Belfast Home (05.11) (L), Manchester Home (06.11) (CC)

[IX2T311]

Well I can't see us getting anything from our league game this weekend, without Stewie especially, even with I think we'd struggle, it's the points against Manchester that I'd be more interested in taking away.

I'm never brilliant with looking forwards to fixtures and what we need, but as I understand it we need to win both of our games (Manchester then Nottingham) and we're guaranteed to go through? We're on 3 points with two games left, Cardiff have one game left and Manchester have two (one aside from us), being against each other.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if we win both our games we qualify, unless the Cardiff v Manchester game goes into over time?

[chunk]

As I understand it, we need to get at least 3 points from the game Sunday and the one in Nottingham to put us level on points with Manchester and Cardiff (who still have to play each other), but unless the win is in regulation then we'd be out on the first tie breaker anyway.

There's still a lot of different connotations, but if Manchester take a point on Sunday then qualification is no longer in our hands because, as you say, if the game in Cardiff went to overtime then we'd be out.

[chunk]

Full criteria is here:

1) Total number of points.

2) Total number of games won in regulation time.

3) Total number of all games won (regulation, overtime and penalties).

4) The results of games played between the relevant teams by applying points won, games won in regulation time, all games won (regulation time/overtime/penalties), in that order of priority.

5) Fewest regulation losses.

6) Using away games:- points won, games won in regulation time, all games won (regulation time/overtime/penalties), in that order of priority.

7) Goals scored.

8) In the unlikely event of teams still being equal, teams will be ranked by the drawing of lots. Any prize monies determined by the position in a league or group by this means will be shared equally by the tying teams.

9) Where a group of two or more teams is tied, then whenever a team can be eliminated due to the above order of priority, it shall be, by applying each of the above stages in order of such priority.

[takina]

And then there's me, still haven't quite managed to move the clock back an hour on the cooker yet .....

[chunk]

Now I've had a chance to have a better look at it. If we lose in OT on Sunday then Manchester will qualify with 8 points. We'd then only be able to reach 6 points with a win over Nottingham. In that scenario, were Cardiff to lose to Manchester it would go to tie-breakers, but we would only have 2 wins to Cardiff's 3, so even a win in regulation wouldn't see us through.

So, anything other than a win on Sunday and we're out.

If we win in OT Sunday then a point against Nottingham would take us level with Cardiff, but Cardiff would be ahead on tie-breakers (RWs), so we'd also be out. A win in this scenario against Nottingham would need to be in regulation to take us above Manchester on Wins (Level on 7 points and RWs) or we could hope Manchester beat Cardiff in regulation.

So realistically, anything other than a win in regulation on Sunday puts us out.

Win in regulation and then we could do with another in regulation against Nottingham to put us ahead of Cardiff and Manchester on points and RWs, so even a OT game in Cardiff would still see us through. Win in OT and anything other than a Manchester OT win puts us through with the winner. Were Manchester to win in OT they'd beat us on points (8), Cardiff would be level with us on 7 points, 2 RWs, and 3 Ws, but they'd go through as a result of our head to head record.

I *think* that's right

[IX2T311]

Nov 1, 2016 13:01:56 GMT chunk said:

Now I've had a chance to have a better look at it. If we lose in OT on Sunday then Manchester will qualify with 8 points. We'd then only be able to reach 6 points with a win over Nottingham. In that scenario, were Cardiff to lose to Manchester it would go to tie-breakers, but we would only have 2 wins to Cardiff's 3, so even a win in regulation wouldn't see us through.

So, anything other than a win on Sunday and we're out.

If we win in OT Sunday then a point against Nottingham would take us level with Cardiff, but Cardiff would be ahead on tie-breakers (RWs), so we'd also be out. A win in this scenario against Nottingham would need to be in regulation to take us above Manchester on Wins (Level on 7 points and RWs) or we could hope Manchester beat Cardiff in regulation.

