Final Score - Oxford 6:5 Swindon

18th November 2007

Oxford travelled to local rivals Swindon in a game that was anticipated to be a close affair by supporters of both teams. The City Stars were still missing Aidy Haigh and Alan Green however Darren Elliott returned to the captains role.

The game started at a frenetic pace and Oxford looked quite nervous in front of the reasonably large crowd watching from above in the Link Centre gallery. After a spell of pressure in the Oxford defensive zone the Stars had a few breakaways but found Thompson the Swindon goalie in good form. With five minutes gone Swindons Alan Armour cleverly dumped the puck in to the Oxford zone and it bounced out kindly to the on rushing Mike Smith who fired past Skaife in the Oxford goal to give Swindon a deserved lead. Five minutes later Oxford had an injury scare as goalie Skaife fell awkwardly on his knee and the game stopped for a few minutes as he received medical attention. Thankfully he was fine to continue and shortly afterwards a long clearance by the Oxford defence found former Solent sniper Kent Johnson who drove wide of the Swindon defence before shooting high past Thompson in the Swindon goal to score from an unlikely angle. With Oxford now enjoying more spells of possession they gradually eased in to their rythym and Dean Francis broke away past a sluggish Swindon defence before turning Thompson inside out and sliding the puck through his legs to make it 2-1 to the City Stars.

The second period started well for Oxford as Swindons discipline seemed to desert them and with the home side hitting penalty trouble it wasn’t long before the visitors extended their lead through Dean Francis again after Sam Broughton and former Swindon forward Grant Bailey had stretched the home sides defence on the double powerplay. Eleven seconds later it was Broughtons turn to hit the back of the net after he tipped in a Nick Eden thunderbolt from the blue line. Despite gaining a three goal cushion the City Stars switched to casual mode and this was not a wise move as the old heads within the Swindon ranks slowly turned the game round in their favour. After Oxfords domination of the first ten minutes of the period it was now the home sides turn to turn on the style. Led from the front by talisman Alan Armour and backed up by former Oxford legends Scott Gough and Dan Prachar, the Wiltshire side took control and pulled a goal back on the powerplay through Burgess with the assist going to Smith. Then with three minutes to go the City Stars pushed the panic button and were all at sea as Armour set up Newton to reduce the deficit further and make the score 4-3 to Oxford and set up a grandstand finale in the third period.

Oxford skated out in the third period without the energetic Andy Cox who had taken a Dan Pracher slapshot in the fore arm in the first period and was unable to continue. With the Stars still a little shell shocked from Swindons comeback in the second period they hit penalty trouble again with careless penalties. Bizarrely though this sent Swindon in to the casual style of play that had been Oxfords undoing in the second and after a fairly uninspiring powerplay the City Stars broke through shorthanded and Dean Francis finished cooly to get his hat trick against his home town team. This riled the Wildcats and Armour was lucky to get away without punishment after a nasty head check to Francis as the Oxford forward chased a loose puck down the boards. With the crowd now in full voice the Oxford team started to look shaky and Swindon (still on the power play) broke up the ice and Armour skated in to the zone with options but chose to go it alone as Skaife flapped at the puck and the Swindon captain finished cooly in to the empty net. The home side now buoyed by Oxford’s indecision were looking dangerous with every minute and the experience of Prachar and Gough began to show as the Stars were clearly rattled in their own zone. Then a moment of madness as Swindon defenceman Adam Andrews reacted badly to a hit from Oxford youngster Joe Oliver and hit Oliver after the whistle before remonstrating with the referee. Oxford had already been assessed a delayed penalty and would have been shorthanded however Andrews continued his debate with the referee and as the referee sent him to the locker room, the former Oxford player hurled his glove back over the plexi glass towards the referee who then gave him yet another misconduct. Unfortunately for Swindon this now meant that they had to kill a 5 minute penalty in addition to the two minutes already given previously. This left them with a tough task to get back in to the game and that was made even tougher after Dave Carr found Grant Bailey down low in the corner on the powerplay and he slid the puck across to Nick Eden who made no mistake against his former club to give Oxford a vital two goal cushion with only seven minutes remaining. Unfortunately for the Stars it was to be a long seven minutes and this proved even more so when straight from a face off Armour strode towards the Oxford net before unleashing a clever snap shot which gave Skaife no chance to set up a tense finish. The Oxford goalie then needed further treatment on his knee as he fell awkwardly. This lost Swindon their momentum and City Stars coach Darryl Morvan made sure it didn’t return after calling a time out and settling the younger Oxford side. The City Stars then effectively killed off the game to give their significant number of travelling fans something to cheer about and make the journey back up the A34 more pleasant.

Scorers:

Oxford: Dean Francis 3+0, Grant Bailey 1+2, Sam Broughton 1+1, Kent Johnston 1+0, Nick Eden 0+2, Dave Carr 0+1.

Swindon: Alan Armour 2+2, Mike Smith 1+1, Ryan Burgess 1+0, Dan Prachar 0+1, Lewis Smith 0+1, Scott Gough 0+1.

Penalties:

Oxford: Mark Krater 8 mins, Jacob Smith 6, Joe Oliver 2, Andy Cox 2, Sam Broughton 2, Dean Francis 2, James Skaife 2, Darren Elliott 2.

Swindon: Adam Andrews 57 mins (inc misc, game & match), Mike Smith 4, Jamie Newton 2, Nick Gallagher 2, Dan Prachar 2, Lewis Smith 2, James Burnett 2, David Lovejoy 2.

Netminding:

Oxford: James Skaife - 52 saves, 5 goals, total 57.

Swindon: Jamie Thompson - 26 saves, 6 goals, total 32 (59.25), Empty Net (0.35).

Also Played:

Oxford: Will Skaife, Patrick Knightley, Nick Oliver, Lee Featherstone, Kevin McGurk (NM - did not ice).

Swindon: Oliver Lansdowne (NM - did not ice), Stephen Whitfield, Yousif Abu Saada, Grant Richardson, Sam Feeney.

Period Scores:

1-2, 2-2, 2-2