Final Score - Oxford 4 : Haringey 1

Sunday 14 September 2008

The last time Oxford played Haringey, the North London side celebrated winning the play offs with a convincing victory. Two seasons later and the Stars took to the ice determined to not only avenge that defeat but also to start of the season with a convincing win. Oxford paraded all their new signings with a new look line up whilst Haringey also had new faces on show most notably their new Canadien import Blair Dubyk.

A large crowd had gathered down at Oxpens road in anticipation of a winning start for the City Stars and after only three minutes the home side took the lead with a goal on the powerplay. Jacob Smith pased the puck on to Nick Oliver who released Joe Edwards skating round the back of the net and the youngster cut inside before roofing the puck past a startled Wride in the Haringey goal. Haringey were struggling to get in to the game and four minutes later Oxford scored again with Edwards turning provider this time making space for captain Darren Elliott to fire in from the slot. With Oxford in the ascendency it was perhaps unfortunate that instead of pressing home their advantage they took a number of silly minor penalties.

Haringey pulled a goal back after fourteen minutes when a fortunate bounce off the back boards landed nicely out front for Callum Mathison to slot home. Just as Haringey were celebrating though the Stars broke down the wing through Francis and he slid the puck across to Nick Oliver who finished well past the besieged Wride.

Haringey did manage to carve out a number of chances towards the end of the period with Dubyk and Doyle both being denied by a solid looking James Skaife in the Oxford goal.

After an entertaining first period the fans must have been expecting Oxford to go on and score more however the constant flow of minor penalties meant they spent a large amount of time shorthanded including two 5 on 3 Haringey powerplays. Oxford did manage to finally score the fourth goal through captain Elliott again who scored his second goal of the evening assisted by new signing Armour.

The only other incident of note was a rare foray up front from Stars defenceman Andrew Shurmer who nearly pulled off a spinorama in front of goal and was then offered a fight by Haringeys Ben Smith to which the Oxford man declined.

The third period was not one for the neutral with Oxford seemingly happy with their lead and Haringey rarely threatening up front. The final buzzer went and Oxford bagged the two points in a game they didn’t look likely to lose. As Tina Turner belted out ‘Simply the best’ over the speaker system inside the rink, the Stars celebrated, however coach Darryl Morvan will know that the Stars have a lot of hard work to do if they want to live up to the granny of rock’s lyrics for real.

Scorers:-

Oxford: Elliott 2+0, Oliver N 1+1, Edwards 1+1, Smith 0+2, Armour 0+1, Francis 0+1.

Haringey: Mathison 1+0, Varcoe 0+1, Doyle 0+1

Goaltending

On Oxford (Skaife) 29

On Haringey (Wride) 39

Penalties

Oxford: Bailey, Elliott, Shurmer & Cox all 4 mins, Eden & Featherstone 2 mins each

Haringey: Varcoe, Cox & Bestic all 2 mins.

Also Played

Oxford: Carr, Broughton, Wojciak, Oliver J, Hargreaves, McGurk (NM - did not ice)

Haringey: Mallett (NM - did not ice), Smith, Dubyk, Dodds, Appleby, Hardy, Goddard, Fearnley, Print.