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Chieftains through to playoff finals
This was a titanic battle between two evenly matched sides and the hype didn't disappoint as both sides served up an epic clash that had everything that ice hockey is about - rough, tough play bettered only by speed and skilful ice hockey and some controversy thrown in for good measure.
The Romford Raiders came into Saturday's game missing top scorer Juraj Huska, who is widely regarded as the best player in the league, but it didn't seem to matter as two early goals from Pierre Wilhelmsson and Adam Smith had the home fans believing they could run away with the tie. Danny Hammond struck back just before the first break but the talking point from that period was that Chieftains Canadian forward Kyle Jones had been thrown out for accidental high sticks which drew blood from Danny Marshall's lip. On top of that, Matt Turner was lying on the ice with blood pouring from his face when Wilhelmsson scored, but no penalty given. (Photo attached) This meant Jones would miss Sunday's game and the Chieftains would be on the backfoot for the second leg. After a quiet second period, Grant Baxter put Romford 3-1 up in the 3rd period, before Matt Turner fired home to bring it back to 3-2. Marshall then scored himself to set up a tense finish, until Hammond scored again and then Tom Long was the hero with a late equaliser to send both sides into the second game all square at 4-4.
Missing Kyle Jones through suspension and Mark Williams who was unavailable, as well as Aaron Connolly who was on international duty, the Chieftains looked like they could be in for a tough night and they were given one. Tom Long put the home side ahead with less than 3 minutes gone after firing home through traffic in front of Mike Gray's net. Then the controversy came when referee Rene Ross had his arm up to call a penalty and then blew his whistle. Everyone stopped except Huska who continued on and fired the puck past Ben Clements who was expecting the game to have stopped. Despite protestations from all sides, Ross was adament it wasn't his whistle that had been blown and allowed the goal to stand. Once again late in the period the Chieftains scored again with a nice play from Ross Brears and man of the match Alex Green to set up Brears to fire past Gray.
Despite there being no more scoring between the two sides, the game was end to end and a penalty was called by Ross with less than a minute to go on Green and this put the Chieftains right up against it with Romford throwing everything except the kitchen sink at Chelmsford, but the Chieftains held firm to secure a hard-fought 2-1 win.
In the weekend’s other matchup, the Wightlink Raiders overcame Invicta Dynamos 4-1 on aggregate after a 4-0 win on the Isle of Wight on Saturday and a 1-0 defeat in Kent on Sunday.
This now sets up the clash of the titans in the English National League South playoff final as first placed and league champions Wightlink will face second placed Chelmsford over the Easter weekend. Wightlink are the only side the Chieftains haven’t beaten this season or had a better record against over the 4 league games and in the words of Chieftains coach Dean Birrell “We’re coming to play and we believe we can win it. We’re not expecting it to be easy, they aren’t league champs for nothing, but we said before this weekend’s games ‘If we get to the final, then who knows what might happen’. We’re there now so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. We’ll be up for it, as will Jeremy Cornish and his boys. The fans were great this weekend behind the team and we’ll need that again, and more, next weekend. This is the biggest game for years in Chelmsford and a real chance of picking up the title we all want to win”.
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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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- Clarke back at Chieftains helm
- Chieftains end their season with playoff title
- Double delight on Saturday
- Chieftains advance to playoff semi-finals
- Chieftains miss out on title but set sights on playoffs
