Final Score - Oxford 7 : 3 Slough

9th February 2008

Scorers:

Oxford: Josh Florey 3+0, Michael Wakelin 2+0, Josh Oliver 1+4, Jake Florey 1+0, Ben Chandler 0+1.

Slough: Luke Becker 1+1, Tom Green 1+0, Nathan Darmanin 1+0.

Penalties:

Oxford: Jake Florey 27 mins (inc match), Hal Davison 16 mins (inc misc), Josh Florey 14, Ben Chandler 6, Josh Oliver 2, Roberto Angeleri-Rand 2.

Slough: Nick Ward 37 mins (inc match & misc), Timo Lindgren 14 (inc misc), Nathan Darmanin 14 (inc misc), Archie Hutchinson 4, Luke Becker 2, Jerrika Jentsch 2, Bench 2.

Netminding:

Oxford: Peter Endicott - 23 saves, 3 goals, total 26.

Slough: Christian Clark - 23 saves, 7 goals, total 30.

Period scores:

2-0, 4-0, 1-3

Also played:

Oxford: Lara Wood, Sam Jordan, Mark Third, Joe Eldridge, Warren Jones, Nevy Baze, Christopher Gill, Liam McLoughlin, Ryan Bollweg, Jake Willis.

Slough: Jonny Bowman, Rob Porter, Ollie Shone, Shaun Rudkin, Jonathan Wing, Frankie Lord.

Final Score - Streatham 2 : 7 Oxford

10th February 2008

Scorers:

Josh Florey 4+1, Josh Oliver 2+4, Ben Chandler 1+2, Joe Eldridge 0+1, Hal Divison 0+1, Paige Simmonds 0+1.

Penalties:

Oxford: Ryan Bollweg 2mins, Micael Wakelin 2

Netminding:

Oxford: Peter Endicott - 13 saves, 2goals

Also played:

Oxford: Lara Wood, Sam Jordan, Mark Third, Warren Jones, Nevy Baze, Christopher Gill, Liam McLoughlin.

Final Score - Oxford 5 : 1 Telford

3rd February 2008

Scorers:

Oxford: Patrick Knightley 2+0, Kent Johnson 1+0, Lee Featherstone 1+0, Darren Elliott 1+0, Dean Francis 0+3, Dave Carr 0+2, Sam Broughton 0+1, Jacob Smith 0+1, Grant Bailey 0+1.

Telford: Jim Corfield 1+0, Gareth Bates 0+1.

Penalties:

Oxford: Lee Featherstone 31 mins (inc match), Dean Francis 4, Darren Elliott 4, Kent Johnson 2, Alan Green 2.

Telford: Dave Fielder 38 mins (inc game & misc), Owen Bennett 25 (inc match), Gareth Bates 14 (inc misc), Kevin Parton 12 (inc misc), Mike Roden 6, Andrew Oldham 2, Jim Corfield 2, Stuart Bates 2, Graham Oldham 2, Kyle Smith 2.

Netminding:

Oxford: Kevin McGurk - 14 saves, 1 goal, total 15.

Telford: Christopher Barlow - 42 saves, 5 goals, total 47.

Period scores:

3-0, 1-0, 1-1.

Also played:

Oxford: Nick Eden, Nick Oliver, Joe Oliver, David Tyler (NM - did not ice), Mark Krater.

Telford: Karl Creamer, Jason Parry, Neil Brown, Ian Jesson, Mark Asson.

Final Score - Oxford 5 : Solihull 2

Sunday 20 January 2008

Oxford entertained the Solihull Barons in front of a decent crowd at Oxpens Road. Stars were missing Grant Bailey from the line up so Kent Johnson continued in his role alongside Darren Elliott and Dean Francis on the first line.

The game started poorly for the home side, and straight from face off the Barons were threatening with an effective dump and chase game involving their top line of Adams, Howarth and Bakalar. The Stars goalie James Skaife was called upon on several occasions to deny the midlanders who seemed determined to avenge the 10-3 defeat inflicted on them on their home ice a few weeks earlier. The first period continued to be scrappy and both sides seemed pleased to be level at 0-0 when the buzzer went for the end.

