Chelmsford Chieftains V Cardiff ENL Devils Review
Coming into the game on the back of Andy Moffat departing the team and Ross Brears being injured, it meant that the Chieftains would have to mix their lines about and early on it seemed to have worked as the Cardiff side were seemingly shocked at the new style of hockey the Chieftains played. The Devils are known for their hard-hitting and rough style of play, but they were not expecting to have the Chieftains outmuscle them early on. Referee Ian Hayden seemed intent on calling players for most things early in the game and the Chieftains took advantage of that at 11:02 when Jerry Pavlus played the puck behind the net for Danny Hammond to sneak in at the back post and tap it into the unguarded net whilst on the powerplay.

Into the second period and things had continued in much the same vein when the Chieftains struck again on the powerplay when Blaho Novak redirected a blast of a shot from Sean Easton past the helpless Mike Brabon in the Devils net. 32 seconds later and it was 2-1 when the Devils hit back through the impressive Luke Piggott. The fans were really getting into the game now and this seemed to lift the Chieftains and in particular Pavlus who looked like the Pavlus of last season with his trickery in and out of the Devils defence and firing past Brabon. The Chieftains defence were ripped open at times with some neat moves by the Devils and just a few minutes after Pavlus’s goal it was back to 3-2 when Tim Burrows found space in front of Ben Clements and rifled it home. This reawakened the Chieftains and Aaron Connolly was the next to get on the scoresheet with a sweet backhanded shot that beat Brabon. Veteran Alan Armour had been incensed by something that Novak had done and used the time in the celebrations to chase after the youngster and remonstrate with him. Novak and Danny Wright teamed up though and things were calmed down before they got out of hand, but Hayden did send both Novak and Armour for 10 minute penalties though. Returning to the side was Darren Brown and he was on tip-top form as he battled for every puck and when most in the rink thought he had lost the puck on a 1on2 breakaway, he was able to regain possession and slide it across for Connolly to notch his second of the night to make it 5-2 going into the final break.

The third was a quiet affair early on, but came alive as the hits started to go in and tempers were rising. On a seemingly innocent ‘non-icing’ call by the linesman Brabon lost his temper with the officials and earned himself a 10minute penalty for abuse of official. A few minutes later and Hayden again was greeted with jeers from the home crowd when a big hit was attempted by Burrows on defensive rock Alex Staples who stood his ground and fell on top of the Devil as they both fell to the ice. Hayden then decided to blow the whistle and send Staples for a 2 minute high sticking penalty. The comedy moment of the night came moments later when a shot from Novak seemed to bounce off Brabon, hit the post, come back off the post and hit the back of Brabon’s leg and end up in the back of the net. Brabon just sat there looking forlorn and clearly had an ‘It’s just not my night’ look on his face. The game played out without much further incident, other than a few more big hits going in to delight the home fans.

A beaming head coach Dean Birrell said after the game “I am delighted with the performance tonight. The Devils gave us a tough game tonight, but I felt we stuck to our game plan and kept ourselves in front and generally stayed out of being sucked into silly penalties and needless scuffles. I think the defence showed why they are I think second best in the league. They worked really hard tonight and I think only Invicta have allowed less goals than our defence. People go on about our great forwards, but our defence held firm tonight and I think they deserve as much from the plaudits as the forwards. Not forgetting of course Ben Clements who had a great game in goal for us”.

Chelmsford Warriors V Streatham Bruins Review
The Bruins put up a good fight in this game and showed some glimpses of play that don't reflect their league position. The Warriors struggled to get going in this game and when they did it was a fairly comfortable win for them, although the scoreline doesn't reflect the dominance the Warriors showed towards the end of the game.

Nicky Green scored first for the Warriors during the second period, quickly followed by an equaliser from the South Londoners.

Lee Hounslow then got the game winning goal, followed up shortly after by Sean Martin netting the team's 3rd of the night midway through the third. Hounslow then put the game beyond reach as things turned feisty in the last few minutes of the game and the officials just about kept a lid on things, but words were exchanged as the players were leaving the ice.

The Warriors return to action on the 13th of March when they travel to South Wales to play the Cardiff Satans and they follow it up with a home game on the 20th when the Wightlink Tigers are the visitors in the Warriors final league game of the season, barring the Bristol Pitbulls game being rearranged.