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April 17th 2006
Coventry Chaos 4 Whitley Bay Wildcats 12

The last fixture between these two sides saw Coventry Chaos lose by a big margin up in Whitley Bay. They therefore approached this game with some trepidation as they where without their number one net minder Wayne Burgess who was not available to play. It was left to the back up netminder Colin Bennett to make a rare appearance starting between the pipes with the relatively inexperienced Paul Shipman as back up.



Both teams started out at a fast pace and the first few minutes of the game saw both come close to scoring with some great chances, only some fine goaltending at either end of the ice keeping the game scoreless. It was Coventry who broke the deadlock at 10:34. Tom Hooper intercepting a pass to enter the zone and roof a fierce wrist shot past Forster. Whitley however were creating some good opportunities in front of the net and tied the game at 12:23, Willey scoring the first of his 5 goals on the night.

The start of the second period saw Whitley catch Coventry napping, scoring straight from the face off at 20:06 when Graham received a pass from Willey and waltzed around the Coventry defence before beating the stranded netminder Bennett. Coventry were rocked by the early goal and found it hard to find their rhythm, while Whitley were gaining momentum. Willey made it 3-1 when Coventry were caught short changing on the fly.



Coventry looked to find some stability in their play but surrendered another goal only 19 seconds later at 23:39. Tensions boiled over near the mid point in the game after Whitley's Davies took objection to a check by Chaos' Steve Tyrell on one of his team mates. Davies received 2+10 for roughing for his efforts. A mistake by the Chaos defence in their own zone saw Andy Graham steal in and bury the puck in the net past the despairing Bennett making the score 5-1 just before 30 minutes.

With Forster standing strong in the Whitley net, Chaos could see the game slipping beyond their reach and took the opportunity to give the back-up netminder Shipman a chance to get some ice time.

Whitley were again fast out of the blocks at the start of the 3rd, scoring 4 goals inside the first six minutes, but not before Andy Pickering scored Chaos' second goal with an assist by Hooper at 41:49. Only the efforts of Steu (Ed - this is the correct spelling) Durham and Jason Jeffrey, playing in defence together for the first time kept Whitley's offence to a minimum, while Simon Manning and Scott West made sure they never had chance to rest in their own zone causing trouble down the wings on every shift.



The last ten minutes of the game were the most physical. Paul Brown took objection to an elbow from Whitley captain Elgie and both were ejected from the game following the resulting fracas. Paul Brown having some choice words for the referee who appeared to miss the original elbow and received further punishment by way of a misconduct penalty.

Ash Cathcart and Tom Hooper bagged a goal each for the Chaos while Whitley's second netminder was still relatively cold having just replaced Forster. Hooper made up for his earlier mistake in front of his own goal with a tally of 2+1 for the game, but even with Whitley scoring 3 more goals in the closing stages, the action wasn’t over yet.

With barely two minutes left in the game, Davies wasn’t finished with Tyrell after their earlier confrontation with the pair wrestling each other to the ground. It was Tyrell who took retribution, pummelling Davies to settle up their differences.



The final hooter sounded with the score 12-4 to Whitley Bay. Willey was the obvious choice for Whitley's man of the match with a tally of 5+1. For the Chaos, Lee Fairbrother and John Warburton both put in solid performances in defence as always. Richard Butlin and Kier Tipton both showed good promise in their first game for the club, and netminder Bennett could have won man of the match for his first period display alone, turning away 30 of 31 shots to keep the game tied going into the 1st intermission. However it was Ash Cathcart who took the honour, scoring a fine goal and having a gritty, no nonsense approach to counter Whitley's style of play. After the game, Chaos captain Lee Fairbrother commented "I don’t think the score was a true reflection of the game, we were more than equal to them in the first period, but they came out stronger in the last two, and even with a short bench, their experience showed through and were worthy victors on the night."