruins on the 14th & 15th of September as they prepare for the opening weekend of the NIIHA season on October 3rd.

On Friday evening we assembled at Belfast City Airport bound for Manchester and the trip had officially started. As usual the parents were left to look after the bags and handle the serious stuff whilst the boys cleared off and done their own thing armed with enough games consoles and ipods that would need a small power station to keep them all going. As always we got a few strange looks as we checked in our kit bags (all these bags and your only going away for 2 days) and before you knew it we had arrived in Rotherham and were getting tucked into some massive steaks at the restaurant adjacent to the hotel.

Our first game on Saturday morning was against Caerphilly at 7am and despite the early wake up call I was out pacing the hotel car park at 5am with Grovesie and a massive can of RedBull, joined about half an hour later by the rest of the troops looking like something out of a zombie film. Thankfully that was shaken off quickly and when we got to the rink it was all business. Caerphilly like ourselves had a bit of traveling to do so we were happy enough with our first opponents.

Usually when u arrive at the rink in Northern Ireland u know what to expect from the team you are playing. You know how they play, what threats you need to be alert to and what players can cause you trouble. For the first time in a long time I didn’t have a clue what to expect from the other teams. From a coaching point of view all I could do was pick 4 players to be on the rink, wish them all the best and literally just wing it for a while.

Thankfully the boys had more ideas than I had and we took an early lead through Stephen Eccles that we continually added to throughout the game. Caerphilly caught us off guard a few times and bagged goals of their own but we managed to skate off with an 8-2 win, settling what nerves there were and providing a good foundation to build on.

The Hull Hurricanes defeated the Sheffield Raptors 3-2 in a tight game that was decided by a buzzer beater with only seconds remaining and then we were back on to take on the Farnborough Arrows. The Farnborough team were much more offensive than Caerphilly and put us under pressure from the start. However we had any amount of chances and took a two goal lead inside the first five minutes and went into the period break in the lead 3-1.

I don’t know if it was a lapse in concentration, over confidence on our part or divine intervention but in as many shots our two goal lead was blown out and we were down 4-3. We had plenty of time on our side to get it back but every shot was high off the glass or straight into the Farnborough goalie who was now visibly growing in confidence. With the clock ticking down we called a much needed time out, cleared our heads and concocted a plan to get back into the game, and almost instantaneously Nathan Dorrian fired into the bottom corner like we had talked about and the game was tied.

We were now back in the driving seat with chance after chance asking questions of the defence and netminder when Matthew Groves netted the game winner. Grovesie latched onto a loose puck following a save from the Farnborough keeper and slotted home from behind the net to secure maximum points with a 5-4 win.

Other games in our group finished with the Sheffield Raptors thumping Caerphilly 6-0 and Hull went down to Farnborough 5-1 leaving us sitting pretty as the only team in our group to have a 100% record at this stage of the tournament. Up next was the Sheffield Raptors and soon enough our streak was to be shattered.

The Raptors had a lot of quality in their team. Quality that was backed up by physical size and a game plan. In the first period we traded goals and went in at the break trailing by one but in the second period the Raptors gave us a lesson on how to play on the larger rink and stretch us out by playing a high man that was just devastating for us. Soon there was daylight between the scores and despite us netting a consolation near the end we suffered out first loss of the season going down 9-4.

The loss for the boys was obviously hard to take. Bodies sprawled out all over the changing room and red faces showed that they had gave their all, making it even harder to find fault is where we had gone wrong. Thankfully our next game was a few hours away, giving us an opportunity to head outside, get some lunch and regroup.

Our final group game was against Hull who had a mixed bag of results. They had already beaten the Raptors and Caerphilly earlier in the day and at the same time fallen 5-1 to Farnborough so we knew we had a game on our hands.

The boys took to the rink rejuvenated and exploded into an early lead going into the period break leading 3-1. It was pleasing to see the boys bounce back from the pervious game when they could have easily folded and thrown the towel. It was inspiring to see the effort that was being put in. Christopher Boyd was keeping things tight at our end whilst Ben Murdoch and Matthew McRoberts both netted goals at the other end which highlighted the team performance. We added a 4th goal in the second period and fought off a late resistance from Hull and rode on our luck a little to win the game 4-3.

After the game a few formalities had to take place to decide the final standings and draw up the quarter final knockout fixtures. As runners up in group A we were expecting to be drawn against a team from group B however it was our old nemesis the Raptors who we were drawn against.

Our quarter final game followed a similar outcome to our first encounter with the Sheffield team who progressed to the semi final with a 6-1 win. Our boys again started the game giving their all, however the Raptors were too strong and nearing the end of the game padded out the score. The Raptors fell to the Bruins in the semi-final, who would go on to be the eventual winners beating Farnborough in the final that faced off around 8pm Saturday evening.

The Bruins went undefeated throughout the day and were well deserved winners. The team was extremely well organised and had a strong roster capped off with a string of GB international players.

Final Standings: 1st Bruins, 2nd Farnborough Arrows, 3rd Sheffield Raptors, 4th Killamarsh Khaos, 5th Northern Cyclones, 6th Torbain Tigers, 7th Hull Hurricanes, 8th Cardiff Capitals, 9th Caerphilly

Top Points: Ben Ealey Newman – Bruins

Dream Team: K.Hickman (NM) – Farnborough, N.Taylor – Killamarsh, Z.Beesley – Farnborough, R.McEwan – Torbain, N.Dorrian – Cyclones & E.Armstrong – Hull.

With some of last seasons team on foreign work placements and others moving on Brian is currently setting about assembling a squad of players to challenge for trophies in 2010/11 and is looking forward to the challenge of coaching, both at practice sessions and behind the bench on game day.

The team comprising of Christopher Boyd, Stephen Eccles, Nathan Dorrian, Matthew Groves, Ben Murdoch & Matthew McRoberts are coming off the back of an unbeaten league and playoff campaign. With our NIIHA success and the fact that a number of our experienced players are in their last season at this age group, we have pulled out all the stops to make make sure we are there on August 7th.

The one day event faces off at 7:00am with the Cyclones taking on Caerphilly in the first game of the group stages. The Cyclones are seeded in Group A along side Caerphilly, Farnborough Arrows,  Sheffield Raptors and the Hull Hurricanes. Whist Group B comprises of Torbain Tigers, Killmarsh Khaos, Cardiff Capitals and the Bruins.

The competition will be a real test for the boys, one that we are all looking forward to and come Saturday evening who knows, perhaps Northern Ireland and the Northern Cyclones might be contending for their first BIPHA National Championship.