Ice hockey: Chieftains thrash the Dynamos

The win was Chieftains' 17th in 18 games and their fifth against Invicta this season.

Dynamos were without Andy Martin but still possessed a squad full of talent and experience, but they were no match for Chieftains who have hit top form at a vital stage of the season.

Chieftains had the first opportunities with both Shaun McFadyen and Jon Cotton going close on the first power-play but they had to wait until 7.41 before they opened their account.

Lack of concentration on the blue line from the visitors' defence presented the puck to Darren Cotton who made no mistake in punishing his former team.

Just 27 seconds later Andy Hannah won the puck on the boards and skated past two defenders to hit home a fine goal from a narrow angle.

Invicta rallied and gave Simon Smith in the Chieftains goal chance to show his form as he pulled off two excellent saves from the Dynamos forwards at around the mid-period time.

Chieftains swept into a three-goal lead at 16.25 when a Darren Cotton blue liner flew past Murray.

The period break gave welcome relief to Dynamos who were already three goals adrift.

More pressure early in the second period saw Chieftains take an unassailable six goal lead within the space of four minutes.

At 24.47 good work by Billy Price saw the puck fall at the feet of Jon Cotton who converted a simple tap in.

Under a minute later, a classic Chieftains' passing movement between Darren Cotton and Duane Ward ended with Ward firing in from close rage for Chieftains' fifth goal.

At 28.35, Jon Cotton hit his second goal from an astute Jamie Randall pull back from behind the goal.

Invicta's first goal was an inoccuous one when Simon Smith looked to have a shot well plucked from the air only for the puck to spill toMike Kindred who made no mistake at 31.00.

The goal stung Chieftains who immediately responded and at 33.27 Darren Cotton scored one of the goals of the season, skating from his own zone before firing high past Tester from an acute angle to complete his hat-trick.

The goal presented Dynamos with the opportunity to replace goalkeeper Tester with Andy Gillon.

At 35.49, Chieftains lost the puck on their own blue line and ace predator Mikko Skinnari slid the puck between Smith's legs.

With only 39 seconds left in the period, Skinnari hit home another goal to restore some pride for Dynamos.

Chieftains' superior strength and manpower told in the last period as they netted five unanswered goals.

At 45.41, with referee Terry Young's hand raised for a delayed penalty call on Invicta, Chieftains swept forward and good interplay between Randall and Hannah left Jon Cotton with a simple tap-in to join his brother Darren on a hat-trick.

Chieftains were presented with a power-play with several players picking up minor penalties and at 46.20 a Pete Morley slap shot gave the defender his first league goal of the season, the assists going to Carl Greenhous and Hannah.

Chieftains hit double figures on 48.21 when Ward scored with a brilliant backhand.

Another power-play opportunity at 52.05 led to Ward's hat-trick goal, but, arguably the biggest cheer of the night was reserved for Chieftains' 12th goal, which set up by Tari Suwari and Andy Clements and put away in fine style by Sean Wallis who was celebrating his 18th birthday.

The Youngs Brewers man-of-the-match beers went to one of Chieftains' hat-trick heroes, Jon Cotton, while for Dynamos, the excellent Mikko Skinnari picked up the award.

To cap a fine family night for the Cotton family, Jon's son Jordan became their youngest official puck sponsor, just three days before his second birthday.

Spot the puck . . the referee keeps a close eye on proceedings in Sunday's English Premier League match between Chelmsford Chieftains and Invicta Dynamos at the Riverside Ice & Leisure Centre in Chelmsford.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.