So realistically, anything other than a win in regulation on Sunday puts us out.

Win in regulation and then we could do with another in regulation against Nottingham to put us ahead of Cardiff and Manchester on points and RWs, so even a OT game in Cardiff would still see us through. Win in OT and anything other than a Manchester OT win puts us through with the winner. Were Manchester to win in OT they'd beat us on points (8), Cardiff would be level with us on 7 points, 2 RWs, and 3 Ws, but they'd go through as a result of our head to head record.

I *think* that's right

Ah, thank you, this all looks right by inspection, so I'm going to take your word for it 

Has anyone heard anything more positive than 5-6 weeks on Stewart? Could really do with a bit of good news after the weekend...

[chunk]

Nov 1, 2016 19:42:11 GMT IX2T311 said:

Ah, thank you, this all looks right by inspection, so I'm going to take your word for it 

Has anyone heard anything more positive than 5-6 weeks on Stewart? Could really do with a bit of good news after the weekend...

Heh, I think I might've got muddled in the middle actually. A win in OT Sunday leaves us needing a win in regulation in Nottingham, but to say we're effectively out before we play the second game was going a bit far, we'd just be relying on the final game going against Manchester.

I've heard from two different people about Stewey - one said it was less than a month and the other said he would play this weekend (?!?). No reason to believe either of them, but until we hear something official there's bound to be a lot of rumours floating around. I'm hoping it's not as bad as it looks and we get him back soon.

[takina]

Would love to see Stewart back this weekend. Candidly don't see us getting much off Belfast either way but I do think having him ice would, at the very least, give us a fighting chance against Manchester

[IX2T311]

Essentially scrounging for all the games left to go the right way by the sounds of it then, not a good place to be to say the least.

So that makes three claims, 5 weeks (as of saturday), less than a month and this weekend. I'm liking to sound of that last rumour the most, I can't see us taking more than one or two odd points until we have him back, if that. We're not looking like a strong team even during our best games.

[IX2T311]

Well thank God we have Stewart this weekend, think we could essentially write it off otherwise. Sunday's game will be the good one in my opinion, I don't think we have enough in us to beat Belfast regardless of our netminder (unless he has a perfect game), we look like a one/two goal a game team and if our defence isn't good enough to prevent us from scoring more than that then we deserve to lose.

I'm sad to say it but we have to start performing soon otherwise we're going to begin to see some serious drop in attendance...

[breezerblaze]

Glad we're going to the skydome tonght and not a display.

Fireworks from the blaze tonight please.

[hidehi]

Well where did that come from? Improvements all over the ice.

[jen]

Fantastic game, players really stepped up also liked to see them protect Stewie! Same again tomorrow please boys.

[takina]

I hate custard.
If I had a hat I'd happily fill it with the stuff and eat it. Going into the game I couldn't see beyond another humiliation and I am really pleased for the Blaze tonight, they deserved that win and I hope the dressing room after the game was a much happier place than of late.

Can't imagine Walser will be anything but livid tonight, not a lot to be happy about, dumb penalty by Keefe to give us our first goal, dumb penalty by Forney towards the end to blow their pp and as for Higgins, well that was just a cowardly thing to do. If there's anything in British hockey more inconsistent than the Blaze, it's DOPS but hopefully they'll give Higgins what he deserves for that, I just hope that Noble is fit to play tomorrow.

Lots of positives for the Blaze, as jen said, great to see them swarming to protect Stewie and good to see Klotz getting extra ice time and a lovely goal, 2 goals for Venus and an unstoppable rocket from Godfrey who hardly put a skate wrong all night.

On the downside - no goals for our top 6 forwards again and sadly Bombis remains pretty close to invisible, for me at least his time is up. Right now Robinson couldn't score an ENG if he was the only player on the ice but 2 assists on the night isn't too shabby and hopefully a bit of a confidence boost

Tomorrow has the potential to be a really barnstormer, Manchester beating Nottingham will mean they are full of confidence and we really, really need the points tomorrow. If we play as well as we did today then we have every chance.

