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Guildford Flames
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2008-2009
 

The Flames opened 2008-2009, their 4th season in the EPL, as the reigning league champions after dusting off their 2nd league title in 3 EPL campaigns.  The competition during the 07-08 edition of the season was stiff, however, with the League, Playoff, Premier Cup and Knockout Cup trophies each collected by a different club. 

 

If onlookers failed notice the competitive nature of last year, it took little time into the new term to show that the previous year was not an aberration and that indeed the gap from the top of the table to the bottom was no longer a chiasm, but rather a hairline fracture.  After winning their first 3 starts, the defending champions went on a 3 game losing skid, including suffering their first ever loss to the Wightlink Raiders, the first of 3 consecutive defeats to the Island based club, and their first EPL home defeat by the Telford Tigers.  The confines of Spectrum that had on so many previous occasions been to the advantage of Surrey's team, proved to be difficult ground to open the season as the Flames won just 5 of their first 10 home contests.  By the New Year, though that particular record had improved dramatically, a 4-3 January defeat to the Romford Raiders and a 4-2 loss to Swindon Wildcats completed the signal of league parity with no team, either home or away, having failed to take points from the Flames. 

 

During the ups and downs of the very early going, the Flames were treated to a unique 'break' of sorts with a trip to Slovakia to represent the EPL and British ice hockey by taking part in an exhibition match in front of Queen Elizabeth on her first state visit to the country.  A 6-5 loss to Extraleague side HK Poprad could hardly tarnish the excitement and significance of the event before it was immediately home to EPL activity.  A 1-0 win over Bracknell Bees began a stretch over the coming months that saw the Flames advance to a 65% winning rate, and a take over of the top of the table from late October until the beginning of February.  Early in the calendar's shortest month, however, the impressive consistency of the Peterborough Phantoms moved the Cambridgeshire side to the summit, nudging the Flames a couple of points off the lead in the stretch run's final approach.   A pair of head to head wins against the Phantoms within the space of a week put the Flames back on top of the table, but that position was transient as the Phantoms finally overtook the league champions once and for all as February came to a close, ensuring there would be no league champion repeat for Spectrum's side. 

 

With a 5 win from 6 game record against the champions to be,   A Premier Cup semi final win over the Slough Jets, however, propelled the Flames to the Cup final where they would take on the eventual league champions.Surrey's team had as good a chance as any to collect the Cup.  A 4-3 home win in leg 1 made that possibility look all the more realistic heading to the concluding game.  Unfortunately, the Phantoms had other ideas and took just a few minutes into the 2nd leg of the aggregate final to take a multiple goal lead on their way to a 6-3 win, 9-7 on aggregate, to secure their second trophy of the season to go with the league title they clinched just a few days prior. 

 

Before leg 1 was nine minutes old the Essex side had a 3-0 lead and a very early finger on a ticket to the   The Flames were paired with the league's hottest team, the Romford Raiders, who opened the two game quarter final aggregate series on home ice where they were sporting a 13 game winning streak.  The new look playoff quarter final format, along with the league's proven ability for any team to win on any night, opened the door for all eight participating clubs.  With the 'Double' already safely in the Phantoms grip, the league had one last chance to derail the 'Treble Train' and the Flames had another opportunity to collect the playoff championship which had so far eluded them in their first three EPL seasons, all three of which advancement to the finals weekend had taken place.Coventry finals weekend.  Thankfully, for Flames fans, the visitor's offence sprung to life with 4 goals before the opening period closed and another couple late in the game to secure a 2 goal aggregate lead with a 6-4 win.  Back at Spectrum the following evening, a sold out building watched as the Flames booked their semi final slot with a 5-1 victory to tally an 11-5 aggregate win in advancing to the single elimination round in Coventry.

 

Unfortunately, a Lightning goal just 139 seconds from time knotted the score at two each, forcing overtime and eventually penalty shots where two goals in three tries for Milton Keynes overcame a pair of Flames misses to ensure that the playoff title would stay away from   If ice hockey matches were 57 minutes long, a place in the final would have followed.  seed Milton Keynes Lightning in the semi final.nd seed, the Flames were up against the 2rdAs the league table's 3Guildford for yet another season.   

