High Scoring Encounter For The Chieftains

After last week's great victory over the Peterborough Islanders at the Riverside, the Chelmsford Chieftains travelled to rivals Invicta Dynamos looking for a win to get their season back on track. The match at the Gillingham Ice Bowl was always going to be a tough one for the Dean Birrell's men, but they had played well there last month when they drew 2-2.

As ever SportTrades Iceman Pete Lewis was there to report on the game for us, here's his take on the game:

Andy Smith got the Dynamos of to a great start when he slotted past Andy Moffat in goal for the visitors after four minutes. It was a lead that was then doubled when Nolan Boike put away his first of the night to make it 2-0 but Chelmsford fought back to level terms by the break.

Ross Brears and James Ayling combined well to give Brears a simple finish. Brears (pictured) was hard-working all night and was a real thorn in the Dynamos side and was unlucky to miss out on the man of the match award, which went to Cheiftains hard man BT Williams. The game was tied moments later when Mark Williams made a howler of a clearance from the Dynamos zone and passed the puck straight to Danny Hammond who shot the puck past Joe White to level the game.

Early in the second the hosts went ahead once more with Boike getting his second of the game. Moments later a large scuffle gathered at centre ice with Jerry Pavlus and Mark Williams exchanging new years wishes, followed by large numbers of both teams also joining in the festivities, or so it looked!

Once Williams left the penalty box for his roughing penalty he rifled home a goal thanks to Boike winning a face off in the Chieftains zone. It was 5-2 just over the half way mark when Boike netted his hat-trick goal. The Chieftains were in disarray now and the rampaging Dynamos were going at full force and it became 6-2 thanks to Elliot Andrews netting on the 37:43.

As the players left the ice at the end of the period, there was some words exchanged in the locker area and the next thing the fans knew were that announcement’s were made for security to attend the changing area as there were scuffles breaking out between players outside the locker rooms. Things were diffused though by cooler heads and the officials stepping in and both sides returned the ice for the third period with no further incident.

The third period started well for the Dynamos as they made it 7-2 two minutes into the half. Andrews netting his second of the game following good work from Boike who skated past his marker before laying off a great pass which set up the goal. The large numbers of travelling fans were silenced by the 5 goal deficit and it appeared that it was a case of damage limitation. Thankfully Darren Brown was having none of it though and brought the score within 4 goals with a nice finish minutes later. With around ten minutes left the home side switched net minders and Shane Kemp came in for the Dynamos.

Kemp has been known to struggle and it showed early on as the Chieftains took the game by the scruff of the neck and 2 quick goals from Brears and Danny Hammond brought the scoreline to 7-5 with just under a minute to play. Coach Dean Birrell made the decision to pull Moffat for the extra skater to try and get a sixth goal for the Chieftains but it backfired as Andy Smith netted in the unguarded goal to make it 8-5 with around thirty seconds to go.

After the game Birrell said “We had a bad second period and that’s what cost us. We competed at times, in the third particularly, but that’s not taking anything from Invicta. There were some good individual performances tonight, particularly from Nolan Boike who scored 3 and set up at least 4 others. Games like that from imports will always make it tough for any side to compete. From our side there were some poor performances from individuals tonight”. Next up for the Chieftains is an away trip to Haringey Greyhounds who have struggled towards the foot of the table for much of the season.

Meanwhile back in Essex, the Chelmsford Warriors hit 10 goals past a lacklustre Lee Valley Lions in a 10-3 drubbing of the East London club. Adrian Woodyard was amongst the scorers again and deservedly picked up the man of the match award.

In other news, the Chieftains have announced a a mutual partnership agreement with LDN Wrestling. The agreement will see both sides promote each other. LDN Wrestling is one of the UK’s fastest growing wrestling promotions and are intent on bringing back the “Golden age of British wrestling” when people like Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks and Kendo Nagasaki ruled the squared circles up and down the country. They are based in London and the south east and the promotion regularly pulls in 300+ fans at their events.