BRISTOL – UK The Bristol Pitbulls ENL2 got its season underway on Sunday facing the Slough Jets ENL2 side. As the fixture fell on September 11th and the tragedy of Yaroslav Lokomotiv happened only days before the opening face-off, the teams and the fans at Frogmore Street rink paid their respects to the victims and their families of both disasters by holding a minutes silence before
Courtesy of Flyfifer Photography
the game got under way. The minutes silence was concluded by a locomotive horn sounding throughout the rink, much like in the memorial service that was held in Yaroslav. Both Bristol Pitbulls and Slough Jets ENL2 teams were somewhat of a new look team. Both teams still maintained some of the players from last season, whilst bringing in a raft of talent. Last season saw the Pitbulls open its season against Slough Jets at the Hangar, but this year it was a bit of a role reversal. Both teams came out of the gate hungry and the first period saw plenty of fireworks in terms of hits and goals. The teams were evenly matched up until the midway point of the first period where the score was tied 1-1. After Slough Jets had tied the game, the Pitbulls opened the floodgates. Pitbulls were rolling four lines and was generating offense and pressure in the
Slough end of the rink. Following the game plan set out by coach Richie Hargreaves, the Pitbulls started getting the puck over the goal line in great fashion. The first period ended 5-1 in the Pitbulls’ favour. A few additional fireworks were seen as youngster Dan Mann, got into a scuffle with
Slough’s Lee Hardy.
Courtesy of Flyfifer Photography
In the second period Slough Jets came back re-energised and made sure that the Pitbulls were not getting away with an easy game. In quick succession, the Slough Jets scored two goals to make the score 5-3. As the momentum seemed to have shifted to
Slough’s direction the Pitbulls clawed a goal back and widened the gap between the two teams. The Pitbulls young players were putting on a good show for the fans, playing a hungry game and making sure that Slough Jets had their hands full both in the neutral zone and in the
Slough end of the ice. The second period saw Pitbulls skate off the ice with a 8-3 lead. The third period saw both teams take the game down a few gears and much of the intensity seen in the first and second had disappeared. Though both teams generated a lot of offense, Pitbulls seemed confident of the win and made sure that all efforts
Slough threw at Shannon Long’s net in the Pitbull end were turned away.
Slough did claw one back early in the third, to make it 8-4, which remained as the final score for the game.
Courtesy of Flyfifer Photography
Bristol Pitbulls ENL2 will face Romford Raiders at
Rom Valley Way on Saturday, whilst Bristol Pitbulls ENL1 will play their home opener in a double header weekend against the surging Romford Raiders on Saturday and Wight Link Raiders on Sunday. Contact the author:
janne.virtanen@prohockeynews.com
Twitter:
@amateur_hockeyRelated
You must be logged in to post a comment.