Warriors³ taken down by the Comets
On Saturday 21st February 2026, our development team welcomed Cleveland Comets to Planet Ice for this BOTB Cup fixture.
This was our Warriors 3 team’s 4th game in the Bottom of the Barrel (BOTB) Cup having previously competed against Peterborough Warriors, Grimsby Trawlers and Bradford Ice Wolves.
Still searching for their first victory of the campaign, they now faced one of the competition favourites — the Cleveland Comets. The team knew it would be a tough challenge, but they were eager to take it on.
Netminder duties were to be shared between Rory Butcher and Kieran High, with the latter starting the game.
Dressed players:
Kieran High (NM), Rory Butcher (NM), Adam Szabo, Brendan Hullah, Charlie Tang, Connor Brocklebank, Dean Cadman, Freddy Monk, Gary Clough, Heather McCarten, Jonjo Marshall, Joe Quinn, Josh Moss, Paul Eaglestone, Philip Bradley, Phil Pearce, Stella Giwisser, Tomasz Molenda and Zach Huntley.
1st period:
The first period began as a very close affair with both teams feeling each other out.
But the Warriors made things harder for themselves when they picked up an early interference penalty at 02:20, meaning they were straight on the defensive.
Thankfully, they were able to kill off the penalty, but it wasn’t long before they picked up another minor infringement - serving 2 minutes for a tripping call at 07:45.
With this penalty also killed off, the team managed to stay out of the box for the rest of the period and were better positioned to be an offensive threat.
But, killing those penalties may have taken their toll, as the Comets had now found their groove - scoring twice within a matter of a few minutes. The first goal came at 06:10 and the second at 09:51.
The visitors now had a very commanding lead within the first 10 minutes and the Warriors needed to stop the bleeding. And with great effort and commitment, they did.
The Warriors stood firm and were able to keep the Comets at bay for the remainder of the period. They could now go into the first interval with the game still in reach. The team really needed this time to regroup and recharge.
Warriors 0-2 Comets
2nd period:
Fresh from the team-talk the team took their positions on the ice and were determined to get back into the game.
And within only 21 seconds of the puck drop, Warriors’ danger man Jonjo Marshall latched onto a loose puck near the edge of the opposition’s blue line and attacked the Comets goal, bursting into the slot where he managed to release the shot before being closed him down and the puck sneaked past the Comets netminder. This brought the score to 1-2. Great goal. Game on!
With renewed confidence the Warriors hoped to kick on from here, but the visitors had other ideas.
What followed was a goal frenzy where the Comets converted 3 goals within the space of 1 minute, 50 seconds. It was a game defining period of the game and a huge blow to the Warriors. It was now 1-5 to the Comets.
The goals were timed at 23:58, 25:07 and 25:48, so there was still a lot of the second period left to play. The Warriors needed to pick themselves up quickly to avoid this becoming humiliating - and thankfully they did.
The team were able to frustrate the Comets for the remainder of the period as it became a stalemate.
Warriors 1-5
3rd period:
Whilst realistically the game looked out of reach for the Warriors, the best case scenario was for them to get the next goal and try to swing the momentum back in their favour.
But soon after the puck drop they had to serve a 2 minute minor penalty for high-sticking (41:39).
Having killed this off, they continued to battle bravely, but the Comets, who didn’t take any penalties in the game, looked fresh and dangerous - and hungry for more goals.
Comets’ #89 picked up a goal at 46:01 to make it 1-6 and kill the game, and he followed that up with another just before the final buzzer (58:45) to round off the scoring and give us a final score of 1-7 to the Comets.
Final score:
Warriors 1-7 Comets
Points scorers:
Jonjo Marshall 1+0
Jonjo Marshall
Player of the game
Joe Quinn
Captain’s player of the game
Player of the Game, as selected by the Comets, went to our goal scorer Jonjo Marshall and the Captain’s Helmet went to Joe Quinn. Well played lads.
Our development team’s next game is back in the BOTB Cup in a few weeks. See details below:
Bottom of the Barrel Cup:
Sunday 22nd March 2026
Versus Grimsby Trawlers
Face-off @ TBD
@ Grimsby Ice Rink
For all Warriors development fixtures, please check this page : fixtures and results.