The second period was much more lively and after only two minutes an awful hit on Oxfprd’s Alan Green from behind by Solihull’s Phil Lee saw the experienced Solihull player earn a 2+10 minute penalty for his troubles. From the resulting powerplay Oxford finally took the lead after an excellent goal from their second line. With Green cycling hard round the back of the Solihull net he passed the puck to Smith in front of the goal who rather than shooting tapped the puck to the side of the goal where Nick Oliver was waiting to pounce and tap home the puck past the diving Solihull goalie. This increased the atmosphere inside the rink and four minutes later the home support were on their feet again when Will Skaife passed to Kent Johnson in front of the net and despite being hit to the floor by a Solihull defenceman he managed to connect with the puck and smash it past Foley in the Solihull net to make it 2-0. At two nil up the Stars were in control, however after failing to clear their own zone, they paid the penalty for some slack marking from a Solihull face off and this left Bakalar free to effectively walk the puck around Skaife to give the visitors hope. Two minutes later though the Stars had the two goal cushion again when Jacob Smith screeched in from the wing to score before wheeling away and punching the air with delight. Then the Stars hit penalty trouble with Knightley’s clumsy hit from behind on a Solihull forward earning him the same punishment as Solihull’s Lee earlier in the period. The second period ended with the Stars leading 3-1.

With Solihull very much in contention the Stars had to put on a good performance in the third and they had to work hard as Solihull started the period strongly and were certainly more physical than the home side. With seven minutes gone the Barons pulled it back to 3-2 through Steven Rowlands after the Stars defence went AWOL. This made the Stars nervous in their play and the home support seemed on edge as Skaife made a couple of good saves to deny an equaliser. Stars coach Morvan then called a time out and it did the trick. With seven minutes left Stars skipper Elliott made it 4-2 and two minutes later Alan Green scored a fifth after Smith and Oliver had combined again.

It was a good win for the Stars against a hard working Solihull side who will have been disappointed to lose. The Stars also wore their new home shirt for the first time so they will be hoping it stays unbeaten for the rest of the season.

Scorers:-

Oxford: Jacob Smith 1+2, Alan Green 1+1, Nick Oliver 1+1, Kent Johnson 1+0, Darren Elliott 1+0, Dean Francis 0+2, Lee Featherstone 0+1, Will Skaife 0+1.

Solihull: Erik Bakalar 1+0, Stephen Rowlands 1+0, Andrew Howarth 0+1, Neil Adams 0+1, Richard Taylor 0+1.

Penalties:-

Oxford: Patrick Knightley 14 mins (inc misc), Darren Elliott 12 (inc misc), Andy Cox 2, Nick Oliver 2, Dean Francis 2.

Solihull: Phil Lee 12 mins (inc misc), Neil Adams 2, Lee Winwood 2, Dale White 2, Bench 2.

Netminding:-

Oxford: James Skaife - 33 saves, 2 goals, total 35.

Solihull - Elliot Foley - 32 saves, 4 goals, total 36 (53.30), Dave Roxborough - 4 saves, 1 goal, total 5 (6.30).

Period scores:

0-0, 3-1, 2-1.

Also played:-

Oxford: Dave Carr, Nick Eden, Sam Broughton, Joe Oliver, Kevin McGurk (NM - did not ice), Mark Krater.

Solihull: Andrew Ayers, Luis Brindle, Phil Knight, Edward Slater, Rob Perks, Jack Robinson, Connor Hubbuck, Barry Evans, Rob Eley, Richard Slater.

Final Score - Milton Keynes Thunder 2 : Oxford Stars 5

Saturday 19th January 2008

Oxford made the short trip to Milton Keynes without power house forward Grant Bailey however they did unveil their new away strip to the visible delight of the small band of travelling supporters.

The Stars started the period in disarray and the Thunder raced down the ice to score within 58 seconds when Tom Roles finished well from a Mahmud pass. The Stars were thunder struck to say the least however they managed to put together some good moves and test Sutton in the Milton Keynes net. It took the Stars 16 minutes to finally grab an equaliser when Lee Featherstone scored past his former team with the assist going to Alan Green on the powerplay. There was then a moment of controversy when the referee and the timekeepers bench seemed to be confused as to what to do with Peter Taylor serving the penalty at the time of the goal, due to the delayed penalty called on Clifford just before the Stars scored. Once this was resolved the Stars resumed their powerplay but were unable to press home their advantage. At the end of the period the Thunder’s player coach Michael Knights skated across to remonstrate with the officials and was promptly given a ten minute misconduct penalty for his efforts.

