News Report

Chelmsford vs Oxford City Stars

a great win for the last home game of 2024!

• admin
• 17 December 2024

The Chieftains faced Oxford City Stars for their last home game of 2024. The teams have already met each other twice this season and they both resulted in a comfortable win for the Chieftains, would this fixture go the same way?

Oxford were short-benched for this fixture, Tom Adams was in-between the pipes for the Chieftains, and home fans were pleased to see the return of Ollie Baldock, it was all set up to be a great game. The puck dropped for the first period, and the action was end-to-end for the first few minutes. The Chieftains soon settled into the period and started to take control. They were passing the puck well, and the attacks started to increase on the Oxford netminder. At 12:37, assisted by TJ Fillery, Sasha Maltsev broke the deadlock and scored a superb goal to make it 1-0. Oxford attempted to come back, but the Chieftains defended well and continued their attacking play. The period saw no penalties from either side, and the first period ended 1-0. Tom Adams faced 9 shots, whilst Ross Miller from Oxford faced 15.

The puck dropped for the second period, and Ross Miller continued to act like a wall, the Chieftains were finding it difficult to get anything past him. At times, Miller was on his front, his side, and everything else in-between. The Chieftains ramped up their attacks even further, the shots were really raining down on Oxford City Stars. At 30:20, Grant Bartlett scored a belter of a goal, unassisted, to make it 2-0, it was even more special as it was Grant's 600^th point for the Chieftains, a phenomenal achievement! Home fans didn’t have to wait long for another goal, at 33:04, assisted by Sasha Maltsev and Kieran Raynor, Grant Bartlett scored again to make it 3-0. Frustration and tempers were starting to grow from Oxford. Dylan Dix placed a well-timed hit on Johan Person, it soon escalated as it was obvious the Oxford import was not happy. The officials broke it up, both players were sent to the sin bin, with Dylan receiving 2+2, much to the disapproval from the home fans regarding the officiating. The Chieftains killed off the penalty kill successfully, Oxford just couldn’t seem to build any sort of meaningful attack and the shots continued to mount on Miller, the pressure on him was relentless. As the final seconds of the period counted down, Mikey Power was able to get his name on the scoresheet at 39:54, he was assisted by Daniel Fay and Hallden Barnes-Garner. The second period ended 4-0, Tom Adams only faced 6 shots, and Miller faced an astonishing 29!

For the third and final period, Oxford started to look like they were tiring, but Miller was still doing his best (and it has to be said, a great job) at keeping the score low. The Chieftains continued to attack. When Ollie Baldock was on the ice, he certainly injected pace and creativity, home fans were desperate for him to score, as it was obvious he was working so hard. At 45:05, Mikey Power scored his second goal of the night, assisted by Ollie, it was a well-worked goal, and it was now 5-0 to the Chieftains. Just three minutes later, at 48:56, Cameron Bartlett scored to make it 6-0, he was assisted by Alan Lack, and it was looking like a potential shutout for Tom Adams. Oxford was constantly on the back foot, and their netminder was constantly under pressure. As the attacking play continued, the officiating seemed to be more erratic. Callum Wells took a penalty for interference at 53:45, he was then joined in the sin bin at 54:46 by Dylan Dix, and then Alan Lack joined them all at 55:22 for slashing. Oxford was now on the power play, but they looked tired and were still struggling to build any form of attack. The Chieftains defended hard, but there was a lot of traffic in front of the Chieftains net, and Tydings from Oxford was able to score at 56:01 to make it 6-1.  The Chieftains were still short-handed, but that didn’t stop them from pushing forward. The Chieftains appeared to score, the goal light came on, but for some reason the goal was disallowed. The final period ended 6-1. Tom Adams faced 8 shots, Miller faced 32.

Dan Fay was awarded Man of the Match, well done Dan!  Another great win for the Chieftains, made sweeter by the fact that the Solent Devils had also managed to beat Streatham Redhawks. If people thought the season was close beforehand, it certainly is now!

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

#LetGoChieftains #AlreadyLookingForwardTo2025