Oxford City Stars 4, Chelmsford Chieftains 4
CHELMSFORD were put on the back foot early on with some fine play from the Stars. A Ken Forshee chance forced the first big save of the game for Ben Clements who was deputising for the injured Andy Moffat in the Chieftains goal.
Moments later and the first real chance at the other end fell to Ross Brears from a nice layoff from Danny Hammond. Referee Freeman was trying to emulate Ken Riddell from the week before and was seemingly making rules up as he went on, much to the frustration and annoyance of both sides, players and fans alike.
On 18:57 he sent the first of three Stars players to the penalty box on 10 minute misconduct penalties when Richard Wojciak went in for a two minute minor for hooking and a 10 minute for questioning the referee. On the resulting powerplay the Chieftains broke the deadlock thanks to a very impressive Alex Green finish who fired it high and past Skaife. As the players were returning to re-start the game the referee sent Abu-Saada to the box also for a 10minute misconduct and it appeared that the Stars’ discipline was rapidly going.
As the buzzer went, Stars’ new signing Andrew Shurmer went steaming in on Blaho Novak, only to be totally up-ended by the young forward who stepped into the onrushing defenceman and sent him sprawling across the ice.
Instead of the usual melee that follows instances like that, many Stars players seemed to be laughing at their team-mate who had just been shown up by a 16 year old schoolboy!
The second period started in similar fashion with a Chieftains goal at 21:47
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when Hammond slotted home from another fine Novak pass. The lead was short-lived as the Stars fired back on the 22:41 mark through Shurmer. Goal of the night came exactly 10 minutes later when Hammond picked the puck up at centre ice and took it round the defence man and saw a gap and drew Skaife out of position and slotted it past him.
Again though the Stars refused to lie down and captain Darren Elliot took advantage of the Chieftains stopping play as they thought the whistle had gone to wash out an alleged goal, but only to find the whistle hadn’t gone and Elliot tapped home with ease.
Danny Wright was the saviour for the Chieftains at 36:00 when he managed to stop two Oxford forwards on his own and save what would have been a game-tying goal. Shurmer made it a hat-trick of misconducts at 36:19 when Freeman sent him to the box for not wearing his visor correctly.
The Chieftains made it 4-2 at 38:57 when Jerry Pavlus was set up by Wright and Hammond and slotted home. Richard Whiting was unlucky not to score just before the break, but was denied by the pipework.
It looked to be one-way traffic now, but the Stars had other ideas as the third period began. 43:23 saw them pull the game back to 3-4 when a controversial goal was awarded to Forshee. The Stars clearly had a man infringing on Clements in his crease and under the rules of ice hockey, that is not allowed.
However Freeman decided that rule wasn't going to be used during the game and allowed the goal, much to the displeasure of Clements and the Chieftains players.
With just under five minutes to play the Chieftains hearts were broken when another refereeing error allowed Grant Bailey to score the Stars’ fourth .
After the game Birrell said: “We will take nothing away from Oxford, they were up for it and gave us a real tough game. I don't want to say too much about the officiating, but suffice to say two of their goals at least were down to the officials getting the basics wrong.
“It is the third time this year that we have had incompetent officials in charge of our games and it is getting beyond a joke now.
“I think Oxford deserved something from the game, but I’d rather they had earned their draw fairly rather than being gifted it".
On the same night the Chelmsford Warriors picked up a solid 5-1 win away at Slough. Ricky Mills scored two goals before being thrown out for abusing the referee later in the game. Ben Osborne picked up what is known in hockey circles as a 'Gordie Howe hat trick’ of a goal, an assist and a fight. Craig Metcalf and Sean Martin picked up the remaining goals in what was a bad tempered affair with two full on fights and other bouts of handbags and scuffles. Tom Foskett, playing down from the Chieftains, picked up the man of the match for another high energy and octane performance from the ‘pocket dynamo’.
Looking ahead to next Sunday, little needs to be said.
Invicta Dynamos are top of the league and defending Champions and will be the biggest test in years for the Chieftains.
The Chieftains and Dynamos have not come up against eachother in league action for almost 10 years and previous history shows that the two sides hotly contest these derby games.
The Dynamos have ex-Chieftains players in Elliot Andrews, Mark Williams and Anthony Leone. Looking the other way and Andrew Moffat, Aaron Connolly and Adam Copland are up against their former club.
A big crowd is expected at the Riverside for this game, so it is advisable to leave some extra time for getting your tickets and merchandise from the club shop.