Final Score - Oxford 1 : 2 Peterborough

Sunday 9th December 2007

Oxford entertained the previously unbeaten Peterborough Islanders with a few scores to settle after defeats to the Islanders on two occasions already this season.

Both teams started the game at a frenetic pace however the referee had to step in early to sort out an incident between Stars captain Darren Elliott and Peterborough antagoniser extraordinaire Ross Mackintosh. This happened after another low dangerous hit by Mackintosh who seemingly wanted to finish where he had left off in the previous game where he hospitalised Elliott with a similar dangerous low hit. Elliott reacted and both players were sent to the box to cool off. Oxford then had the better of the play but both teams continued to hit penalty trouble with the referee determined to clamp down on any misdemeanours that may escalate tempers. This was a wise move by the ref who by and large continued his sensible approach to the game throughout. The first period stayed goal less with Oxford carving out by far the more chances.

The second period saw more of the same with Oxford looking most likely to score but the Peterborough net minder holding firm. Dean Francis had the best chance of the period for Oxford but hit the bar from close range to leave the home fans frustrated. With less than a minute remaining in the period a pass from left hand side by Islanders Steve Maile was met by Perkins who snatched at the shot but the puck somehow bobbled under Stars netminder James Skaife to give the Islanders a vital lead.

If Oxford thought they had been hard done by, they were probably right but they came out flying in the third period and scored the equaliser with only a minute gone. A speculative dump by Mark Krater was spilled by the Peterborough goalie to the bemused Grant Bailey who rounded the flailing goalie to send the home fans wild. This seemed to shock the Islanders and Oxford then enjoyed long periods of pressure with the Peterborough goalie more than making up for his error with some fine saves from Green, Francis and Elliott in particular. With the last two minutes approaching Fraser Hendry skated down on the Oxford defence and seemed to have no options until he dropped the puck back to Mackintosh who was all alone and made no mistake firing the puck through Skaife’s legs to seal the game for the visitors and spark wild celebrations on the Islanders bench. At the end of the game there was an altercation between Grant Bailey and Islanders Craig Britton who had bored everyone throughout the game questioning every single call the referee made. Nothing came of this and both teams returned to the blue line for the man of the match awards.

Scorers:

Oxford: Grant Bailey 1+0, Mark Krater 0+1.

Peterborough: Thomas Perkins 1+0, Ross Mackintosh 1+0, Steve Maile 0+1, Clint Herring 0+1, Fraser Hendry 0+1.

Penalties:

Oxford: Dave Carr, Jacob Smith, Will Skaife, Andy Cox, Nick Oliver Lee Featherstone, Grant Bailey, Darren Elliott, all 2 mins.

Peterborough: Kristian Simo 6 mins, Steve Maile 6, Clint Herring 4, Jason Buckman 4, Ross Mackintosh 4, Rob Jinks 2.

Netminding:

Oxford: James Skaife - 29 saves, 2 goals, total 31.

Peterborough: James Moore - 33 saves, 1 goal, total 32.

Also Played:

Oxford: Nick Eden, Joe Oliver, Kent Johnson, Sam Broughton, Nick Oliver, Dean Francis, Kevin McGurk (NM - did not ice).

Peterborough: Keiren De'Ath, Jon Brammall, Dale Jowett, Jamie Holland, Adam Holloway, Craig Britton, Kelly Herring (NM - did not ice), Tony Dawson, Jon Cranston, Bernie Bradford, James Pentecost, Stu Dane.

Period Scores:

0-0, 0-1, 1-1