11:42am Friday 27th November 2009
Saturday night saw the Chieftains make the long-trip to South Wales to take on the Cardiff ENL Devils.
The first period break saw the score at three a piece with the Chieftains goals coming from man of the match Sean Easton, Danny Wright and Richard Whiting.
The referee Riddell allowed a large number of clear infringements to go unpunished and tempers were simmering as the second period began.
Riddell was again at the centre of controversy at the 27.18 mark when he awarded Chieftains netminder, Andy Moffat, a ten-minute penalty for asking why the team was not allowed an “equipment time out” to fix broken items on his pads.
Time was spent getting the pads fixed, but back-up netminder Ben Clements was forced into goal for a few minutes as Moffat’s pads were repaired off the ice.
On the 43.22 mark, Aaron Connolly hit a wonderful goal that flew past a stationary Mike Brabon in the Devils’ net.
Six minutes later and it was back to a tied game at 4-4 as Luke Piggott fired past Moffat, who had returned to the goal, after capitalising on a rare defensive mistake.
At 55:09 an excellent pass from veteran Brent Pope allowed Steve Fisher to skate through the Chieftains’ defence with some outstanding skills and shimmy it past Moffat to notch the game winner.
On Sunday, the Chieftains struggled to break away from a resilient Oxford City Stars team though they did go into the first period break 4-2 up, having been 4-0.
The goals came from BT Williams, Darren Brown and a brace from Danny Hammond with Dean Francis and Ken Forshee netting for the visitors.
The Stars battled back into contention in the second period and Nick Oliver scored for Oxford to poise the game nicely at 4-3 going into the final period.
Things heated up in the third and final period, even more so when Forshee notched his second of the night on 54 minutes to equalise and force a very tense final six minutes.
Moments later and it was 5-4 when Jerry Pavlus did what he does best and pop up with a goal at vital moments.
The game finished with the fans on the edge of their seats, willing the Chieftains home and they did so much to the relief of the large crowd in attendance.
The game was notable also for Richard Whiting becoming the all time highest appearance leader with a very impressive 490 appearances now in all competitions for the Chieftains.
Also on the Sunday, the Chelmsford Warriors returned to action from a break and struggled in Basingstoke after showing early promise.
The scores were level at 1-1 with Sean Martin netting for the Warriors after the first period.
It was pretty much one-way traffic from there on in, with the Buffalo proving why they are in contention for promotion with a domineering display of hockey which led them to an 11-3 win. Martin scored again and was joined on the score sheet by Craig Metcalf.
The Chieftains travel to Oxford on Sunday followed by a crunch game on December 6, against league leaders and and arch-rivals, Invicta Dynamos.
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