ICE HOCKEY :Irish Ice Hockey League (IIHL) : Dundalk Bulls v Charlestown Chiefs


Bulls kick start Ice Hockey League with a bang

By Martin Grant, Ice Hockey reporter,
At the Dundalk Ice Dome

The local Dundalk Bulls where the talking point of Irish Ice Hockey this week when they returned to their best with a surprising 6-3 victory over the Charlestown Chiefs, in the first Irish Ice Hockey League (IIHL) match since last December.

With the absence of top flight hockey for over three and a half months, it was good to be back in the Press Box for the second half of the Irish League, which certainly started with a bang.

This was second time the Bulls and Chiefs met, the last encounter it was the Bulls that fell to the hands of the ‘foreign national’ team.

The Bulls had a full team on offer, with player/coach Sean Dooley and his assistant Steven Ewen playing forward, local lad Adam Pepper in between the pipes and newly signed Gareth Roberts in defence, it certainly was a recipe of delight for the Bulls fans. However, the Chiefs where short benched this time around, only affording to ice just over thirteen players which included locals Niall Mc Evoy and Craig Fay.

Intense first period

The first period of twenty minutes consisted of hard hitting, end to end action and goals that will go down in history. The Bulls where first into the penalty box when referee William Fay banged up coach Sean Dooley for ten minutes, only three minutes into the game. With the teams coach serving a penalty, it was up to Steven Ewen to prove his worth to the team as assistant coach, and he done just that.

Oldie Mats Anjesto, who has been with the team since the first season, netted the first goal of the game just five minutes into the game, after seeing an open slot in the Chiefs nets, giving the home team a 1-0 lead.

The Chiefs were determined not to let their guard down and replied with an equalising goal from captain Aigars Brencis, less than fifty seconds later, proving just how fast ice hockey can be played at, if you know how to play the game.

A good ten minutes of play followed in favour of the Bulls, with them having most of the possession deep in the Chiefs halve for the majority of the time. Their tactics eventually plaid off after a pass from Mateu Rudovosky that was followed through by goal scorer Vlad Polacek, to give the home side a 2-1 lead.

And the work ethic continued as Rudovosky and Polacek combination contributed once again to make the scoring 3-1 in favour of the Bulls.

A defensive error on the Bulls behalf gave the Chiefs Janis Kipars a scoring oppotuinty in which he took his hand and run with it leading narrowing the Bulls lead to 3-2.

In a last minute effort of this period, Coach Sean Dooley had a one-on-one opportunity against the Chiefs goaltender Denniss Kurelass, and just yards away from the goal frame, Dooley went down on the ice and brining the period to a close, as the Bulls went into the dressing room with a 3-2 lead.

Superb goaltending from both sides in second

It was the skilful, yet professionalism, goaltending from both sides that made way for an explosive second period of action. With experienced Deniss Kurelass in nets for the Chiefs and local youngest Adam Pepper in between the pipes for the Bulls, the players certainly had their work cut out for them if they where going to have any chance of scoring.

Pepper made some outstanding saves that have never been witnessed at the Inner Relief Road venue in a long, long time. Three shots from Raimonds Karpinskis where all denied by Peppers pads, including an open net shot that hit the woodwork.

A default by the Chiefs Kurelass, who came out of his crease, made way for a priceless goal from Bulls forward Mike Minearch, brining the score to 4-2 in favour of the current League Champions.

Temperatures where running high on the Chiefs bench as everything they sought to do seem to go wrong in every way possible, as the Bulls defence stood tall.

The next decent scoring chance of the day came from Robert Grosawitz, but he just shot inches wide of the nets.

With minutes remaining in this period, the Chiefs (formally known as the Latvian Hawks) where eager to slot home another before the intermission. Chiefs Aigars Brencis shot fiercely, but Pepper stood tall to bring the scoring 4-2 at the end of the second for the Dundalk Bulls.

Chiefs dominate third but Bulls covert chances

The third and final period for the majority of time was played deep into the Bulls halve. The difference in these two teams this time around was that the Bulls chances converted into goals and the Chiefs chances…..well didn’t turn into anything at all.

The Bulls got the ball rolling first in this period of play, with a goal coming from recent forward signing of Gareth Roberts, just seven minutes into play making it 5-2. And things just got better and better for Dundalk as three minutes later Joakim Lundin brought the scoring to 6-2 following his second goal of the night.

The Chiefs finally got their act together and eventually saw the Bulls nets. An unassisted goal from former Bulls player Alex Fjodorovs made the scoring 6-3, which proved to be the final goal from both teams. A questioning appeal regarding the goal from the Bulls coaches to the officials wasn’t going to happen as the goal was already awarded and recorded on the statistic sheets, before the coaches made their way to the officials.

In a last bid saloon to add another goal to the Chiefs score sheet, Agars Brencis was awarded a penalty shot from centre ice in the dying minutes of the game. As he skated him left to right and right to left trying to observe the movements of Pepper in nets, he failed to slot it behind the line as the sound of joy was heard ringing around the Dundalk Ice Dome when the final whistle was blown, with the directors of the Dundalk Bulls Ice Hockey Cub leaving the building with a winning smile on their face following the hard working display from Sean Dooley’s men. Although he hasn’t been toughly tested this season, Dooley seems to have laid down solid foundations which he can build upon.

The Dundalk Bulls had done it. They had defeated the Chiefs. The first defeat the Chief have taken all season in the current season. The slogan of ‘you will never beat the Chiefs’ is well and truly put in the rubbish dump from here on in as the Irish Ice Hockey League gets back to its best.

Dundalk Democrat Man of Match : Adam Pepper

Dundalk Bulls: Seanna Conway, Adam Pepper, Mats Ajnesjo, Joakim Lundin, Steven Ewen, Mateu Rudovosky, Sean Dooley, Vlad Polacek, Peter Castka Robert Grosowitz, Michael Rogan, Mike Minerech, Christian Ajnesjo, Gareth Roberts, John Carney

See edited version in this weeks Dundalk Democrat dated 17thFeb


THE DUNDALK DEMOCRAT-NUMBER 1 FOR ICE HOCKEY ACTION WITH MARTIN GRANT