Pitbulls see off MK Thunder challenge to make it five wins in a row
THE Bristol Pitbulls extended their winning streak to five matches as they won their final home regular season game 6-3 over Milton Keynes Thunder.
The Pitbulls were missing Oli Endicott, Josh Shaw and Cain Russell, with them away representing Great Britain Under-18s. Josh Galea remained sidelined but partook in warm-ups. Sam Smith was away with Swindon WIldcats and Mike Hargreaves missed out. Stu Bates returned to the line-up, icing for the first time since February 5, while Richie Hargreaves returned from his suspension.
How did Richie respond to his return to the line-up? He scored the opening goal, of course. Less than four minutes into the first period. he did the hard work behind the net, feeding the puck out in front. It wouldn’t quite settle for an Aaron Moody shot, but he played a pass back to Hargreaves who flipped a backhand shot beyond Graham Laverick to open the scoring.
Halfway through the first it was 2-0. Tamas Elias was released down the right wing two-on-one with Mason Lipsey, Elias gave Laverick the eyes before slamming the puck in short side.
Goal of the night was the Pitbulls’ third. The Pitbulls were on the powerplay, and they moved the puck beautifully. Loris Taylor playing the point, he fed a puck across the zone to Osman. He found
Moody out in front and he used his skate to direct it to the short side before sliding the puck into the gaping net.
The second period was one to forget for the home side. On an increasingly poor ice pad, the Thunder found themselves a brace of goals. There was more than a hint of fortune about the first, a pass from behind the Pitbulls net deflected off a skate to the back door where Oli Harris had the easiest of tasks to make it 3-1. Then, on the powerplay, another puck down low was fed out in front and, after a deflection, Connor Goode was the quickest to react to bat it beyond John Dibble.
A reset was needed during second intermission, and with a fresh ice pad that was exactly what came, with Bailey Hind-Pitcher continuing his good recent form with a goal 78 seconds into the third. Like last week, he showed good balance and poise to hold off his defenceman before getting Laverick to overcommit leaving him with a simple task to get the Pitbulls back up by two.
Less than three minutes later, Lipsey put the game out of reach for the Thunder, burying his 22nd goal of the season with assists from Tamas Elias and Jay Warren. Liam Coleman added the sixth, HindPitcher parked himself out in front and used his big frame well, allowing Coleman to bury his own rebound for his second of the season.
Connor Goode found a beautiful consolation as he managed to roof the puck over Dibble when he looked more likely to lose it to make it 6-3, the way it stayed until the final buzzer.
Jamie Elson, Pitbulls’ head coach, was happy with the result and how the team dealt with the challenging ice pad, but felt the performance was below expectation. He said “It’s great to get another win under the belt and secure at least third place in the league, which is a great achievement for us in year one with a new team. MK played hard again and made us work for it, and with the poor ice quality I was pleased how we started the first period and the lead we built. We had everyone playing the right way and contributing.
“The second period we got a little sloppy and casual and they made us pay the price. We just can’t have that kind of lapse now over the last couple of games. We have to eliminate those mental lapses and find that 60-minute performance.
“The third period we reset and started again and came out similar to the first and really controlled the game and the tempo. It was the final regular season game at home, and we wanted to make sure we came out with the win. It’s the longest win streak of the season for us, and that’s good timing. We would love to find a way to continue that against Streatham but we know the size of the challenge we face against them in their building.”