Emotional night as Huskies prove too good for the Firebees
THE Bristol Huskies played the first ice hockey match by a Bristol women’s team in more than 30 years and marked the occasion with a 4-0 win over the Queen Bees Firebees at the new Planet Ice Bristol rink.
Firebees presented an appropriate first opposition for the Huskies in their new home. They played in the Bracknell Ice Rink, which was a sister rink to the old Bristol Ice Rink on Frogmore Street. However, that rink also closed during lockdown and the Firebees are now being forced to play their home games in Slough.
With so many of the players being Bristol-based and getting to play for their city for the first time, it was another emotional night at the rink.
Becci Osman, the Huskies coach, said: “A moment in my life that I
will never forget. I have played a long time but always for other towns or cities. To be able to pull on my Huskies jersey and look at the rest of the team and see them all in blue, it nearly made me cry.”
The Huskies have taken the place
of title-defending Swindon Topcats in the Premier League and that team form the basis of this Huskies’ squad. However, with a season lost due to Covid, a significant number of new players to the team and a lack of pre-season training facilities while their new rink was being completed meant this was always going to be a game where Huskies needed to blow off some cobwebs.
The first period finished goalless. Huskies dominated the play, outshooting Firebees by more than double. But their offence was largely coming from individual efforts. As a result, Erin O’Brien in the Firebees net wasn’t being put under pressure on any rebounds that she gave up.
Katie Edginton broke the deadlock five minutes into the second period, beating O’Brien near post. By now, the lines were starting to gel and two goals in two minutes just after the halfway mark, the first by Edginton and the second by Ellie Wallace, gave Huskies a good safety margin on the scoreboard.
The final goal came with just under three minutes to play, fittingly by Osman who has been responsible for making sure women’s hockey returned to Bristol.
Huskies play at home again this Saturday against an MK Falcons side that are yet to start their season.