News Report

Chieftains vs Swindon Wildcats 2

A dominant display from the team coupled with some amazing goals!

• admin
• 08 October 2024

The Chieftains had a small streak of away games, so it was good to finally be back at the Riverside to start a bumper set of home games in October. The Chieftains were up against Swindon Wildcats 2. The Wildcats have recently come up from NIHL South 2, a young but fast team. It was going to be an interesting game to see how both teams would fair against each other for their first meeting of the season (considering it had been just under 6 years since they'd last met).

Tom Adams was in between the pipes for this game, and as soon as the puck had dropped, you could tell the Chieftains were up for this one. The attacking play started straight away, and Swindon were immediately on the backfoot. The home fans didn’t have to wait long for the first goal to arrive. It came courtesy of TJ Fillery at 03:01, he was assisted by Kieran Raynor and Sasha Maltsev, the score was 1-0. The home fans hadn’t long finished celebrating when Grant Bartlett appeared to score. The goal light came on, the home fans cheered, but something was up, the officials were chatting, and the goal was disallowed. The scoreboard was reset, and the attacking play continued. At 07:33, the fans were treated to an amazing goal from Dan Fay, he was assisted by TJ Fillery and Dan Hitchings. His control of the puck was brilliant as he cut through the Wildcats defence, and the goal came from nowhere. It was clear to see, the Chieftains were determined to stamp down their authority on this game. At 08:08, Richie Pickering took a penalty for charging, the Wildcats were on the powerplay. This didn’t seem to phase the Chieftains one bit, they continued to attack. At 08:45, assisted by Callum Wells and Hallden Barnes-Garner, Mikey Power scored a superb short-handed goal to extend their lead even further, it was now 3-0. The Wildcats bench called a timeout, and the home fans cheered loudly for the Chieftains, determined to keep the momentum going. The play evened out slightly, but the Chieftains were definitely in control. At 13:01, the fourth goal came courtesy of Sam Russell, assisted by Hallden Barnes-Garner and Dylan Dix. At 17:35, assisted by Callum Wells and Cameron Bartlett, Grant Bartlett was able to score the last goal of the first period to make it 5-0. The Chieftains had 19 shots on goal, while the Wildcats only had 5.

As the second period started, the Chieftains seemed to have slowed down a gear, they were still attacking, but they were not as aggressive as they were in the first period. At 26:43, Ethan Taylor was able to score a goal for the Wildcats to bring the scoreline to 5-1. This seemed to ignite the fire once more in the Chieftains, and at 28:43, the fans were treated to another amazing goal, this time it was courtesy of Dylan Dix. Dylan (unassisted) successfully weaved and cut his way through the Wildcats lineup and scored with a sublime finish, it was now 6-1. Once more, the Chieftains were back in control. The Wildcats were working hard, but the experience of the Chieftains was just too much. At 35:39, Tom Ravenscroft scored his first goal for the Chieftains to make it 7-1, he was assisted by Eden Rolfe. Only a couple of minutes had passed before Mikey Power scored at 37:33, assisted by Hallden Barnes-Garner and Callum Wells to make it 8-1 (which is how the period ended). The Chieftains had 14 shots on goal, and the Wildcats were only able to make 4 shots on the Chieftains goal.

If fans thought the momentum might slow for the final period, they were wrong. The Wildcats took a penalty at the beginning of the period, and the Chieftains pounced. At 41:27, assisted by Sasha Maltsev and Mikey Power, Sam Russell was able to score a great powerplay goal to make it 9-1. The shots kept raining down on the Wildcats goal, they were struggling to get out of their own half most of the time. Whenever they got near the Chieftains defence, the puck was stolen from them to form yet another attack. At 46:04, assisted by Jay King and Cameron Bartlett, Grant Bartlett scored the second goal of his night to put the Chieftains into double figures it was now 10-1. At this point, the game did start to level out a bit more, and the pace was not as intensive as before. The Chieftains remained in control, and the Wildcats struggled to put forward any meaningful attacks. At 59:07, the home fans were treated to one more goal, assisted by Grant Bartlett and Kieran Raynor, Cameron Bartlett was able to score to make it 11-1, and this is how the game finished. The Chieftains had 15 shots on goal, while the Wildcats had 6 shots.

This was another convincing home win from the Chieftains, with the goals spread out across the lines, highlighting how the team is really firing on all cylinders at the moment, long may it continue!

If you'd like to see the stats for the game, just click here. Don't forget, you can also see the goal videos now, there's some belters to see!

#LetGoChieftains #BumperHomeGameOctober