Chieftains game ends early through injury

CHELMSFORD, UK – The Chieftains dominated this game from early on right through until the early finish. The Greyhounds had the measure of the Chieftains for a short period early on, but then the Essex side took control of the game. On 8:31 Danny Hammond finished off a nice move from Jerry Pavlus. About 6 minutes later and it was 2-0 when a cheeky shot from Sean Easton on the halfway line flew past James Tipple set the tone for the rest of the period and match. Ross Brears followed up a few minutes later with his first of 2 goals on the night when the sides were playing a 4 on 4 session of hockey. The second period continued in the same vein with Brears getting his second of the game and then a procession of goals from all over the ice put the Chieftains 8 goals to the good. Blaho Novak, Rich Whiting, Alex

Green and Jerry Pavlus all found their scoring touch to give the Chieftains a convincing 8-0 lead going into the second break. Ben Clements in the Chieftains net had barely been tested up until this point, having only faced around 12 shots in the 2 periods, but when called upon he pulled off some solid saves late in the period. Along with Brears, Green and James Ayling,  he was in contention for the man of the match award. At the other end Tipple had been subjected to over 40 shots, emphasising the sheer dominance of the Chieftains over their north London rivals. The Greyhounds decided to change goalies at the end of the period and changed Tipple for Laura Saunders. Saunders had only been on the ice for just over 2 minutes when a Pavlus shot went just wide and as she turned to see where it had gone she was caught accidentally by Hammond and she went down with a suspected spinal injury. Play was stopped immediately and an ambulance called and after she was treated on the ice for about 15-20mins the officials took the decision to award the game as 8-0 to the Chieftains and no further play would take place. Laura left the ice in a conscious state, but strapped to a stretcher with her head and neck held in place. It wasn’t too much later that word came through that Laura had been released from hospital with soft tissue damage and looks set to make a fully and fairly speedy recovery, which all at the Chieftains and those in the hockey world are grateful for. Speaking after the game had been awarded, Chieftains coach Dean Birrell had this to say “No-one wants to end games in that manner or see injuries like that happen. Sad fact is hockey is a dangerous sport and players do get hurt, but my best wishes and those of the team go to her and the Haringey organisation at this time”. Moving on to hockey matters, Birrell continued “We were definitely much improved tonight and with the game going the way it was, I felt we were going to be on for a big score line tonight. We were creating a lot of chances and putting a fair number of them away. Half the battle in hockey is creating a scoring chance and we did that with regularity. It was a definite improvement all round from what we’ve seen in recent weeks”.  The Chieftains return to the ice this Sunday as they take on the MK Thunder in a tricky game. The game will also feature 2 of the stars of LDN wrestling making an appearance at the game to promote a forthcoming wrestling event in Chelmsford. Contact the author Pete.lewis@prohockeynews.com