Banners On The Road – Guildford Lightning vs Queen Bees IHC 18/05/24

WNIHL Elite League

Guildford Lightning 0-5 Queen Bees IHC

Lightning:

Queen Bees: Cartwright, Gale, Egri, Stautz, Wallace

All hail: I am guilty, like many places are, of not giving women’s hockey the attention that it deserves. I always put it down to a lack of time and then, because other people are giving it its due, I don’t try to pretend to be as good an advocate of the game for women as some.

However, with time on my hands and after a couple of weeks away from the rink, I decided that one more game for the season wouldn’t hurt.

Having seen enough hockey in Guildford this season, I decided that a local derby with the Queen Bees was a reasonable enough game to go for. Then it emerged that if the Queen Bees won the game, they were league champions. That was enough to book my journey up the A31 and get an education.

After winding my way through the Spectrum to ice level, and being eventually joined by perineal results machine, Andrew Day, something wasn’t sitting quite right. Things in the WNIHL are done differently. I was aware of the 5 minute warm up and the lack of an ice cut between the first and second but there was something else. It was the lack of music and announcements that got me. It also made following the game quite tough at times. Goals were scored and between Andrew and I, we did have to make some educated guesses.

The puck dropped and it was immediate pressure from the Queen Bees. The hosts seemingly caught in the headlights a bit and were behind early as a result. GB international forward, Rachel Cartwright took an early pass, cut off of the right wing and fires, beating Lightning netminder Mali Easton blocker side inside the first two minutes.

The visitors were dictating the entirety of the game. The pace, the tempo, the puck possession, it felt like Guildford couldn’t get a handle on the game, only being denied from scoring more by Easton and arguably not being as clinical as their skill level made this writer believed they could be.

It felt that a second goal was inevitable and eventually, midway through the first period, it came. A flowing move through centre ice saw a pass flash the front of the net, Easton was unable to corral the puck but Ellie Wallace was on hand to stuff the puck home for 2-0.

When the third goal came six minutes later, it was not much of a surprise but how it happened was. The pattern of the game had been relatively formulaic; Guildford would weather another Queen Bees attack and would usually clear the zone before inevitably losing the puck and furiously needing to defend again. However the one time they seemingly struggled to clear the zone, everyone blinked and Katherine Gale was alone in front of the net with the puck. Gale proceeded to drag Easton down and dangle around the Lightning goalie to make it 3-0.

As the first period ended and the players gathered around their benches (there’s no ice cut between the first and second in a lot of women’s games), the writing appeared to be on wall in terms of the league title bar a minor miracle. As the second began, the Lightning did make an initial improvement in terms of their overall play and chances. However that initial surge woke up the Queen Bees and they went back to smothering their hosts. Eventually a fourth goal went in. From my perspective, Ellie Wallace dangled through the defence to slot the puck through the five hole of Easton but the goal was given to Megan Stautz.

The ice cut between the second and the third gave everyone a chance to regroup and the Lightning swapped out netminders as Kiera Waddington took her place between the pipes.

The Queen Bees went into game management mode, seeing their goal coming into sharp relief. They were happy to let the Lightning make more of the running, The hosts were absorbing the forecheck and leaving the lone forward on the red line or even the opposition’s blueline for the stretch pass. This worked, the pass made it but the Queen Bees left Abbie Sylvester or Amelia Williams marking the forward.

Time ticked down on the game that had wound its way to its long decided end. The Queen Bees had won the WNIHL Elite League title in comfortable style.

The Guildford Lightning deserve a lot of credit for sticking with this game. Games like these are hard to play in at times. You’re playing a team that isn’t just title challenging but can win the title that day. It was also very clear early on that the Queen Bees were not just determined to win but were a class above. It’s hard to know what to do. So what did they do? They kept going. It wasn’t a case of give up and capitulate but put one foot in front of the other and do what they could.

Mali Easton and Kiera Waddington made a good fist of it in goal, Easton in particular in the first 40 minutes made an array of decent stops. Mila Pironi looked clearly worthy of her recent plaudits and I was impressed by the work ethic of Anja Kadijevic, Eloise Porter and Mai Sullivan. The game plan was clearly swapped to counter attack pretty early but there just wasn’t enough attacking bite to do anything with on the day.

The Queen Bees are WNIHL Elite League Champions and, even with my uneducated level of women’s hockey knowledge, I can see why. They are superb. They controlled the game from the first minute to the point I wondered if Amelia McGinley would get caught cold as she wasn’t being kept active.

Rachel Cartwright and Ellie Wallace are alarmingly talented and looked a level above the rest of the game. All 5 goal scorers took their goals well, particularly Katherine Gale who showed superb hands to beat the keeper. It was a consummate and professional performance from the now champions to push themselves away from the opposition and keep them well at arms length.

Does it make me want to go to more women’s hockey? Yes, because I’m now intrigued to see the differences between more of the sides. I’m intrigued to see the Queen Bees when they’re challenged more. I’m intrigued to see the Lightning in a game where things are closer. I want to see where the other teams stack up. Such is the joy of hockey, quality and fun knows no gender, and quality knows only one measure. Congrats to the Queen Bees. Now for the playoffs.

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