News Report

Chieftains vs Oxford City Stars

Chieftains show the Stars how to shoot!

• admin
• 15 October 2024

The Chieftains have already faced the Oxford City Stars this season, in that game, they managed a shutout. Now that the team was back on home ice, could they replicate this again?

The puck dropped for the first period, and as you’d expect, the team went charging forward. Grant Bartlett took a shot and scored! The board showed only 5 seconds had passed, the fans couldn’t believe it. There was a bit of confusion around the goal, and fans weren’t sure if the goal would stand. The scoreboard remained at 0-0, but the goal was announced over the Tanoy. Grant had been assisted by Cameron Bartlett and Alan Lack at 00:05, the scoreboard was updated, it was 1-0, maybe a contender for the fastest Chieftain goal ever? The attacking play continued, Oxford weren’t able to string anything meaningful together at this point, but just after 5 minutes into the period, the Chieftains play started to become a bit sloppy, not all passes were connecting, and Oxford City Stars took their chance. At 06:35, Sam Robinson scored to make it 1-1. The Riverside fell silent, but not for long. The Chieftains came straight back on the attack, and Oxford were being pushed back once more. At 08:48, Oxford received a penalty for slashing, and the Chieftains were on the powerplay. With only seconds remaining, at 10:41, assisted by Mikey Power and Jay King, Sasha Maltsev scored the first goal of his night to put the Chieftains back in the lead. It was now 2-1. The Chieftains continued to dominate, but at 14:56, Alan Lack received a penalty for interference. The home team killed off the powerplay with ease, and Alan Lack rejoined the ice at full speed out of the sinbin, he soon overtook the last Oxford defender (who couldn’t believe his eyes), and at 17:06, assisted by Dan Hitchings, Lack successfully put the puck past the Oxford netminder to make it 3-1. A fantastic goal! From here, the Chieftains went on a bit of a goal rampage. At 18:21, assisted by Mikey Power and Jay King, Sasha Maltsev scored the second of his night to make it 4-1. At 19:09, assisted by Mikey Power and Hallden Barnes-Garner, Ollie Baldock scored to make it 5-1, and at 19:46, assisted by Alan Lack, Cameron Bartlett scored to make it 6-1. In under 3 minutes, the Chieftains had scored 4 goals, Oxford City Stars were truly stunned. The first period ended 6-1, the Chieftains had 23 shots on goal, and Oxford had just 5.

The home fans were hoping that the momentum of the last 5 minutes of the first period would continue into the second period, but Oxford had managed to regroup. The play was end to end, but some of the sloppy play had crept back in from the Chieftains, the passes weren’t as crisp, and both teams were struggling to mount any meaningful attacks. At 26:47, Dan Hitchings received a penalty for elbows, the Chieftains were on the penalty kill. Instead of sitting back though, the Chieftains went on the attack, and at 27:47, Ollie Baldock scored a superb, short-handed, unassisted goal to make it 7-1. The home fans were loving it! Just over a couple of minutes later, Richie Pickering received a penalty, and the Chieftains were back on the penalty kill again. Just as they did moments earlier, they went on the attack again, Oxford just couldn’t peg them back. At 30:53, assisted by Ollie Baldock and Callum Wells, Mikey Power scored another short-handed goal to make it 8-1. Oxford’s coach, Mark Saunders, had his head in his hands, he was not enjoying the game, but the home fans certainly were! The Chieftains continued with their attacking play, and at 32:19, assisted by Jay King, Cameron Bartlett got the second goal of his night to make it 9-1. This goal was followed shortly after by another goal for the Chieftains, at 33:47, assisted by Callum Wells and TJ Fillery, Sam Russell scored to make it 10-1. The Riverside was rocking! At 34:50, it looked like there was a disagreement between Alan Lack and one of the Oxford City Stars, but then a fight broke out between Grant Bartlett and Johan Persson for the Stars. The fight didn’t last long, Grant successfully took him down, but the play stopped for some time due to blood on the ice. The delay in the game, and the loss of Grant did affect the lines from this point going forward, but at 36:03, assisted by Ollie Baldock and Mikey Power, Sasha scored a great goal to make a hat trick for him. It was now 11-1, and this was how the second period ended, the Chieftains had 18 shots on the Oxford goal, and Oxford had 6 on the Chieftains.

For the third and final period, the play was a lot more end-to-end, the Chieftains passes weren’t connecting as well as they had been, and as mentioned above, the lines were re-jigged as Grant was no longer available, which was having an impact too. Oxford were still struggling to create any meaningful attacks on the Chieftains net, and the shots slowly started to increase on the Oxford netminder. The third period was certainly a lot quieter, but at 50:36, assisted by Hallden Barnes-Garner, Mike Power was able to score the second of his night to make it 12-1. There was another lull in action for the next 5 minutes or so, but at 57:50, assisted by Mikey Power and Hallden Barnes-Garner, Cameron Bartlett scored the last goal of the game to make it 13-1. The Chieftains had 21 shots on Oxford's goal, and Tom Adams faced 4 shots on goal from Oxford.

Sasha Maltsev won Man of the Match for his superb hat trick, and the Chieftains secured another important win!

If you'd like to see the stats for the game, just click here.

#LetGoChieftains #AnotherDominantDisplay