Crisp has lucky escape for Bristol

BRISTOL, UK – Young Bristol Pitbulls goalie Michael Crisp is confident his side can overcome their poor start to the season.

  The mood at Frogmore Street will be a reflective one at training this week, as Coach Richie Hargreaves aims to regroup after three consecutive defeats over the last two weekends.   After a disappointing opening day 4-2 defeat to Cardiff, the Pitbulls must have fancied their chances of bouncing back 24 hours later in Milton Keynes against the Thunder. Sadly they were comprehensively beaten 8-3 by the Thunder, a team that struggled in this league last season.   Last weekend they were handed another tough fixture with a road trip to current play-off champions Bracknell Hornets. Despite putting up decent resistance, a 5-3 loss was not the score line the Pitbulls were hoping for; however the games’ main talking point was a bizarre injury to goalie Michael Crisp.   The 19 year old was taken off the ice with only 47 seconds gone, as a thunderbolt slapshot from Hornets Captain Dan Hughes sent the puck through Crisp’s cat-eye mask and into his right eye.   With the puck wedged into his mask, it was removed and fellow players were reportedly close to vomiting on inspection of the deep gash above his eye, and the copious amounts of blood flooding the ice pad at the Hive. “I can remember the whole thing from the shot, to it hitting my mask” admitted Crisp.   “I knew something was wrong when I noticed there was no rebound, and then my immediate reaction was whether I had any damage to my eye, which was the most important thing. Then of course I noticed the pool of blood on the ice”   Crisp was taken off for medical treatment and replaced by John Dibble in the Pitbulls’ goal. Thankfully the damage was not as bad as it could have been and Crisp doesn’t rule out using the same face mask in the future.  “In the end it was just an inch long cut above my eyebrow which I have had eight stitches in” explained Crisp. “Thankfully there’s no damage to my vision but there’s a lot of swelling around my eye. I can’t open it at the moment which obviously isn’t great. As for the mask, I won’t be using one for the time being but maybe in the future I will use one again”   It was a harsh introduction to life in a Pitbulls shirt for Crisp who will be sharing the netminding duties with John Dibble this season, unless the rumoured return of Matt Van Der Velden materialises. Crisp dropped two leagues this year after spending 2009/10 as a back up for the Elite League Cardiff Devils. To his credit, Crisp believes dropping down the league pyramid will improve his game.   “I joined the Pitbulls for a change of scenery to be honest” said Crisp. “I’ve played for Cardiff since I was an under 10 and then all the way through to the Elite league, so thought this was a good opportunity to develop my game further by playing a lot more games. Last year I only had two starts when I was back-up for the Devils so I felt this year it was important to get more game time and improve myself”   Despite the shaky start, the Pitbulls have a lot of experience in the roster and Crisp maintains that nobody is pushing the panic button and the team will improve as the season goes on.  “I have got a lot of confidence in the team to turn it around” said the nineteen year old. “We have all our players in now and training together, plus when you think about it most of the guys in the team have only played ENL 2 with the exception of guys like Arms (Alan Armour), Richie (Hargreaves) and Mike Hargreaves and myself, so naturally it takes a few games to get used to the difference in speed. It won’t take long for us to adapt and then push on up the league”   Bristol Head Coach Richie Hargreaves faces his old team Oxford City Stars in Bristol this weekend as do former City Stars Shannon Taylor, Alan Armour and Mike Hargreaves. If ever there was a more tempting fixture to grab the first win of the season it will be this one. The Pitbulls also play on the Sunday with a tough trip to Romford Raiders.           Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com