 

The Lightning moved on to the championship game, but the train was already rolling and Phantoms completed the treble with a 5-4 win, in the process, shutting out all 9 other teams in the season's trophy haul.
 

League Table

Team

GP

W

OL

L

GF

GA

PTS

Peterborough*  54 38  13  275  166  79 
Milton Keynes  54 34  14  221  159  74 
Guildford  54 34  17  230 173  71 
Slough 54  31  21  217  179  64 
Bracknell 54 30  23  176  148  61 
Romford 54 27  24  197  259  57
Sheffield  54 22  27  187  202  49 
Swindon 54 23  29  157  194  48 
Telford  54 17 32  186  245  39 
Wightlink 54 14  38  189  321  30 
* League Champions
Premier Cup Table

Team

GP

W

OL

L

GF

GA

PTS

Peterborough* 18  13  88  54  27 
Guildford* 18 12  80  56  25 
Slough* 18  12  1   5   77  51  25 
Bracknell* 18 11  62  44  22 
Sheffield  18 63  55  20 
Telford  18 9   2   68  70  20 
Milton Keynes 18  59  58  18 
Swindon  18 53  54  18 
Wightlink  18 5 13  53  99  10 
Romford 18 15  48  110  5

*Clinched Semi Final Berth

Semi Final:
 

Leg 1:  Flames 1 Slough Jets 1
Leg 2:  Slough Jets 2 v Flames 4
(Flames win 5-3 on aggregate)

Leg 1: Bracknell Bees 1 v Peterborough Phantoms 2
Leg 2: Peterborough Phantoms 4 v Bracknell Bees 3 
(Phantoms win 6-4 on Aggregate)

Final:

Leg 1: Flames 4 Peterborough Phantoms 3
Leg 2: Peterborough Phantoms 6 Flames 3
(Phantoms Win 9-7 on aggregate)

Champions: Peterborough Phantoms
Playoffs

Playoff Quarter Finals:

(League table 1 v 8; 2 v 7; 3 v 6; 4 v 5)
2 Game Aggregate Series

Leg 1 at Romford:  Romford Raiders 4 Flames 6
Leg 2 at Guildford: Flames 5 Romford Raiders 1
(Flames win 11-5)

Playoff Semi Finals:

Peterborough Phantoms 4 Slough Jets 2  
Milton Keynes Lightning 3 Flames 2 (Penalty shootout)

Playoff Final:

Peterborough Phantoms 5 v Milton Keynes Lightning 4

Playoff Champion: Peterborough Phantoms

Player Stats
 Player GP G A P PM
Milos Melicherik 57 22 56 78 40
Lukas Smital 59 31 45 76 80
Taras Foremsky 53 33 37 70 78
Rob Lamey 60 25 34 59 20
Rick Plant 55 19 34 53 79
Stuart Potts 61 10 37 47 43
Ollie Bronnimann 60 21 18 39 16
Paul Dixon 57 7 30 37 32
David Savage 61 17 19 36 102
Vaclav Zavoral 46 14 18 32 215
Martin Bouz 26 12 15 27 32
Nick Cross 29 13 11 24 74
Neil Liddiard 60 7 17 24 96
Stephen Lee 56 11 12 23 61
Terry Miles 50 5 16 21 26
Rick Skene 52 3 11 14 80
Mark Williams 30 1 3 4 62
Ben Austin 61 1 3 4 16
Matt Hepburn 38 0 2 2 0
Callum Best 35 0 1 1 0
Joe Watkins 54 0 1 1 6
Andrew Sumner 1 0 0 0 0
Alex Mettam 9 0 0 0 0

Goaltender  MINS GA GAA Shots SV% SO
Joe Watkins 3232:21 169 3.132 1895 0.911 2
Alex Mettam 460:00 19 2.478 219 0.913 0

Looking Back

GUILDFORD FLAMES ICE HOCKEY CLUB
Guildford Spectrum
Parkway, Guildford
Surrey GU1 1UP

Tel: 01483 452244

Sportfact Ltd t/a Guildford Flames Ice Hockey Club registered in England number 2936656
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