Swindon 3 – 5 Cardiff

The shortest away trip of the season always produces the most competitive of matches as both Swindon and Cardiff always want to win this one.

The game got under way with a welcome back to Chris Price after serving his suspension from last season and the crowd seeing good chances going to both sides as they both tested the defensive play early on.

Cardiff had the best early chance on a power play as they broke down the defence of Swindon after some good work by Ben Davies. He zipped a pass to Chris Jones ‘CJ’ but the shot went inches wide.

Cardiff took some time to get up to speed and they went a goal behind after a face off in the Cardiff blue zone as Swindon won the puck in a well-worked play. Shannon Taylor’s wrist shot flew into the net at 10.59. Cardiff continued to pepper the Swindon net minder for the rest of the first period but could not find the net.

After the break and a team talk, Cardiff came out the brightest creating some excellent chances; it took a fantastic tip in from Chris Price (23.53) from a CJ slap shot to finally break the ice to level the game. Cardiff then took the lead on power play, a neat pass from Adam Wood set up Ben Davies to blast a superb slap shot that gave the Swindon net minder no chance (28.25).

The Dragons continued to attack the net but some defiant defence and great saves continued to keep Swindon in the game and it took a power play for them to score again; a slap shot by Ciaran Long beat Michael Crisp at 32.50.

Cardiff continued to push for the lead again and how they did not score was a mystery to the crowd, as chances were not taken. Then on another Swindon power play Cardiff old boy Joey Lewis made it 3-2 at the end of the 2nd period (34.42).

After the ice cut, both sides had good early chances and the best was to come for Swindon who were awarded a penalty shot after Ciaran was judged to have been hooked back on a breakaway. This could have been the goal they needed to stretch their lead but Michael Crisp read the play and made the save of the day, this seemed to spur on the Dragons as they made some excellent passing plays, battling to be first to the puck every time.

Only the MOM performance by Oli Lansdowne kept out chances from Ben Norrish and Luke Poretta.

The reward for Cardiff was to follow as Chris Hart (47.58) blasted a blue line slap shot that was to hot to handle, he levelled the game at 3 –3. Swindon then took a penalty and on the power play Cardiff scored a well worked goal, scored by Adam Wood (55.41) with assists for Ben Davies and Luke Evans.

Back in the lead with under 5 minutes left, could we hold onto the lead?

The pressure on the Dragons was eased by the killer goal, scored by Adam Wood (57.01), assisted by CJ and Ben Davies. Some final pressure from Swindon was dealt with to give the Dragons their 3rd successive win of the season.

A well-deserved win as the whole team played some excellent hockey and a big thank you goes to manager Rob Jones for getting Adam to the game.

MOM – Luke Poretta, well done!!

Stats
Ben Davies 1 – 2 SOG
Luke Evans 0 – 1 Swindon – 3/17
Chris Price 1 – 0 Cardiff – 5/40
Chris Hart 1 – 0
CJ 0 –2
Adam Wood 2 – 1