BRISTOL, UK – After a good start to the season against the Slough Jets ENL2 side, the Bristol Pitbulls ENL2 faced Romford Fury. The Fury side has been bolstered with some summer additions that give the team speed, experience and added grit, making them a dangerous adversary in the league. Romford Fury got their season off to a good start as well after they visited Swindon Wildcats and drew. The game gave the Fury side heaps of confidence given that their netminder, Mervyn Tasker, faced 57 shots and allowed only five goals in the 5-5 draw. Meanwhile, the Pitbulls who won against Slough Jets ENL2 with an 8-4 score line, came into the game without the services of young defence man Dan Mann and forwards Olly Shone and Phil Dibble. The match was full of nervous anticipation on both sides and Romford Fury were in early control of the first couple of shifts and poured on shots and offense to the Pitbulls goal, manned by Shannon Long. It wasn’t long until Romford were up 1-0 on a power play goal from Sean Martin, who shot from a near the face off circles in the Pitbull zone. Encouraged by the effort, Romford kept on attacking and soon a blue-line cannon, again from Martin, found its way into the Pitbulls net making it 2-0 to Romford early on. The Pitbulls didn’t give up though, and after the two goals Romford had score the Pitbulls turned up the tempo. Midway through the first Pitbulls got on the board after a rush from Paul Davies left a rebound in-front of the Fury net, which Janne Virtanen got a touch on and found the way to the back of the net. Then, only minutes later Adi Smith capitalised on a power play to draw the game. The first period scoring would stand at 2-2
The second period saw a much more active and re-energised Pitbulls side. After getting rid of the nervousness seen at the start of the first, the Pitbulls were playing with more confidence, which showed in the number of shots on goal. Tasker faced 19 shots in the second period, while Long in the Pitbulls net was only faced with 6. Pitbulls went up 2-3 on a power play goal by Virtanen, who had an easy job of putting the puck in an empty net after Paul Davies and Matt Thornhill passing play in the slot. Pitbulls remained disciplined and saw Romford get into a bit of penalty trouble, which left Adi Smith score his second of the night from a feed from Liam Williams, to make the score 2-4 for the Pitbulls. Both the teams took a couple of penalties which saw the Pitbulls start the third period a man short. The third was dominated by Romford, who were really hungry for the win. The Fury forced the Pitbulls to play the majority of the game in the Pitbull zone, but were faced with dogged defensive play and stellar goaltending by Long in the Bristol net. The shot count from the third saw Romford pepper the Bristol net with 20 shots, where the Pitbulls only mustered nine on Tasker. Romford pulled closer on the score board after a furious offensive effort in the Pitbulls zone which saw an un-marked Thomas Larkin finish from the back post to make it 3-4. However, despite the efforts of the Fury side, the Pitbulls hung on till the end and claimed two points from Romford with the final score 3-4. The match saw both goalies being awarded with the man of the match honours, with Tasker facing 39 shots and Long facing 42 shots. The Pitbulls will be facing Chelmsford Warriors at Bristol on Saturday 24th of September, whilst Romford will face off against Slough Jets ENL2 at Rom Valley Way on the 24th. Contact the author: janne.virtanen@prohockeynews.com
Twitter: @amateur_hockey
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