Warriors suffer defeat at home

CHELMSFORD, UK – Things started bright enough for the Prohockeynews-backed Warriors when Adrian Woodyard went close by hitting the post. The game went back and forth, with the majority of the play in the Warriors zone as the dominant Wildcats began to take control. The Warriors ran into a bit of penalty trouble in the middle of the period, but the penalty killing unit did well, in particular Sean Martin who seemed to be impersonating Jerry Pavlus in how he killed off time on the penalty. Andrew Brummitt did well to keep the Wildcats at bay, but his resolve was broken on 18:46 when a 4on4 goal was scored by Wildcats captain Jamie Newton slotted home from a lot of space in front of the net. It was a disappointing dip for the Warriors who had shown glimpses of being able to compete with the Wildcats, but a minute later the score was 2-0 when Joe Oliver fired straight through traffic and Brummitt’s legs while on a 5on3 power play. The second period started off with another goal to the Wildcats when Dan Smith scored a nice goal, still on the power play, as he ripped the defence open. It was all one-way traffice now and at 22:32 it was 4-0 to the visitors as James Burnett fired past Brummitt from the blueline with a scorching shot. There was a brief ray of hope just over 2 minutes later when Sean Martin fired home from a Will Polston rebound. The joy was short lived though as Smith again tore the defence open on 26:02 and made it 1-5.

A harsh bench minor for too many men was called at 30:56, but once again the penalty killing unit worked wonders and kept the scoreline at 1-5. Two quick goals between 33 and 34 minutes saw the game go out of reach of the Warriors as Grant Richardson scored, followed up by Ryan Burgess netting his goal thanks to some lacklustre defending. The Warriors had battled hard throughout the game, but there appeared to be that spark missing and Paul Wilcock tried everything he could to get things going, but was unsuccessful. The only bright spots were Martin, man of the match Tom Foskett and Woodyard who chased down every puck they could and worked hard, even on seemingly lost causes. Will Polston tried to liven things up by throwing a huge hit on a Wildcats player at 37:20, which drew applause from the assembled fans. It was 12 minutes later and the score was 2-7 when James Parfitt finally netted after some scrambling around the net and a series of shots on the impressive Jamie Thompson in the Wildcats goal. 55:17 saw the Wildcats take a penalty to Steve Whitfield and that was also the end for Brummitt who had looked shaky all night and he was replaced by former Chelmsford Nighthawk and Basingstoke Buffalo net minder Dave Abbott. The change seemed to make little difference as the rampant Wildcats made it 2-8 at 57:17 with a Josh Oliver strike. It was almost 9 less than a minute later but referee Belenger washed the goal out. The Warriors battled as best they could in the final few minutes, showing great heart but the tiring legs and minds were unable to break through a comfortable Wildcats team. Contact the author Pete.lewis@Prohockeynews.com