Chelmsford weekend of excitement

The Iceman, Pete Lewis, was busy for Sporttrades this weekend as the Chelmsford ice hockey teams were all over the south of England. Here is his reports on the weekend's action:

A second period demolition job was done by the Chieftains in south London on Sunday night with 6 unanswered goals coming in the 20 minutes of play. An early goal from Blaho Novak on the powerplay gave the travelling Chieftains side a 1-0 lead heading into the first break. Novak had an eventful period as he also picked up a straight 10minute misconduct penalty for an incident after the whistle with Russell Stevens of the Redskins. For the majority of the period the Chieftains had the upper hand but the Redskins always looked like they had another level to go to to match up with the Chieftains, yet struggled to find that extra gear.

Will Sanderson held the Chieftains at bay in the Redskins net up until 6 and a half minutes into the second session until he was beaten by Ross Brears (Pictured, by Helen Fryer) notching the first of a hat trick. Just over half way through the game and Adam Copland notched a goal for the visitors and this seemed to open the floodgates. 4 goals in just over 5 minutes from Brears with his second, Jerry Pavlus, Darren Brown and Danny Hammond gave the Chieftains a 7-0 lead heading into the third and final period.

It was only 19 seconds old when Ross Brears stepped up and scored his 3rd of the night, much to the acclaim of his teammates. The game seemed to slow down a bit as time wound down, but there was still time left for Novak to round out the scoring at 53:57 to end the game at 9-0 after a good all round team performance.

Slovak Rudi Dzurko picked up the man of the match award for the Chieftains side after an impressive display on the blueline for the Essex side.

Head coach Dean Birrell said after the game "I was glad to get the scoring touch back again in the team. We did struggle before Christmas to find the net but to now have scored 31 goals in 5 games is quite pleasing and I am sure the fans are a lot happier. It's disappointing for me tonight to see my old team beaten like this, but I am coaching the Chieftains now and we can only play what's in front of us. I understand they picked up some injuries tonight and were missing a few players, but credit to the Redskins though as they made us work for the whole game and barring a bad patch in the middle period, they were making it tough for us"

Down in Avon on Saturday night, saw the Chelmsford Warriors in a tough game, made even more tougher with a shortened bench. However the team did themselves and their club proud by battling to a 6-4 defeat. With only two officials on the ice, the game was always going to be on tenterhooks and this game was no different as incidents were happening off the puck all over the ice and by the end of the first period Sean Martin and Ben Osborne were just about classifiable as 'walking wounded'. Ashlee Cave had also been ejected from the game for mixing it up with the Pitbulls.

The Pitbulls went 2-0 up before the end of the first period and the Warriors looked to be out of this feisty game, but the second period scoring was slightly unevenly split with the Pitbulls getting 3 more and the Warriors picking up 2 through Blaho Novak and Tom Foskett who were playing down from the Chieftains.

The third period was anyone's game, but the Pitbulls sneaked another goal and Novak got his second along with young Max Bennett to end the game 6-4 to the home side. Gary Brown took the honours for a man of the match performance for the Warriors. The small travelling band of Warriors fans were certainly not downhearted on their journey back from Bristol.

Back in Essex on Sunday night and it was another outstanding performance from the Warriors as they took on the Basingstoke Buffalo, who had come to Chelmsford full of confidence. The Warriors showed great mettle the night before in Bristol as they went down just 6-4 to one of the favourites for the title, but Lee Hounslow and his teammates made sure that the Warriors fans went away happy as he picked up both goals in a 2-1 win. The Warriors were leading for most of the game and it was only thanks to a third period goal from the Buffalo that made the final few minutes a tense affair.

The Warriors looked solid throughout and gave a good account of themselves, despite a lot of pressure from the Basingstoke side. The Buffalo were determined to snatch something from the game and battled right to the end, but to no avail as the Chelmsford second side held on for the two points.