This one was never going to be pretty as the traditionally short benched Penguins travelled to Coventry on Saturday with an even shorter bench than of late with netminder Steph Owen and influential captain Clare Ledbury both unavailable. That left the girls down to just nine skaters with Carmel Buttimer having to once again stand in as netminder …… that compared with seventeen skaters dressed for the home side !
Despite having less than two lines, Penguins competed well until the energy levels inevitably started to drain. Coventry had gone 2-0 up by 4:53 but Georgia Whittemore pulled one back, assisted by Sara Dawson, for 2-1 and it remained a one goal game until just over 13 minutes when the home side scored twice in a minute to go 4-1 up with a late goal bringing the scores to 5-1 at the first buzzer.
Eighteen seconds into the second period and Penguins dropped to just eight skaters when Georgia Whittemore was called 2+10 for slashing and by the time she returned to action, Coventry were skating away with a 9-1 scoreline. The period finished 10-1 and a 19-1 shots on goal advantage over an exhausted Penguins in the final period secured a 15-1 scoreline by the final buzzer.
Spirit of the Game award went to Penguins stand-in captain Rebecca Gillman.
Earlier in the season, Penguins drew 1-1 with the Phoenix at Bretton which shows that they are more than a match on a level ice-pad but that result came with nearly three lines of skaters as opposed to the less than two lines who bravely wore the shirt at the Skydome. Quite simply, Penguins need more players so if you can skate and you love ice-hockey then this is a great bunch of girls to share that love with so please get in touch, get in the shirt and help lift the Penguins up the league table.
Penguins are back in action at Bretton on Saturday when they take on the Oxford Midnight Stars, face-off 6:15pm.
Game stats HERE