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Chelmsford gain revenge on Oxford
Oxford's four game unbeaten streak came to an end at the hands of the Chelmsford Chieftans - who gained revenge for the Stars stealing a point in their own back yard earlier this season - in a 7-2 defeat. The big talking point prior to the game is how Stars would fair without their usual starting netminder, Chris Douglas who picked up an injury at Romford in mid-September and despite attempts to playthrough, a stay off ice was unavoidable for him. Oxford also missed Gareth Endicott and Wayne Fiddes for the match but were boosted by the signing of Cameron Birrell, the third, non-EIHA trained player signed by the club. This freed up Ken Forshee to return to a off ice role for the match.
Seventeen year old net minder Patrick Russell started for the City Stars and he made his debut for the club and a lot was going to rise on the pressure that had been put on the young man. Both sides started aggressively looking to grab the opening goal and Chieftan’s Michael Randy took a boarding penalty early on to give Stars an early powerplay which was looking promising until Stars Captain Darren Elliott took a slashing penalty to make it four on four. Stars did well to kill off a minute of Chelmsford's powerplay but Danny Hammond took advantage of a defensive error to put the away side 1-0 up with a shot from the right side of net, just drifting under Russell's blocker.
A minute later, Chelmsford doubled their lead after a simply wonderful passing move up the ice created by former City Star Alan Green working the puck over to Brears before Danny Hammond shot on the one-timer to leave Russell no chance at all. After this small wobble Stars managed to reset and managed to get back into the game however getting shots on goal continued to be a problem with Chieftans out-shooting the
Stars 20-5 in the opening period which ended 2-0.
Alan Green made a visit to the penalty box after a trip shortly after the second period started. Stars made a few good chances in the advantage, but Chelmsford delivered a counter shortly after the penalty ended with Tom Long getting on the score sheet at the second attempt after a good save from Russell.
Chelmsford were in total control at this point and added a four from Brears shorthanded to make it 4-0 and it wasn't until the latter stages of the period that the Stars started to create some serious attacking plays, getting most of their 10 shots on the Chelmsford net in the period in the final few minutes. After a few minutes of pressure Oxford finally got their opening goal and Josh Florey's first league goal since returning to the club with a tap-in at the back post after a killer pass from Shannon Taylor. The goal seemed to give a new lease of life into Chelmsford however and with 24 seconds to go in the period Danny Hammond completed his hat-trick with a goal snook in at the back post to end the period 5-1 up in favour of Chelmsford.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the third period saw both sides come out highly energised and the atmosphere in the rink lifted after being flat for the opening two periods. Chelmsford's bench and supporters got agitated by a serious of non-calls as they saw and when Clarke made it 6-1 there was a huge cheer from the travelling support. It was at this point that Oxford started to feel the wrath of the referee, firstly with a bizarre Misconduct given to Lee Featherstone when he was lining up for a faceoff, after the Referee had a long discussion with one of the linesman. Shortly after, Oxford's bench was assessed a penalty for abuse of official.
Clarke and Wojciak were assessed penalties after a minor scuffle and Cox managed to find time to get back in the box, this time for Slashing. Chelmsford made it seven with Hammonds fourth of the game. Oxford
didn't give up in the period however and new signing Cameron Birrell shot through a screen into the top left hand corner to make it 7-2 and end the game on a positive for the Stars.
Despite the scoreline, Stars can take several genuine positives out of the match. Firstly, in Patrick Russell, the team now know for certain that we have a backup that we is not only highly promising, but able to handle him self at the ENL level and that most Stars fans would not be worried about putting into a game situation.
Secondly, Birrell was arguably the best outskating player on the ice in his opening game and given time, it's hoped that he can gel with the team and get even better. That being said, Stars will simply have to stop the huge amount of turnovers they allowed in this game in this patch as while Chelmsford are clearly one of the best teams in the league and fully deserved to win the game at times Oxford made them
look even better than they are.
Oxford have only one game next weekend, at home to the Wightlink Raiders, last seasons League Champions. Wightlink have had a inconsistent start to the season winning five and losing three and will be looking to bounce back after road losses to Invicta and Chelmsford. Milton Keynes also shocked them on their own pad in a 4-1 defeat so Stars will fancy their chances, especially if they managed to get back to full strength.
Ken Forshee: “I was really happy with our effort on Sunday. We are going through a bit of a transitional stage at the minute with new players coming in and with injuries guys playing in different roles. But I was happy with the way we competed and we got a great debut from our new import Cameron Birrell. He looks like he will certainly be a successful player in this league. We also got a great game out of our backup goalie Patrick Russell who played his first full senior game. He went into a tough situation and proved himself. I know have the benefit of having confidence in both our goalies. We are making certain changes to our team right now that will allow us to be a better skating, up tempo team and play a more energetic style of game”.
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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- Oxford withdraw from ENL South
- Mixed weekend for City Stars
- Oxford run Wightlink close
- Oxford crash back down to the ground
- City Stars get off the mark
