aware & novotel earn opening night shl victories

​​The 2018-19 Sport Corner Siam Hockey League (SHL) season opened to much fanfare, some guest VIPS and a huge AWARE cheering section. 
The first game of the night was a replay of the SHL championship last March which Hertz won by upsetting heavily-favoured AWARE 5-3 in a winner-take-all one-game final.

When the game started, AWARE came out flying, cheered on their exuberant fans. Wave after wave of red-shirted skaters peppered Hertz keeper Dream Ungkulpattanasuk with shot after shot. But his team, emboldened by his performance, managed to take an early 2-0 lead on goals by Patrick Forstner and Andy Brine, last year's SHL scoring champion.

AWARE's Christian Olofsson's penalty for a centre-ice hit seemed to spark his team as they were trailing 2-0 at the time of his infraction. They went on to score five unanswered goals to win 5-2 while outshooting Hertz 36-19. Aaro Vuorma, who drove in from Pattaya with Matt Sigel to substitute for AWARE, scored twice, earning player-ofthe-game honors; Harrison Oztemel, Phu Suwachirat and Devin Michael also scored for AWARE.

The second game saw the Novotel Spitfires defeat TRUE 5-3 backed by strong goaltending from substitute Gabor Toth, who stopped 11 of the 14 shots he faced, while replacing the injured Yves Gaboriault. His counterpart in the TRUE twine, Lance Parker, also had a strong game stopping 19 of the 24 pucks fired at him.

Corry Day, in his Novotel debut, said he was channeling six months of frustration from last season's SHL final where while playing for AWARE he faced Lance Parker and Hertz in the championship final. Lance delivered the game of his life leading Hertz to their upset championship win.

So, Corry took all that seething, and connecting with his new linemates Michael White (goal and two assists) and Brandon Vick, scored a hat-trick and added an assist for a four-point opening night.

Captain Mike Wilson had a strong game for TRUE with a goal and an assist while teammates Jordan Ashton and Peter Borjesson each chipped in a goal and an assist.

SHL action take place at the Rink, 7th floor, Central Grand Rama IX, and admission is free; check out the schedule at www.siamhockeyleague.com
For the SHL preview podcast go to: https://youtu.be/huNYrKCW9Rs