Swindon 6 - 5 Cardiff Junior Devils

The Under 18 travelled to Swindon to open the 2008 season, this has always been a hard fixture, with both sides considering it to be a ‘local derby’. Both teams looked nervous at the face off. With the home ice advantage and pre season game practice under their belts Swindon settled into their game quickly. Swindon took the lead scoring 4 goals in the first period with Cardiff responding with a single goal.

The Cardiff goal seemed to be the calming influence the team needed, the second period brought more control and structure with several periods of good passing hockey by all the boys. Swindon reverted to a very physical game keeping the pressure on the Cardiff goal. CJ in his first game coaching the 18’s kept the team focused resulting in 2 additional goals to Cardiff.

With the score standing at 4-3 in the third period, the game looked to have the makings of a real knife edge finish. The period did not disappoint Swindon added their fifth goal but Cardiff, continued to improve the structure of their game and kept within reach with a Ben Davies slap shot goal from the blue line. The game continued to swing from end to end with Swindon claiming a lucky goal which was followed by a quick response from Cardiff. The team continued the pressure with the last few minutes seeing the play totally in the Swindon end. The team put in a valiant effort but were unlucky to see the score remain at Swindon 6 Cardiff 5.

Not the start we were hoping to have, but a start which showed what the team is capable of delivering and with CJ’s enthusiastic coaching and hard work from the boys we can look forward to an exiting 2008 season.

Game Stats

Goal Scorers:	Assisted by:
Ben Davies 4+0	Chris Jones 0+3
Jordan Powell 1+0	James Preece 0+1
	Elliott Chapman 0+2

Shots on Goal:	Man of the Match:	Spirit of the Game:
Michael Crisp 18 James Hall 20	Ben Davies