Pitbulls ENL2 come out pointless from Lions’ den

BRISTOL, UK – The nation’s capital is full of extraordinary sights, well that’s what Bristol Pitbulls ENL2 team discovered en-route to Lee Valley. As the Pitbulls’ coach took the scenic route it was a close call whether the Pitbulls had to forfeit the game as only five Pitbulls players had made it to Lea Bridge Road and with time ticking down to warm up it didn’t look good. Several of the Lions’ roster and management frequently checked-in on the status of the visiting team and tried to buy extra time where possible, clearly keen on having a game as opposed to a 5-0 forfeit.
 
However, the coach arrived just in time, leaving the team to do a Clark Kent-esque change into their gear and get whatever warm-up they could. Some of the players managed to warm up for as much as 8 minutes with a few players only stepping on the ice when the buzzer sounded the end to the warm-up.
 
The lack of warm-up led to Lee Valley taking command of the game quickly and within two minutes of play the Lions were up 2-0, while the Pitbulls were trying to get their legs in the game.  However, after a couple of shifts and the Pitbulls rolling their full roster, the tempo and control of the game started to turn for the Pitbulls team and it soon got a break on a power play when Paul Davies found the back of the net straight from a face off. Encouraged by the goal, the Pitbulls started to look for more offence and soon tied the game to 2-2 with another power play goal, this time from Adi Smith, whose shot took a funny bounce of the Lions’ goalie Ruth Cattell and found its way to the top corner of the Lions’ goal.
 
The two teams were evenly matched and the second period saw the Pitbulls claim the lead on yet another power play, with Paul Davies netting his second of the night. However, the Lions were not done and soon the game was tied again, after a tic tac toe passing play from the Lions to bring the score to 3-3. Pitbulls added goals from Adi Smith and Jamie Chillcott with the Lions coming up from behind to tie the game to 5-5 to end the second period. 
 
 The person who was possibly most frustrated on the ice was Pitbulls’ forward Luke Curtis. Having already registered one assist, Curtis got to celebrate scoring a goal twice, only to see the referee spread his arms to sign that the goal was disallowed.
 
The third period saw both teams frantically chase the go-ahead marker. Things started to unfold midway through as Pitbulls’ Chris Moore received a questionable penalty following a open ice hip check. What made the call controversial was that the referee didn’t raise his arm directly after the hit but only made the call after circling back and seeing a Lions’ player laying on the ice.
 
Whether it was a referee mistake or not, the call was costly to the Pitbulls as the Lions ripped a slapshot past Pitbulls goalie Craig Sutherland, not 10 seconds into the power play. Further controversy was caused by the referees call as moments later Ian Clark put an identical hit on the one of the Lions players and this time the hit was deemed clean with nothing wrong with it.
 
Despite frantic pressure by the Pitbulls and being ahead on the shot chart by awide margin, Cattell stood tall in the Lions net and stopped all scoring attempts. To try and tie the game the Pitbulls pulled Sutherland for the extra attacker, but a turnover in the neutral zone ended up sealing the faith for the Pitbulls and the game finished at 7-5 and was accompanied by the sound of sticks breaking on the bench.
 
Despite having a lengthy coach trip to Lee Valley, reportedly, there were no major delays on the trip back to Bristol.
 
The Pitbulls are back in action against Slough Jets ENL2 at Frogmore street this weekend. It has been a while since the two sides met as the teams’ opened their respective seasons at Slough. Then the Jets ENL2 were the better team with a score line of 11-2.
  Contact Janne.Virtanen@prohockeynews.com