Good Results For Chelmsford

Pete Lewis Reporting:

The Chieftains headed to Oxford to take on the City Stars in what was potentially their toughest game so far this season. The game started off in interesting fashion when notorious referee Blaine Evans sent Rudi Dzurko from the ice to have his chin strap sorted out before the first puck had dropped. It was expected that Evans would continue in the same vein all night long and to be fair other than some meddling in face off infringements and a few questions to players about their kit he called a good game. It wasn’t until the second period before the first goal was scored when Danny Wright fired through a crowd of players in front of the Oxford net when the Chieftains were on the power play and scored for the visiting side. Nine minutes later the Stars had tied the game up when Ken Forshee put Abu-Saada in and he scored his third goal in 2 games for the Stars.

The game was very open and heading into the third period it could have gone either way. The Stars began to tire first and the Chieftains maintained their pressure on the Stars net and eventually forced a goal through man of the match Danny Hammond. The Stars didn’t give up the fight and tried everything they could to get back in the game but Andy Moffat stood firm in the Chieftains net and made some quality saves. With under a minute on the clock the Stars pulled their net minder for an extra skater to put more pressure on the Chieftains goal and defence. However it was their undoing as the powerful Hammond and Novak combined to send star forward Jerry Pavlus through to score the empty net goal with 2.2 seconds left to play.

Speaking after the game Dean Birrell, Chieftains coach, had this to say “It’s never an easy place to come to and to come away with a win like we did is very pleasing. They gave us a real test tonight and were not easy to break down. Pre-season I said that Oxford would be one of the dark horses in the league and on tonight’s showing I stand by that. Having said that, the youngsters on the Chieftains side really stepped up to the mark tonight and it’s testament to their ability and dedication to the cause that they did that. It bodes well for the long-term future of the club that we can produce young players that stand up like they were tonight when we were missing key players for one reason or another”.

Meanwhile back in Essex the Chelmsford Warriors were up against one of the contenders for the league the Invicta Mustangs. An early goal from Max Bennett ensured that at the first break the Warriors were 1-0 to the good. The Mustangs showed their class in the second period though and fought back to take a 4-2 lead into the next break with a Ben Osborne strike in response for the Warriors. The third was all Warriors as they battled had to try and rescue something from the game and the chances the Mustangs had were stopped by the excellent Andrew Brummitt in the Warriors net.

Ricky Mills and Watson combined to tie the game with 7 minutes on the clock. Time was running out and both sides were throwing everything at the other to take something from this game and then a penalty was called on Invicta leaving them down a player going into the last minute of the game. The Warriors benefited on this with an Adrian Woodyard strike with 55 seconds left to win the game for the Warriors to the obvious delight to the crowd and players who knew that they had seen a game of epic proportions in how the game changed direction so often and at one point looked gone from the home side’s grasp.

Both sides have a weekend off this weekend but the Chieftains return to action with what will be a tough away game in Cardiff on the 31st, followed by an equally tough home game on the 1st V Wightlink Raiders. The Warriors face the Solent and Gosport Devils on the 31st at the Riverside with a 5:30 face off.