Cardiff Dragons 3 - 2 Guildford Fireflies

The u12s welcomed Guilford to the Cardiff Bay ice rink hoping to improve on the heavy defeat handed out by Guilford when the two teams met in early January.

Since that defeat the Dragons have gone from strength to strength and steadily climbed the league table after pulling off some great victories both home and away.

The game started at a great pace with both team’s intent on attacking and the Dragons dealing comfortably with most of what Guilford had to offer. The Dragons started to get the upper hand of the game and were rewarded at 15:59 with a goal scored by Tom Parkinson assisted by Elis Sheppard and just 38 seconds later they went 2-0 up with Callum Buglass finding Owen Griffiths in plenty of space and Owen scoring with a great slap-shot.

The joy though was short lived as Guilford themselves got in on the scoring, pulling a goal back just before the end of the period. That completed the 1st period scoring with the Dragons leading 2-1.

The 2nd period got off to a bad start for the Dragons who conceded a goal just 11 seconds after the restart. The Dragons refused to let their heads drop and regained their composure to again take the lead with a fine unassisted goal from Tom Parkinson at 25:18.

Again though the Dragons failed to hold the lead for long with Guilford getting the equalizer just 32 seconds later. Credit though to the Dragons who were taking the game to 2nd in the league Guilford and were fighting for every loose puck in a great battling team performance.

With the game just entering the last 10 minutes the Dragons again restored their advantage with Tom Parkinson completing his hat trick assisted by Elis Sheppard. Guilford showed why they are 2nd in the league by pulling themselves level with just 6:42 seconds remaining. This set up a real nail biter with both teams going all out for the win.

Netminder James Whiting was again in superb form pulling off some superb saves. A Time out was called by the Dragons with just 34 seconds remaining with the message from Zbynek of "we can win this". As the puck dropped it fell to Callum Buglass who skated in on the net before finding Tom Parkison who found the back of the net with just 12 seconds remaining to round off a quite stunning victory for the under 12’s and sparked scenes of wild celebrations from players and parents alike(and coach and manager yee haa!!).

What a game and what a performance from all of the boys WELL DONE. This result puts the under 12’s in joint 3rd in the league which is an absolutely fantastic achievement.

The under 12’s also got a great road win on Saturday claiming a great 3-2 win away at Chelmsford with goals from Tom Parkinson(2) and Scott Bird.

STATS(from Guilford game)
Tom Parkinson 4+0
Owen Griffiths 1+0
Callum Buglass 0+2
Elis Sheppard 0+2