News Report

Chieftains vs Streatham

An extremely tight game with fantastic netminding on display

• admin
• 19 March 2024

The Britton Cup has already been won by Streatham this season, but with the Chieftains League win against Streatham last week, Coach Cliff said that this was a chance to try out a few things before the playoffs. How would the game pan out?

As the home team ventured past the fans to make it onto the ice, there was huge applause from the fans in recognition of the team coming in second in the league. For this game, Dominic Rae was in between the pipes for the Chieftains, and Gregory was opposite him for Streatham.

The puck dropped, and Streatham flew straight into action. The Chieftains were struggling to get past the blue line as they were being pushed back so much. Streatham were playing with pace and applying pressure. At 4:13, Kieran Raynor was unfortunately sent to the sinbin for trapping. It didn't take Streatham long to score their first goal of the night. At 4:39, Ziggy Beesley managed to slot the puck in the back of the net, it was 0-1, but at least Kieran was released from the sinbin. After this goal, the Chieftains started to get more control of the puck and were able to mount attacks on the Streatham goal. The play was end-to-end, with Dominic Rae performing some fantasic saves while keeping the Streatham attacks at bay. Gregory was also performing well at the Streatham end too. At 13:12, assisted by TJ Fillery and Sasha Maltsev, Tommy Huggett was able to tip in Sasha's shot past Gregory to make it 1-1. The Riverside was rocking, and the end-to-end play continued. Streatham were really applying pressure at times, but Dominic Rae and the defence seemed to be able to soak it up really well. The first period ended 1-1. Rae faced 15 shots, and Streatham faced 12 shots.

For the second period, the Chieftains looked much stronger. They weren't being pegged back as much as they were for the first period, and they were able to create great moves on goal. Both netminders were having a phenomenal game and were playing a massive part in keeping the scoreline low. The Chieftains started to ramp up the pressure on Streatham, and at 30:27, Waller from Streatham got sinbinned for tripping. The Chieftains were on the powerplay, and the attacks came in droves, but again, Gregory was able to keep the puck out. With just a few seconds remaining of the powerplay, the Chieftains built one more attack, and at 32:14, assisted by Grant Bartlett and Sasha Maltsev, Hallden Barnes-Garner was able to put the Chieftains back in the lead with a great goal to make it 2-1. As you'd expect, Streatham came straight back on the attack, and at 33:13, Ben Russell received a two-minute penalty for holding. Dominic Rae continued to perform some amazing saves during the powerkill, and the defence was holding, but as per the Chieftains goal, with only a few seconds remaining, Streatham managed to equalise at 34:57 with a goal from JJ Pitchley. The second period continued to be end-to-end, it finished 2-2, with Rae facing 14 shots and Streatham facing 18.

It felt like the Chieftains had the better part of the second period, and this continued into the third. The action continued to be end-to-end, and both teams seemed to experience periods of sustained pressure, but both netminders were performing extremely well. At 44:12, assisted by Ollie Baldock, Damon Porter came flying down the side of the rink, and as he started to cut in, he flicked the puck into the back of the net. Gregory looked stunned, not quite believing how the puck managed to find its way into the back of the net. The Riverside gave out a huge cheer, the goal just came from nowhere. It was now 3-2. Shortly after, the Chieftains found themselves back on the power play. Again, they pushed forward, and at one point, Gregory was on his back, and the Chieftains took a close range shot. The fans thought it was impossible to stop, but somehow Gregory had managed to catch the puck backhanded—an unbelievable save and very impressive! Midway into the period, Streatham managed to build an attack, and ex-Chieftain Callum Burnett was able to bring the score level once more at 51:27. The play evened out again, but as both teams approached the dying minutes, there was a slight nervousness and also an expectation amongst the fans that this was heading to overtime. However, at 59:30, Streatham were able to mount one final attack on the Chieftains. Assisted by Ziggy Beesley, Ryan Watt was able to score to make it 3-4. The seconds ran down on the clock, and the game finished 3-4. Both netminders faced 19 shots each in the final period.

It's disappointing to lose a game in the last few seconds of a match, but the team can hold their heads up high. It shows how much the Chieftains have managed to close the gap on Streatham. Dominic Rae was phenomenal in goal, and he was rightly awarded Man of the Match for his efforts. Well done, Dom!

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

#LetsGoChieftains #TheFutureIsLookingVeryBright