BRISTOL, UK – After an impressive start to the 2011-2012 season, the Bristol Pitbulls ENL2 team faced Chelmsford Warriors and Oxford Stars ENL2 teams to try and further extend its winning streak.
Chelmsford Warriors
Courtesy of Flyfiffer Photography
Warriors were sharp out of the gate and got on the board quickly. The teams’ young players showed great energy and kept bringing great offense into the Pitbulls zone. However, the Pitbulls soon drew level in the first period after Matt Thornhill banked a shot off the Warriors keeper Dave Abbott to make it 1-1.
Courtesy of Flyfiffer Photography
The teams played an evenly matched game with Adi Smith playing a big role for the Pitbulls and notching his first hat-trick of the year. The game showed the audience at Frogmore Street with a battle of the goalies as both Shannon Long and Abbott were faced with a high number of shots to keep both net minders busy. The game winning goal, scored by Smith, came from a defensive lapse.
As Abbot had made a sprawling kick save, the puck came out to a Warriors defenceman, who didn’t get it cleared in time with Smith sneaking in to take advantage of the situation to make it 5-4.
Despite the valiant efforts of the Warriors side, the Pitbulls hung on to the
Courtesy of Flyfiffer Photography
Oxford
A week after the Warriors tilt, the Pitbulls made their way down to Oxford to meet the City Stars. Oxford had suffered two heavy losses at the hands of Solent and Gosport and Peterborough, which had clearly left the team hungry for a win.
The stars came out hard in the first period and outskated the Pitbulls. Through a few defensive lapses at the Pitbulls end, Oxford soon found themselves 4-0 at the end of the first period. Despite playing with a clearly shorter bench, the Oxford side kept coming at the Pitbulls with everything they had.
In the second period, the Pitbulls finally got on the board as Paul Davies finished his end to end rush with his first goal of the season. The Pitbulls gained some momentum from the goal, but saw it hampered due to ice issues at the Oxpens Road rink. With five minutes left the second period was called to an early close as the rink staff tried to get rid of the flood of water at the far end of the rink.
After the repairs, the rest of the second were played through and the game got to the third period. For the third, the Pitbulls stepped up a gear and started playing with more finesse and managed to mount some offence as Olly Shone ripped a shot to the top right hand corner of the net and minutes later youngster Dan Mann scored from in close to make the score 4-3. However, the Pitbulls saw their fight cut short after Oxford came back and responded with a goal to make it 5-3 that would remain as the final score of the game.
The Pitbulls will be on the road to face Invicta Dynamos on the 9th of October
Contact the author: janne.virtanen@prohockeynews.
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