With the influential Knights sitting in the box the Stars were confident of pressing home the advantage however the Thunder held firm and started to cause some problems for the Oxford defence and goalie James Skaife. They then got their rewards when after Oxford made a hash of clearing their own zone Harrison Goode picked up the puck in the slot and his wrist shot bobbled through Skaifes pads and rolled agonisingly over the line to give the Thunder the lead. This goal seemed to kick start the sluggish Stars in to action and they enjoyed a large spell of possession with Sutton in the MK net having to be at his very best to contain the shots raining in on him. Amazingly the hockey was so flowing in nature there were no whistles and therefore no stoppages for around 5 minutes which was bad news for the Thunder as it left Knights stranded in the box awaiting the whistle for him to return after his 10 minute penalty. With two minutes remaining in the period Alan Green finished a tremendous passing move between Nick Oliver and Will Skaife to grab the equaliser for the City Stars. Milton Keynes were on the ropes and thirty seconds later Oxford took the lead when Dean Francis ripped the puck past Sutton after a trademark Johnson pass.

With the Stars finishing the second period strongest they started the third in similar fashion but found Sutton once again a difficult opponent in the MK goal. With thirteen minutes gone in the third a sharp pass from Stars skipper Darren Elliott found the stick of the on rushing Dean Francis who squeezed between two defenceman and fired the puck in to the top corner of the net to score a goal that would not have looked out of place in a higher league. With the Stars gaining a vital two goal cushion MK seemed to lose some spark and when the Stars scored a fifth through Kent Johnson four minutes from time the result was no longer in doubt. At the end of the game the Stars were cheered off the ice by their supporters and Alan Green took the man of the match award.

Scorers:-

MK: Harrison Goode 1+0, Tom Roles 1+0, Aidan Mahmud 0+1, Paul Jamieson 0+1, Lewis Clifford 0+1.

Oxford: Dean Francis 2+0, Kent Johnson 1+1, Alan Green 1+1, Lee Featherstone 1+1, Darren Elliott 0+2, Nick Oliver 0+1, Joe Edwards 0+1, Will Skaife 0+1.

Penalties:-

MK: Mike Knights 10 mins (misc), Pete Taylor 4, Lewis Clifford 2.

Oxford: Andy Cox 2, Joe Edwards 2.

Netminding:-

MK: Allen Sutton - 25 saves, 5 goals, total 30.

Oxford: James Skaife - 26 saves, 2 goals, total 28.

Period scores:

1-1, 1-2, 0-2

Also played:-

MK: Mark Woolf (NM - did not ice), Paul Gore, Keiron Goody, James Roberts, Josh White, Carl Stevenson, David Coffey, Pavol Hudak, Dan Chaplen.

Oxford: Dave Carr, Nick Eden, Sam Broughton, Patrick Knightley, Joe Oliver, Kevin McGurk (NM - did not ice), Mark Krater, Jacob Smith.

Final Score : Oxford 5 - 0 Chelmsford

Scorers:

Oxford: Josh Oliver 3+1, Michael Wakelin 1+1, Jake Florey 1+1.

Penalties:

Oxford: Ben Chandler 12 mins (inc misc), Sam Jordan 2, Warren Jones 2, Jake Florey 2, Jake Willis 2.

Chelmsford: Mason Webster 25 mins (inc Match), David Schrubb 2, Grant Bartlett 2.

Netminding:

Oxford: Peter Endicott - 23 saves, total 23.

Chelmsford: Anthony Brooks - 6 saves, 5 goals, total 11 (15.00), Steve Rhodes - 20 saves, total 20 (30.00)

Period scores:

5-0, 0-0, 0-0

Also Played:

Oxford: Matthew Spacksman, Joseph Eldridge, Hal Davison, Paige Simmonds, Nevy Baze, Roberto Angeleri-Rand, Sam Arnold, Liam McLaughlin, Charlie Hanley (NM - did not ice).

Chelmsford: Thomas Wilson, Coner Swainsbury, Sean Barry, Elliot Dervish, Nathan Smith, Cameron Bartlett, Max Bennett, Joseph Muskin, Joshua Bellamy-Lee, Henry Barnes, Riece Rhodes, Janus Hutcheon.

Final Score : Invicta Dynamics 2 - 4 Oxford City Midnight Stars

January 5th 2008

Oxford made the long journey to Invicta hoping to extend their winning streak to six games on the trot.

The first period started abysmally for the Stars, with the first Invicta goal scored 54 seconds into the match. A bizarre goal by all accounts, with two pucks on the ice and the sole ref not seemingly sure whether both or any puck actually went into the net off an Invicta stick. After a brief conflab with the goal judge, he decided a goal had been scored - much to the dismay of the Oxford team. The spare puck taken from the ice, Oxford rallied round, and Lauren Summers scored an Oxford equaliser at 2.16, assisted by Anna Evans. This was the end of the scoring for the first period with Oxford finding the physical play by the Invicta team and lack of calls from the ref difficult to deal with.

