More Dissapointment For Chieftains

After losing their last 2 games to the Wightlink Raiders, the Chelmsford Chieftains needed to bounce back this weekend againgst the Oxford Stars. Here's the IceMan Pete Lewis's take on the game:

The Stars came at the Chieftains hard and early in this game and it seemed to throw the Chieftains off their game and the Stars took full advantage early on with a goal less than 2 minutes into the game when Alan Green and Andrew Shurmer were free in front of Ben Clements and Green slotted it home. The Chieftains hit back quickly though through Darren Brown who backhanded the puck high over James Skaife in the Oxford net. The period looked to be ending with the scores tied, but a mistake on the Chieftains defence left Dean Francis with space and he slotted the puck home with ease.

The second period started brightly and it was fairly even with both sides creating chances, but both netminders were playing well and shut a lot of chances down. Out of the two, Skaife looked the more vulnerable and gave up a lot of rebounds. However it was the Stars who extended their lead when Darren Elliot found the smallest of gaps at Clements's near post and the puck crept in.

The third period saw a traditional early goal and this time it was thanks to a lucky bounce after the puck looped high in front of Skaife and there was Aaron Connolly to poke the puck over the line thanks to some good work by Ross Brears to create the chance.

The two official system had worked fairly well up until this point however Rene Ross and Nick Stephenson began to blow up for a lot of infringements and both sides found themselves on the powerplay a number of times throughout the period. Things were bubbling along nicely and the tension was building and then the eruption happened at 56:56 when the puck was fired in on the Oxford net and it had bobbled around a bit and all three of Jerry Pavlus, Danny Hammond and Blaho Novak were digging at the puck and it appeared to have crossed the line off the crossbar. The crowd were delighted to see the team back in the game at 3-3, however the officials, after much protest from Oxford, then decided to overturn their decision and say the puck hadn't gone in and the game remained at 2-3.

Andrew Shurmer from the visitors then took a 2+10 minute penalty late on as frustration and tension reached boiling point, joining his team mate Richard Wojciak in the box also on a misconduct. After a bit of a scramble in front of the Oxford net, Paul Gore and BT Williams had words and the local hero floored Gore in one gloved punch, much to the delight of the Chieftains crowd and players who were buoyed by the re-energisation of the team. Sadly it was too little too late and the game played out with the home side suffering a 1 goal home defeat for the second week running.

After the game defenseman Reece Covington said "It's frustrating at the moment. We just can't buy a win. However you make your own luck and we've got to turn things around and soon".