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Oxford run Wightlink close
Oxford City Stars gave the reigning league champions a fright in a closely contested match against the Wightlink Raiders but in the end the Stars fell just short in a 4-3 loss despite goals from Gareth Endicott, Darren Elliott and Dax Hedges.
The opening few minutes of games have traditionally been difficult for the stars this season and the Raiders had the best of the opening few minutes until Cameron Birrell charged down the ice beating three players before passing the puck inside to Gareth Endicott who shot bottom right to open the scoring. Stars looks rejuvenated and when Darren Elliott skated down the ice just a minute later he managed to double the lead with a screamer from 50ft out in top right hand corner.
It was the second time in two nights that Wightlink had gone behind early, as the previous day they were 3-0 down at the end of the first against Bristol, before winning 9-3 and Stars were understandable cautious about this happening to them, but at the midway point of the period Richard Facey capitalised on a defensive error from the Stars to make it 2-1.
Wightlink pushed on hard and it had a couple of key chances against the Oxford net before finally breaking through with a goal from their player/coach Jeremy Cornish in a wonderfully created effort, with Alex Murray setting him up to level the scoreline. Oxford pushed hard at the end of the period and Josh Oliver nearly got on the scoresheet but for some fantastic Wightlink defence.
The second period got under way in a cautious style with neither side looking to commit too much. After the Raiders were already on the penalty kill, Cornish took a penalty for grappling with a Oxford player on the other side of the rink and Stars took full advantage of the two man advantage, quickly restoring their lead from Dax Hedges.
The game started to get chippy with a few incidents firstly with Andy Cox being held onto by the Wightlink netminder before Daniel Pye got assessed a penalty for Roughing. Shortly after another pileup in front
of the net the Raiders levelled the game with a shot scored at the second attempt. The bad tempered play continued for the next few minutes with neither side being penalised before Richard Wojciak and Arran Strawson traded blows to end the second period.
To this point the game had been even, with both sides on 25 shots on goal each, but at this point Wightlink found a higher gear and started to dominate the game, scoring the winning goal seven minutes into the
period. Despite some last minute chances, Wightlink hung on and took the points in the first meeting between the sides this year.
Stars coach Ken Forshee: “I thought we played very well. We skated well and played with a lot of energy in the first two periods but then for some reason didnt play as well in the 3rd. Our 3rd periods have to get better. But overall I thought we played well and we got another solid performance from our young goalie Patrick Russell. We have a very important part of our schedule coming up in the next three weeks. We play mostly against teams that we should be looking to beat and 5 of the 6 games are at home so we need to make the most of it.”
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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 |
|---|
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 |
|---|
- Oxford withdraw from ENL South
- Mixed weekend for City Stars
- Chelmsford gain revenge on Oxford
- Oxford crash back down to the ground
- City Stars get off the mark