Oxford picked up in the second period and started skating around the Invicta players and making some good team plays. A nice goal from an offensive face-off at 18.42 (scored by Louise Thompson, assisted by Karen Davenport) gave Oxford the lead and this was consolidated at 23.55 as Amy Hadden tapped in a Michelle James pass from behind the net. Invicta finally took a couple of well deserved penalties opening the period up and allowing Oxford to skate with more freedom. Sarah Poulter, playing her first game for Oxford this season, scored a fourth Oxford goal unassisted at 25.01. The period ended 4-1 to Oxford, with the Stars finally beginning to prove that they can actually play the game….

Another turn for the worse in the third period! Whether Oxford decided that 4 goals were enough or perhaps that Invicta needed to be let back into the game to give them a sporting chance, who knows, but Oxford struggled for a good 10 minutes and then sat back and allowed Invicta to score at 42.14. This left the score sitting at 4-2 with a few minutes to play. The ref (finally!) called a checking penalty on Invicta at 43.16 to give Oxford the much needed man advantage. However, unable to use this, Invicta started to launch a good attack, and at 43.20, Amy Hadden was penalised for interference for pulling down an Invicta player to prevent the shot on goal. This left the sides playing 4 on 4 for the last 1 minute 30.

The game ended 4-2 to Oxford. Not Oxford’s finest hour, but a 6th straight win nonetheless.

Scoring:

Oxford: Sarah Poulter 1+0(2), Amy Hadden 1+0(2), Michelle James 0+1, Anna Evans 0+1, Karen Davenport 0+1, Lauren Summers 1+0, Louise Thompson 1+0.

Invicta: Kate Hancock 2+0, Heidi Korff 0+1, Amanda Grout 0+1(2), Jenny Vik 0+0(2).

Shots on Goal:

Oxford (Bev Kellond): 17

Invicta (K Thompson) 32

Final Score - Oxford 8 : 1 Nottingham

12th January 2008

Scoring:

Oxford – Joshua Kim 1+2, Joe Edwards 2+0, Josh Florey 0+2, Steve Broughton 1+0, Ben Chandler 2+0, Adam Harris 0+3, Rachel Hodson 0+1, Lewis Kemp 1+1, Andrew Gregory 1+2, Declan Carroll 0+1.

Nottingham – Miley Rose 1+0.

Netminding:

Oxford - Terao(Tiger) Hedges (00.00) 20 shots 1 Goal – Total 21

Nottingham – James Burton (00.00) 49 shots 8 Goals – Total 57

Penalties:

Oxford – Lewis Kemp 12 (Inc Misc) , Ben Chandler 2 Josh Kim 4, Adam Harris 4, Josh Florey 4

Nottingham – Liam Morris 4, Jake Herbert 6, Jamie Hovell 2, Chris Johnson 2

Also Played:

OXFORD – Lara Wood - Total 12

Nottingham – Chay Warnell, Joe Weldon, Kane Campbell, Grant Kingham, Tom Adams, Jack Tisk, Joel Williams, Luke Raynor, David Sisson, Inder Simpson, - Total 16

Period Scores:

0-1 / 5-0 / 3-0

Penalty Minutes:

26 – 14

Shots on Goal

21 – 57

Final Score - Bristol 1 : 10 Oxford

Scorers:

Micheal Wakelin 2+2, Jake Florey 2+1, Jack Maisey 2+1, Claudio Checchia 1+2, Brian Quade 1+2, Rob Rand 1+0, Kat lossinitzer1+0, Sam Arnold 0+2, Jean Sebastian Verret 0+1.

Penalties:

Jack Maisey 10 (misc), Hamish Martin (misc), Brian Quade 2,Rob Rand 2.

Netminding:

Charlie Hanley: 8 Shots 1 goal

Also played:

Joe Foster, Josh Hickman, George English

Period scores:

0-7 1-3

Final Score - Solihull 3 : 10 Oxford

13th January 2008

Barons Left Seeing Stars

On a wet and thoroughly miserable night the Oxford City Stars made the trip up to the midlands to take on the Solihull Barons at Hobs Moat Road ice arena.

Oxford coach Darryl Morvan had to adjust his lines to take in to account suspensions earned by Grant Bailey, Will Skaife and Jacob Smith in the previous weeks victory over Coventry.

