Lee Valley Lions

Chelmsford Warriors

Goals

Penalties

Lee Valley Lions

Chelmsford Warriors

Additional Comments:

Lee Valley travelled up the A12 on Saturday for a return fixture against the Chelmsford Warriors who they had beaten 6–4 at Lea Bridge Road earlier this month. The home team were without influential player/coach Andy Hannah, who’d received a two-game ban for Abuse at the previous clash.

The whole match was a fast-paced affair, the game flowing from end-to-end with very few stoppages, requiring short shifts to give the players a chance to get their breath back. The first chance fell to the Lions –  Michael Jacobs was clear with the Warrior goalie prone and it looked like all he had to do was lift the puck over him, but it went into the goalie’s body.

With just over five minutes gone,  Lions’ right wing debutant Nick Breigoos opened his account as he found himself clear and hit a slapshot from the hash marks that left the Chelmsford goalie stranded. The Lions’ penalty-killing unit only had one outing this session but worked well, allowing only one shot with Michael Ranby in the bin for charging.

George Alley was under pressure in the Lions’ net soon after, getting down twice to low shots and keeping the Warriors at bay until 10:51 when Callum Fowler went coast to coast and deeked the Lions’ netminder to level the scores.

Lee Valley didn’t recover quickly from the first strike and only 30 seconds later let in a relatively soft goal. It looked like they might go two goals down very soon after as another breakaway put Alley in a one-on-one situation but he foiled the Warriors’ forward. Scott Beeson had a late effort superbly saved by Mike Robinson in the Chelmsford goal.

The second period was again all about pace – and how it was dealt with – as the teams traded goals. Lee Valley had the first good opportunity as Nick Alley passed across the face of the goal to Scott Beeson, whose shot was saved low down.  Soon after a similar chance fell to Beeson again, following a pass from Stas Prokofiev. Chelmsford tried the same maneouvre at the other end of the ice and had better luck, Darren Brown beating George Alley to score the first goal of the period.

The Lions were unfortunate not to pull one back as Stas Prokofiev hit the bar but the puck stayed out. The Lions did get the puck in the net though soon after, though, making it a one-goal game. There was good work in front of the net from Alastair Band, whose short-range shot was saved. The puck fell to Andrew Holdaway, who just had to back-hand it into an unguarded goal (well done to Andrew on scoring his first goal for the Lions).

Lee Valley appeared to relax after scoring and within a minute Chelmsford hit the net to restore the two-goal lead. The Lions finished the period strongly and were rewarded with a good breakaway goal, Scott Beeson racing down the right wing with Nick Alley crashing the net in the centre. Beeson waited until the goalie thought the cross-ice pass was coming and let rip, catching him off guard.

The game got away from Lee Valley early in the third period as Chelmsford scored two quick goals to open up a three-goal lead. This became four shortly after when netminder George Alley was beaten by a slapshot from just inside his blue line. The Lions restored some pride when Scott Beeson scored two slapshot goals, both from the hashmarks, but they fell to another quick reply as Chelmsford re-established their three-goal lead within 30 seconds of the Lions’ fifth goal.

Chelmsford certainly deserved the win, as although the Lions showed moments of great flair, overall their frequent loss of concentration cost them dearly.

Referee was Meekison, Linesmen were McGill and Stephenson.

Thanks to Tony Boot for writing this match report.