Chelmsford weekend round up

CHELMSFORD, UK – Saturday night saw the Chieftains make the long trip to South Wales to take on rivals the Cardiff ENL Devils. Goals were exchanged early on and the first period break saw the score at 3 a piece with the Chieftains goals coming from man of the match Sean Easton, Danny Wright and Richard Whiting. The referee Riddell was determined to start the pantomime season early and allowed a large number of clear infringements to go unpunished and tempers were definitely simmering as the second period began. Riddell was again at the centre of controversy at the 27:18 mark when he awarded the Chieftains net minder Andy Moffat a 10 minute penalty for asking Riddell why the team was not allowed an ‘equipment time out’ to fix the protective equipment that had broken on Moffat’s pads. Some time was spent getting the pads fixed, but not Riddell’s liking and he forced back up net minder Ben Clements in goal for a few minutes while running repairs went on off the ice on Moffat’s pads.

Corey Watkins slashed his stick at Jerry Pavlus on 34:11 and a melee ensued with Watkins trying to get at Pavlus, who had thrown a gloved punch in Watkins’ direction. Watkins was stopped from doing so by young Blaho Novak who showed he could stand up for his team mates and wasn’t afraid to get involved in the physicalities. Aaron Connolly stole some of the limelight from Novak on the 43:22 mark with a wonderful goal from inside the neutral zone that flew past a stationary Mike Brabon in the Devils net. Just over 6 minutes later and it was back to a tied game at 4-4 as Luke Piggott fired past Moffat, who had returned to the goal, after capitalising on a rare defensive mistake. At 55:09 an excellent pass from veteran Brent Pope allowed Steve Fisher to skate through the Chieftains defence with some outstanding skills and shimmy it past Moffat to notch the game winner. The action didn’t stop there though as scuffles broke out during the goal celebrations and Moffat took a minor penalty for slashing. Moffat was again involved in an altercation at the end of the game when him and his opposite number Brabon became entangled and it looked like the gloves would come off and a brawl would break out, but cooler heads pulled the two apart the handshakes continued with no further incident. Onto Sunday night and Chieftains struggled to break away from a resilient Oxford City Stars team although they did go into the first period break 4-2 up, having been 4-0 to the good. The goals came from BT Williams, Darren Brown and a brace from Danny Hammond with Dean Francis and Ken Forshee netting for the visitors. The Stars battled back into contention in the second period and Nick Oliver scored for Oxford to poise the game nicely at 4-3 going into the final period. Things heated up in the third and final period, even more so when Forshee notched his second of the night on 54 minutes to equalise and force a very tense last 6 minutes. The action wasn’t just limited to goals though as BT Williams and Darren Elliot had a scrap and Williams was the clear winner. Moments later and it was 5-4 when Jerry Pavlus did what he does best and pop up with a goal at vital moments. There was still time for more physicality though and Aaron Connolly and Richard Wojciak dropped the gloves and Connolly got the better of his Oxford counterpart. The game finished with the fans on the edge of their seats or standing and willing the Chieftains home and they did so much to the relief of the large crowd in attendance.The game was notable also for Richard Whiting becoming the all time highest appearance leader with a very impressive 490 appearances now in all competitions for the Chieftains. On the same night the Chelmsford Warriors returned to action from a few weeks break and struggled in Basingstoke after showing some early promise. The scores were level at 1-1 with Sean Martin netting for the Warriors after the first period. It was pretty much one way traffic from there on in, with the Buffalo proving why they are in contention for promotion with a domineering display of hockey which led them to an 11-3 win. Martin scored again and was joined on the score sheet by Craig Metcalf. The Chieftains travel to Oxford next Sunday in the return leg and then follow it up with a crunch game on the 6th of December against league leaders and defending champions and arch-rivals Invicta Dynamos. Face off for this massive game is at 6:30pm and it is sure to be an exciting and intense affair. Contact the author Pete.lewis@prohockynews.com