In front of a reasonable crowd the Stars came out flying putting the Solihull defence under pressure and forcing errors from their defencemen. Within three minutes the hard work from the visitors paid off when Nick Oliver set up Alan Green to squeeze the puck past Foley in the Solihull goal. Despite this good start the Stars could not finish their chances and Solihull began to enjoy a period of possesion but lacked a cutting edge in the final third. The Stars scored a vital second goal with two minutes remaining in the period when Andy Cox passed to Darren Elliott down the left wing and the Stars skipper's smart wrist shot rippled the top corner of the net.

The second period saw Solihull give Oxford a taste of their own medicine and with only 17 seconds gone a breakaway goal saw Neil Adams ghost behind the Oxford defencemen and finish his one on one with Skaife in the Stars goal. This gave the home supporters something to cheer about and the atmosphere started to build. Solihull had a further breakaway only minutes later but this time Skaife came out on top with a good save. With Solihull well and truly revitalised it wasnt really a shock when they equalised through import Erik Bakalar when he found plenty of space in front of the Oxford goal. With the Stars on the ropes they found respite when experienced Solihull player Stephen Doyle received a two minute holding penalty only to see the Stars score on the powerplay with a great finish from Kent Johnson in front of the net after slick passing by Dean Francis and Nick Eden. Twenty seconds later Johnson picked up the puck in the neutral zone and jinked past three Solihull players before racing towards Foley and faking the shot before finishing on his backhand to send the small band of supporters from Oxford into dreamland. Solihull then changed their goalie with Young replacing Foley between the pipes. The goalie had a nightmare start when he failed to hold a nearpost shot from Alan Green and Nick Oliver poked the puck past him. With Richard Taylor sitting a high sticking penalty for Solihull, Oxford scored on the powerplay again this time through Darren Elliott grabbing his second of the night. A minute later the Solihull goalie let in a howler when he got his angles all wrong and Oxford rookie Joe Edwards had his head up and finished in a bizarre fashion from the right hand side to make it 7-2 Stars. Then a bizarre moment occured which effectively ended Solihull's chances of a comeback. With Skaife in the Oxford goal freezing the puck, Stephen Doyle pushed Sam Broughton on to the ice without provocation and then after speaking with the referee to find out he had a penalty, Doyle then skated round and hurled the pint sized Oxford forward to the floor and started pummeling him despite Broughton turtling and showing no intention to fight. Doyle then screamed at his own bench and then was sent to the locker room in front of a home crowd stunned in to silence. The end result was that Oxford now had a twelve minute powerplay and Solihull were forced to defend it. With 50 seconds left in the second period Lee Featherstone passed the puck down low to Darren Elliott who slid the puck to Dave Carr in the slot and his slapshot flew in to the bottom right hand corner of the goal.

At 8-2 up and six minutes of powerplay the City Stars skated out in the third knowing they just had to keep it tight for the remainder of the game. With five minutes gone and after a pretty lacklustre powerplay the Stars finally added to their lead when Kent Johnson passed to Dean Francis and his slapshot nearly took the roof of the net off to make it 9-2.

Solihull managed to kill off the remainder of the powerplay and they gave their fans something to shout about with 9 minutes gone in the period when Richard Taylor scored past Stars goalie Kevin McGurk who had replaced James Skaife only a few minutes earlier. If Solihull fans thought that their team were going to grab the last word, the Stars had other ideas and from a Nick Oliver face off, Dave Carr's first time snap shot rebounded off Young to Alan Green who made no mistake. Strangely Solihull improved slightly in the last ten minutes of the game and McGurk was called upon to make a few saves but by then the contest was effectively over and Oxford left with a convincing away win over a Solihull team that had been improving dramatically in recent weeks.

Played:

Oxford - Darren Elliott 2+3 Kent Johnson 2+2 Alan Green 2+2 Nick Oliver 1+3 Dean Francis 1+3 David Carr 1+0 Joe Edwards 1+0 Nick Eden 0+1

Solihull - Neil Adams 1+1 Erik Bakalar 1+0 Richard Taylor 1+0 Stephen Rowlands 0+1Ed Slater 0+1 Andrew Howarth 0+1

Penalties:

Oxford - Cox 2 mins , Featherstone 2 mins , Johnson 2 mins , J Oliver 2 mins

Solihull - Doyle 54 mins , Howarth 2 mins , Brindle 2 mins , Knight 2 mins , Perks 2 mins, Rowlands 2 mins , Eley 2 mins , Taylor 2 mins

Netminding:

Oxford Skaife 32 shots 2 goals against Mcgurk 10 shots 1 goal against

Referee

Evans

Also played:

Krater, Broughton, Knightley