Well played Blaze, a real character performance tonight.

[breezerblaze]

Wow what a performance, when we left the house we were saying when was the last time we saw blaze win, reminding the little one that the #26 game didn't really count.

In the first period we did have a lot of the puck and did we only get three shots away in that 20.

Need to watch the change over a bit, giants forwards moved over to the penaly box at times and had the potrntial for a three on two.

Throughout the game I thought the Giants were picking out Noble a bit, sure there were a coulpe of sticks when the ref was looking wherever he looks and a couple of hits into the boards.

The players were protecting Stewart very well, speaking to him, letting the forwards know that they are there. Think they realise the have let down the netminder recently.

Got our shirts signed by #18 & #27 who always seems to want to have a 30 second chat while you are at the table.


Overall a promising performance.

[IX2T311]

Very happy with the Blaze last night, think it was an all round team win and you could see how pleased the players were to win a game. They deserved the two points and were dominant in -most- areas, think we had a few dumb penalties (eyes on Bombis at the start of the third) and a few too many overall, being 6 to 3 (excluding Higgins' nonsense), but equally so did they (with eyes on Forney throwing away a powerplay in the final 5). I'm fairly certain our 3 shots on goal in the first period must've been a misprinted 8 or 13? Is there anyone that counts the shots independently that knows any better?

I agree Noble was picked on a little last night, I don't know why but most other teams seem to have a dislike for him, and I think the incident with Higgins at the end was utterly disgraceful, you can watch it on the highlights just after 7:48 if you haven't seen it. Completely unnecessary and very dangerous, I hope he recovers for tonight.



I'm hopeful for a win tonight in honesty, I think last night's win took us out of a bit of a rut and maybe (maybe) we'll be looking back at this weekend in a few months time and say this is where we turned our corner.

Bergman really impressed me last night, I hardly recognised him, much more confident in carrying the puck and using some of his size, as did Godfrey and Venus, very happy with their performances especially. Stewart looked like he did that first season he joined us, unpassable, and I'd say he deserved a shut out in reality, at least he got MotM anyway. Klotz was slightly quieter last night but I'm still happy he scored a goal, clear fans favourite there if you ask me.

Still believe we could do with a few minor changes up front, goal scoring on our first few lines just isn't good enough, but hopefully we'll find a line that can work or we'll make our replacements sooner rather than later.

All in all, very good game last night and I hope that'll carry into tonight's game.

[jen]

Wow, where has this team been hiding? Can they play every week? Thought we looked slightly nervous to begin with but quickly settled. 4 point weekend, who saw that coming?

[takina]

Short benched or not I thought Manchester were lucky to score 0 .....
Fair play to them though they stuck to their task gamely all night and despite being hopelessly outmatched at least Neilson was up to the idea of trying to trigger something to get his team going but truth be told Blaze dominated every aspect of the game tonight.

Stewart has only conceded one goal in 120 minutes and 68 shots - that's a 98.5% save percentage.

Another all round strong team performance and Pietrus, as always, leading by example. Hopefully a happier and more settled dressing room and I'm sure Danny Stewart must feel a bit happier than this time last week. Big game looms on Friday against a stuttering Panthers but for the next day or so the team deserve to revel in a job well done this weekend, 4 really valuable points gained

[scott]

Game photos from both games in their usual place: www.scottwiggins.co.uk

[chunk]

Well, what a turn around that was!! Fantastic result!

It looked to me like Stewie finally got the support he needs from the players in front of him and he then showed just how good he is. That gave us a platform to build from and allowed us to stay calm when we pushed forward compared to the panic we've showed at times this season.

Hopefully this is just the start and whilst I'm still not convinced the top 6 is the finished article, hopefully that will start to come together too.

Massive game on Friday, but we've given ourselves a chance which was all we could hope for.