Birrell and Williams hit out

CHELMSFORD, UK – After a feisty game at the Riverside in Chelmsford which saw 6 major penalties given out, Chieftains head coach Dean Birrell was not happy with referee Ian Hayden.
“There were some interesting calls to say the least from the referee tonight. I can’t condone what BT Williams did, but he was being provoked all game with slashes, spears, butt-ends and cross-checks all over the ice, yet nothing given from the referee.  I think the game could have been calmed down with some better decisions, maybe”.
BT Williams had been provoked all night and had got into a scuffle after the first period ended with Ed Koral and then Streatham Redskins netminder Will Sanderson. Andy Moffat, Chieftains back up netminder, also came over to remonstrate with Sanderson after he had allegedly hit BT with his blocker. Both Sanderson and Moffat picked up 10minute penalties. Later in the game Alex Green was called for a straight 10minute roughing penalty and when fellow defence man Sean Easton tried to inform the official about his inconsistency, the same thing had happened against the Chieftains moments earlier, he joined Green in the box for an abuse of an official 10 minute call. Things began to heat up again in the third and with a late check on BT and a followed up jab from the Redskins defence man, enough was enough for Williams as he slashed at his opponent in a manner that Babe Ruth would have been proud of! He also tried to resist the linesman who was manhandling him on the way to the box and Williams also tried to get to the Streatham bench. When he made it to the box and sat down, he was then informed of his match penalty and both he and Birrell tried to argue his case with referee Ian Hayden, yet nothing changed and then Hayden tacked on a 5+game penalty for not leaving the box. There was some confusion over this as some believed that if that sort of call was being made it should have been for not going straight to the box, as opposed to not leaving it.
After the game Williams had this to say
“I regret that I didn’t do something that warranted the 5+game and match. Written in stone or not, it is primarily my role to stop teams taking liberties with my team mates. I am bound to take more penalties. The reason I didn’t leave the box was because me and Dean were arguing the call. When Hayden said he wasn’t going to reduce the call, that was when I left the box. I can’t believe I got a pen like that for doing what they had been doing to my team all game”.
Birrell said “In my day an incident like that would have been a 2+2 for slashing and we’d have got on with the game and no-one would remember it. Because the penalties have escalated so much in recent years to get more respect on the ice, games like this end up being remembered for the wrong reasons. I am all for having respect on the ice, but it has to work both ways. There was plenty of opportunities for the referee to keep the game under control, but he let things go and things got out of hand. We are going to try and get the penalties reduced and BT off this call”.

Another controversial incident from Hayden was in the awarding of the second Redskins goal, even though the goal judge had not put the light on as he didn’t see the puck cross the line, yet Hayden who was some distance from the goal decided it had gone in. The actual series of events was that Louis Lockwood forced Ben Clements into his net, via hitting Clements’ head on the post, which sent the net and Clements flying and onto the boards behind the goal. Hayden claimed that the puck had crossed the line before Clements did, even though the off-ice official saw no such occurrence.
It isn’t the first time this season that the Chieftains have felt cheated by Hayden as a few weeks ago against the Peterborough Islanders he awarded a goal after he had blown the whistle, calling the puck dead. Williams followed up his comments with the following
“With the game becoming more and more professional, the officials also need to improve their standards. Tonight we saw a great example of why the level of refereeing seriously needs to be looked at”.
The game itself saw Danny Hammond notch a natural hat-trick in the third period, including one on the 10min penalty kill after the BT incident, and pick up the man of the match beers in a 12-3 win for the Essex side.
Pro Hockey News sponsored Chelmsford Warriors also had a winning weekend when they beat the Streatham Bruins 7-4 with young defenceman Henry Barnes picking up the man of the match beers after a great performance that won plaudits from all sides of the rink.
Contact pete.lewis@prohockeynews.com