January 17th 1998, Women's League Division One - South
Cobras made the long trek down to Cardiff with only 6 skaters (captain, and 4 goal scorer from last weekend Emma Stott being sick), and again borrowing a goalie, Denise Weston from Oxford City Zodiacs.
The start of the game was delayed due to a foreign body embedding itself in the ice, and having to be forcibly removed, and once the game got started, Cardiff immediately applied the pressure, and in the subsequent goal mouth scramble Lorraine McMullen forced in the third rebound to give the Comets the lead.
This knocked the Cobras back a bit, but they soon settled down, and they were able to soak up most of the Cardiff pressure, whilst generating a few chances of their own. Firstly, Kimberly Hales broke in and forced a stick save from the Cardiff netminder, Mike Brabon, and this was followed shortly by another break on which Jen Stedman was brought down by Helen Wilson to create the only penalty of the game.
On the powerplay, Kimberly Hales managed to break in and force another rebound, only for Cardiff to regain the puck, and break on the Chelmsford goal with only the post denying Elaine Whitney. In the last minute of the period, Jen Stedman and Rachel Kearn broke in on the Comets goal, but were unable to find the finishing touch, so the period finished with Cardiff leading 1-0 despite outshooting the Cobras 15-3.
As in the previous meeting of these teams, Cardiff came out fired up in the second period, and after 6 minutes had extended their lead to 4-0, on goals from "Player of the game", Nichola Rees, and a pair for top scorer, Elaine Whitney. Chelmsford then started to put some pressure of their own, as Kimberly Hales skated the full length of the ice only to be denied by the Comets goalie, and this was followed by a 2-on-1 break by Rachael Mockler and Jen Stedman on which the defence's frantic recovery enabled them to save the day.
Unfortunately for Chelmsford, this only seemed to inspire the Comets, and they managed to score a couple more goals, from Helen Wilson and Elaine Whitney before the Cobras best chance of the game saw Jen Stedman feed Rachel Kearn, who's shot brought out a full stretch blocker save by the Cardiff netminder. The subsequent play saw another chance created when Becky Preen played the puck into the middle of the Comets zone from the point. A 6-0 lead, and a shot count of 35-9 was a fair description of Cardiff's dominance.
The third period saw more of the same, with Elaine Whitney scoring her 4th and 5th goals, and adding a crossbar to her earlier post, and Helen Wilson adding the Comets ninth goal just before the end, however, the Cobras played well, and had their opportunities, with Jen Stedman going close on a break despite having 4 Cardiff players all over her. However, the best Cobras chance of the period, came when, "Player of the game", Becky Preen, capped a solid defensive performance with a cross ice pass to Jen Stedman, who's shot from the blue line was saved by the Comets' other netminder, Nick Perry-Bishop. The final shot count was 50-13 in favour of the Comets, but the Cobras can be satisfied that they put in a good effort against the odds, whilst Cardiff will be happy to remain unbeaten.
Scoring:
Cardiff Comets: Elaine Whitney 5+1(0), Helen Wilson 2+4(2), Nichola Rees, Lorraine McMullan 1+1(0), Debbie Holder 0+2(0), Jessica Matthews, Annie Sykes 0+1(0). Player of the Game: Nichola Rees
Chelmsford Cobras: none. Player of the Game: Becky Preen