Charlestown Chiefs 12 Castlereagh Spartans 5

Sunday, October 4th, 2009 / 13:58 / Match Reports News Headlines

Posted by James Glover

The opening senior game in the newly opened Charlestown Ice Rink in Dublin seen the Charlestown Chiefs host the Spartans in an exciting end to end pre-season warm up game.

Both teams took to the ice for the 8:00pm face off after watching the junior game that proceeded. The new rink and chippy ice surface took a bit of getting used to for both teams and the opening period seen some hard hitting end to end action with the Chiefs taking an early lead when Vytautas Lukosevicius managed to trickle the puck through the 5 hole of Hugh Smyth. The Spartans soon got back on level terms when Jordan Scott-Brown netted his first of the evening converting a 2on1, but again moments later the Chiefs regained the lead when Hugh Smyth turned over the puck and again Lukosevicius pounced to double his tally. Willy Morrison snapped a shot past the Chiefs netminder as the period was coming to a close and both teams walked to the locker room tied 2-2.

The second period seen the Chiefs increase their lead as they grabbed a couple of quick goals. A bit of rough stuff infront of the Chiefs goal seen Gareth Roberts sitting out for 10 minutes for roughing, and moments later Trevor Kennedy followed a similar fait as he sat a 10 minute misconduct penalty. The Chiefs capitalised on the resulting powerplays and put some daylight between the respective scores.

The puck was dumped in deep to the Chiefs end and as Gareth Roberts penalty expired he latched onto a loose puck and slapped over the blocker side of netminder Deniss Kurelass. The Spartans lost captain Peter McCarter to a suspected broken leg after a knee on knee hit in the neutral zone. Mark Reynolds was also sidelined when his visor smashed into his nose again after a neutral zone hit.

At this point the Chiefs started to turn the screw and players like Aleksandrs Fjodorovs, Raimonds Karpinskis & Aigars Brencis showed their experience, each notching goals and capitalising on the Spartans short bench. As some what of a conciliation, Arnaud dos Santos and Jordan Scott-Brown added two more for the Spartans before the teams skated off with the Chiefs taking the spoils with a 12-5 win.

Both teams meet again this coming Saturday night in Charlestown as the 2009/10 IIHA senior league gets underway.

Photos From The Game