Coventry Chaos vs. Cleveland Comets 20th May 2006 The Coventry Chaos began the three and a half hour road trip to Billingham with high spirits among the limited number of players. The last time these two sides met saw Cleveland win the game 27-4. News that Andre Malo, an ex grand slam winning Sheffield Steeler had been icing for the Comets recently, filled the travelling Chaos players with excitement at the prospect of playing against such a big name in british ice hockey. Malo however did not ice on the night.

Netminder Wayne Burgess was unable to make the journey, so with no back up goalie it was left to Colin Bennett to play the full 60 minutes between the pipes. After the heavy defeat in the last fixture, Coventry weren’t going to go down easily, and came out fighting from the off. Both teams had good chances at either end of the ice before Mark Stringfellow broke the deadlock at 3.10 from a Tom Hooper pass. The game continued at high pace, the Coventry defence were working as a solid unit to keep the lead, with the forwards seeing good chances at the other end of the ice thwarted by Comets goalie Outhwaite. Ash Cathcart thought he had made it 2-0 mid way through the period, only for the comets netminder to produce a stunning glove save. The Comets were strong offensively, and got themselves off the mark at 18.52 when Scott Williams scored the first of what would be a hatrick on the night. Coventry had barely had time to regroup after the equaliser when Comets scored again at 19.32. Glenn O'Conner getting the goal when he shot the puck home through traffic in a goal mouth scramble. This left Coventry coach Lee Hubball agonisingly having to change his team talk going into the first intermission after the momentum swing at the end of the period.

The second period started where the first period had finished. Both teams having some strong scoring chances, and a physical game was developing as Scott West and Steu Durham put in some big hits trying to get their team back into the game. Cleveland netted a third goal at 24.30 when Crossling scored assisted by Bunn, and they added a fourth at 28.53 when Bunn broke away and buried the puck low through netminder Bennett’s five hole. Both teams went on to score another goal each, Hind with the Comets goal with assists from O'Conner and Bunn, then Tom Hooper narrowed the gap to 5-2 going into the 2nd intermission. Ash Cathcart made the pass, and Hooper took his time to roof the puck past netminder Daves, who had denied Coventry many times previously since coming off the bench at the mid point in the game. The message from Lee Hubball to his Chaos players in the second intermission was simple. They were playing their best hockey in a long time against a strong team, but with confidence high the game was far from over. The win was there for the taking in the 3rd period.

When Williams made it 6-2 to the Comets, it was looking like a tall order for Coventry, but conceding the goal only drove them on further, and 16 seconds after the restart, Tom Hooper pulled one back for the Chaos when he intercepted a pass to break away 1 on 0 and beat the goalie. Cleveland lost O'Conner at 45.09 when he was given a ten minute personal misconduct for shooting the puck after the whistle had blown an act more out of petulance than frustration. Mark Oates continued his superb goal scoring run when he made it a two goal game at 45.41, shooting low through the 5 hole of comets netminder Daves. Cleveland called a time out after seeing a good lead diminish, and following the restart settled down into a good rhythm, playing some outstanding hockey. For Coventry it was too much, having played a strong game for almost fifty minutes with a short bench they lost Simon Manning to injury, a major blow at the crucial point of the game. Cleveland scored three more goals with Scott Williams completing a hat-trick, also with Ackworth and Robinson adding their names to the score sheet. Coventry played out the last ten minutes of the game with grit and a never say die attitude, and it paid off when Mark Stringfellow scored his second goal of the game, assisted by local lad John Liddle. Cleveland almost broke into double figures with one minute remaining in the game; Glenn O'Conner broke away after stealing the puck, but lost an edge on approach to the goal. Chaos netminder Bennett coming off worse as he was bundled into the back of his own net by the floored O'Conner.

Scott Williams was a deserved winner of Cleveland’s man of the match with a well taken hat-trick. For the chaos, Tom Hooper was on fine form, double shifting where necessary and picking up a 2+1on the score card for his efforts. Kier Tipton had an impressive game playing away from his usual position and in defence. Ben Hooper, Ash Cathcart, and Mark Stringfellow showed some great stick handling and skated hard, foiling the comets players with their pace on many occasions. Phil Cole looks likely to be a good asset to the Chaos after a good performance in his first game. Steu Durham and Scott West were the most physical of the Chaos team, and weighed in with some good hits. Simon Manning was having a good game until injury hampered his chances of completing the game. Man of the match though went to net minder Colin Bennett, who had made some important and influential saves throughout the game.

After the game, Chaos coach Lee Hubball commented this was a well contested game between two strong teams, both of whom really stood up to be counted when it mattered. I’m not sure the score line showed just how close the game was, but Cleveland pulled together after they called their time out and are looking in good shape for the upcoming Rec championships.