Chelmsford Sport
Chieftains hit Redskins for seven
12:40pm Wednesday 8th February 2012
ICE HOCKEY: Chelmsford’s first visit to the Streatham Redskins’ temporary rink in Brixton ended with a resounding 7-1 win in what proved to be a two-period demolition job.
Heading into the game, Alex Green was revealed to be still suffering the same injury that forced him to sit out of the 5-0 win over Invicta the week before, so former Redskin and Chieftains assistant coach Sean Easton covered and put in a sterling performance.
Darren Brown set the ball rolling early on with a nice finish with the assist going to in-form Alan Green.
Green was then hit with a nasty check from Luke Reynolds and went off the ice injured and Reynolds was given his marching orders on a match penalty (later downgraded to a game penalty as Green returned to the ice).
Player-coach Gary Clarke then questioned referee Jurijs Solovjovs’s authority and picked up a ten-minute misconduct penalty, however, it made no difference to the Redskins’s resurgence, as firstly Danny Hammond and then Jakub Klima ran in a goal a piece to end the first period 3-0 up.
Into the second and it was once again all Chelmsford as Tom Avery capped a fine performance with a goal to go with his two assists in the first period and then Klima notched his second, while Clarke picked up a brace of goals around a Streatham marker.
The gloves came off as veteran hardman Norman Pinnington was running amock on the ice and then offered someone to go with him so Chieftains tough guy Danny Cox accepted and the two squared off. It was a bloody nose for Cox as a good couple of punches from Pinnington drew blood and Cox left the game to require stitches.
With no further scoring in the third it was left for the formalities of playing the game out. Darren Brown was at least accompanied by the man of the match award on his journey home after a fine performance.
Sunday’s game in Milton Keynes was called off due to snow on the roads.
Next week sees the in-form Cardiff ENL Devils come to Essex on Saturday night at the Riverside in what should be a tough encounter with both sides in need of the points and, with past history to go by, it should also prove to be a very physical game.