News Report

Chieftains vs MK Thunder

Another impressive win for the Chieftains!

• admin
• 19 November 2024

The Chieftains were up against MK Thunder – they’d secured their first win of their season against Oxford City Stars the night before. How would they fare against the mighty Chieftains?

The puck dropped for the first period, and the Chieftains went straight on the attack. MK Thunder were being well and truly pegged back. The Chieftains were passing extremely well and creating superb chances, but it was obvious early on that the MK netminder was going to be key to this result. For the first ten minutes he was like a wall. Shots were coming in from all angles, and he was doing a great job of keeping the Chieftains at bay. At 11:11, both Kieran Raynor and Mark Austen were both given two minutes for roughing due to a skirmish in front of the MK netminder. Just 8 seconds later, at 11:19, assisted by Alan Lack and Grant Bartlett, Cameron Bartlett was able to score the first goal of the night to make it 1-0. MK took a penalty shortly after this, and the Chieftains found themselves on the power play. At 12:21, assisted by Cameron Bartlett and Dylan Dix, Grant Bartlett scored to make it 2-0, this was then followed shortly afterwards with another power play goal, this time it was courtesy of Dylan Dix at 14:03, he was assisted by Mikey Power and Grant Bartlett. The MK defense was starting to weaken, and they were constantly being shut down by the Chieftains defense whenever they tried to mount an attack. The shots continued to rain down on the MK netminder, and at 18:59, assisted by Hallden Barnes-Garner and Mikey Power, Tom Ravenscroft scored to make it 4-0. The period ended shortly after, Tom Adams had faced only 2 shots, but the MK netminder had faced 25!

The attacking play continued for the second period. At 22:01, assisted by Mikey Power and Jay King, Sasha Maltsev scored the first of his night to make it 5-0, and just over two minutes later, at 24:19, Mikey Power scored to make it 6-0 (he was assisted by Hallden Barnes-Garner and Sasha Maltsev). The fans hadn’t even finished celebrating Mikey’s goal when Sasha Maltsev scored a superb unassisted goal at 24:25 to make it 7-0! MK was definitely on the ropes, and it didn’t take long for Dylan Dix to get himself on the scoreboard again. At 27:27, Dylan scored a brilliant unassisted goal to make it 8-0. MK were becoming more frustrated, and Dom Wealthall was up to his usual tricks of trying to wind up the Chieftains players. At one point he nearly got in a fight with Alan Lack, much to the amusement of the home fans, but nothing came of it. At 32:29, MK were able to make a meaningful attack on the Chieftains defense, there was a lot of traffic in front of the Chieftains goal and MK scored to make it 8-1. The attacking play continued from the Chieftains but the second period ended 8-1, Tom Adams faced 9 shots, and MK had faced 30 shots (they had also switched netminders halfway through the period).

As each period went by, the Chieftains ramped up the pressure even more on the MK goal, and this was certainly the case for the third and final period. At 40:36, assisted by Grant Bartlett and Alan Lack, Cameron Bartlett scored to make it 9-1, this was followed in quick succession by a goal from Mikey Power at 42:18 to make it 10-1, he was assisted by Jay King and Hallden Barnes-Garner. Just under a minute later, Mikey Power scored again at 43:15 to make it 11-1, this time he was assisted by Hallden Barnes-Garner and Sasha Maltsev. As frustrations grew amongst the MK team even further, the penalties cropped in for them, and that meant power plays for the Chieftains! At 46:55, assisted by Cameron Bartlett and Mikey Power, Grant Bartlett scored a power play goal to make it 12-1. The floodgates were well and truly open, and at 48:57, up stepped Sam Bettell-Higgins to score his first-ever Chieftains goal (unassisted too) to make it 13-1. The Riverside erupted to honor his first goal; Sam was beaming from ear to ear, and rightly so, a very special night for him, we’re sure! At 52:41, the Chieftains found themselves back on the power play. Alan Lack scored a great goal to make it 14-1, he was assisted by Dan Hitchings and Sasha Maltsev. Just over a minute later, at 53:42, Eden Rolfe got himself on the scoresheet too, he was assisted by T.J. Fillery and Tom Ravenscroft. At 54:38, Cameron Bartlett was sent to the sin bin for 4 minutes, 2 for slashing and 2 for roughing, but as we’ve seen this season, the Chieftains have been deadly with short-handed goals. This game was no exception, at 55:58, assisted by Dylan Dix, Mikey Power scored the fourth goal of his night to make it 16-1 with a fantastic short-handed goal. The period ended 16-1, Tom Adams faced 5 shots for the period, and MK had faced 28.

Mikey Power was awarded man of the match for his efforts and superb goal tally, but it was great to see the goals spread out across the team, especially the younger members of the Chieftains too. Well done, Sam and Eden!

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

#LetGoChieftains #TheFutureIsBright