The 2024 British Para Ice Hockey League season came to a close last month, as the Manchester Mayhem finished fourth in both the standings and in the post-season playoffs, writes Peter Bradbury.
This culminated in defeats against both the league champions and the runners-up too in the 3rd/4th place playoff in Nottingham.
Before Manchester faced off in their opening league match of the season, it saw them playing an exhibition game against the GB Women’s team at Widnes, where the Mayhem chalked up a comprehensive victory ahead of the new season.
Their opening league game saw them facing a much improved Peterborough Phantoms side that included the returning GB International Gary Farmer in its line-up, but it was the Phantoms’ Jamie Hutchcraft who proved to be the difference maker on the day, as the forward netted twice to condemn Manchester to a 4-1 defeat.
A 4-1 loss was a bit of a skewed margin in truth, as Manchester played far better than the scoreline shows, and if not for Dan Lee having yet another stormer against Manchester in the Peterborough nets, then it could have been a home win on another day.
Sadly, the game also saw a trend that ran throughout the Mayhem’s year of little errors, bad bounces, and failing to take their chances being the difference between wins and losses.
Netminder Darren Pomfrett finished with a 2.88 GAA Credit: Roksana Oniszczuk
A week later, Manchester played their first road game of the season against the playoff champions in Sheffield SteelKings, where the hosts took an early lead through player/coach Jake Oakley after the opening period. Anthony Booth levelled things early on in the second period, but unfortunately, Manchester couldn’t contain the SteelKings and saw the South Yorkshire side score four answered goals to record a 5-1 victory.
Eight days later, the Manchester Mayhem recorded their first win in 644 days, as they faced Sheffield’s development side in the SteelStings, and ironically, it was the last side that they beat.
For once, everything came up Milhouse and saw the Mayhem take a 3-0 lead after the first period, where Karl Nicholson scored either side of Fliss Gregory’s effort, as Gregory’s goal was her first-ever Para goal in her career.
Further strikes from Anthony Booth in the second and third finished the job, as the Mayhem recorded a 5-0 win and their first shutout since beating their opponents in the 3rd/4th playoff game at the 2022 playoffs weekend.
Next up was a return fixture against the Peterborough Phantoms down in Cambridgeshire, where a nightmare opening period saw them three goals down after a double from Gary Farmer and an effort from Jamie Hutchcraft looked to put the game to bed real early.
However, the visitors rolled their sleeves up and showed their battling qualities to put the game back in the balance at 3-2 down after the second period, with Karl Nicholson grabbing a brace.
The ice seemed to be tilted, with all the goals in the game being scored towards the Zamboni end, and while Dan Lee kept the Mayhem shooters out, it saw Gary Farmer complete his hat trick with two goals to give the title-chasers a 5-2 win.
Manchester saw the Sheffield SteelKings coming to town, and it proved to be a frustrating game for many reasons.
Connor Grocock gave the visitors an early lead courtesy of a power play goal, but that seemed to spark the home side into life, with the Mayhem dominating the period and goals from Karl Nicholson and Dean Lahan putting them 2-1 in front.
Sheffield regrouped in the second, and Manchester was left fuming when not only did a call not come after Anthony Booth was taken out, but it saw the Mayhem player sustain a rib injury on the play.
Play in the third seemed to unravel for the Mayhem, as another power-play goal by Connor Grocock saw him level the game at 2-2 until a bad bounce saw the puck get stuck under the sledge of Captain Mark Colquitt and saw Jake Oakley dispossessing him and netting the winning goal with less than four minutes to go.
Karl Nicholson Mayhem’s top point scorer with 19 points (18 goals, 1 assist) Picture: Hagonova Photos.
It was a game that saw Manchester having plenty of chances but failing to put the puck in the back of the net and that is what cost them
Six days later, the Mayhem confirmed their playoff spot with a second shutout win over the Sheffield SteelStings, this time in a 6-0 win, with Karl Nicholson scoring all six goals in the match.
Their remaining two games were against the league champions, where firstly the Cardiff Huskies came to Widnes and saw Anthony Booth putting the home side ahead, but yet again Manchester gave up the lead, with Tyler Christopher in the second and Paul Furber in the third giving the Huskies a narrow 2-1 win.
They closed out the regular season with a trip down to South Wales to face Cardiff, where the Huskies were still chasing a third straight league title and knew a victory would put them in pole position to win it again.
Things got pretty grim with nearly ten minutes played for Manchester, as goals by Tyler Christopher and Jon Le Galloudec put the Huskies 2-0 up and saw the Mayhem struggling to create attacks.
But much like the Peterborough away game, Manchester showed their battling qualities again, with Karl Nicholson scoring twice on either side of the first break to make it all square at 2-2.
Unfortunately though, just like that Peterborough game, their opponents had another gear to go up in and saw Tyler Christopher scoring twice to complete his hat trick in a 4-2 win.
Come the postseason, it saw the sides renew acquaintances again in the first semi-final, where Manchester led twice through Karl Nicholson to go 2-1, with the Huskies pegging them back at 2-2 with Tom Kimm giving the Mayhem a 3-2 lead at the break.
In third, it saw Cardiff showing why they were champions as they came back to win 4-3 late in the game with Tyler Christopher scoring twice to deny Manchester a trip to the playoff final.
Sunday saw a high-scoring 3rd/4th playoff game between themselves and Peterborough, where Rob Allen levelled for the Mayhem early doors before the runners-up in the league began to blow away their opponents – leading 6-1 early in the final period.
Manchester tried to rally back, as Karl Nicholson scored a hat trick to cut the deficit to 6-4, with Callum Shakespeare making it 7-4 moments later.
On the whole, it was a positive year for the club after the write-off that was 2023, as two wins, a playoff spot, and a fairly inexperienced team that is still learning can only bode well for the future. I caught up with the head coach of the Manchester Mayhem, Pete Hagan, and asked how he saw things from the bench this season: “We built on last year, and the results didn’t always indicate the performances & a bounce here or there, and a few results could’ve gone a different way, which was encouraging.
“It was the closest league we’ve had, with the title going until the last game, and everyone had chances to get the wins, so a great season for all.
“Unfortunately, injuries derailed our season at the end, but we’ve identified a few things to work on ready to grow in 2025.”
TEAM STATS:
Top scorer: Karl Nicholson (19 points)
Top Goalscorer: Karl Nicholson (18 points)
Top Assists: Felicity Gregory (5 assists)
Top Penalty Taker: Mark Colquitt (16 PIMS)
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Cover photo: Manchester Mayhem 2024 – Photo: Roksana Oniszczuk
