Sunday night the Fire came head to head in front of a loud Cardiff crowd against bitter rivals the Pitbulls. Fire started the first period on the back foot and Bristol were looking to burst the Fire bubble. No surprise it was Bristol who took the lead through Olly Shone after 1 min 34 secs. Fire struggled to find any passing and struggled to get out of their end. Fire did get the first goal of the night from Ricky Deacon after 7 mins. But Fire were still struggling to get good control of the puck and it didn’t help that Bristol were handed 6 mins of powerplay time. Bristol got the go-ahead goal after 15 mins this time through Jamie Newton. Period ends 1-2 to the Pitbulls.
Fire Started the 2nd period much brighter and more physical. After just over a min of play Jordon Jeffries speared Tim Burrows into the midriff, a play that was totally missed by all 3 officials. Tim Burrows went after the Bristol player with a 2nd Bristol player getting the way, neither player wanted to oblige and Tim Burrows was handed a 5 + game penalty. Fire successfully killed this off and then went on the attack. the breakthrough came immediately as Fire returned to 5 men. Tamas Elias with the first of his 3 goals tied the game at 2-2. For the next 10 mins Fire completely dominated Bristol, Ross Wilkinson got the Fire in the lead for the first time in the game after 28 mins on the power play. A shocking hit from behind on Sam Bryant saw him leave the game with a head injury, Elis Shepard dropping the gloves and sticking up for his team mate following the hit. Further goals coming from Jackson Price and Tamas Elias ending the period 5-2 to the Fire.
The 3rd period was all about the referee with an astonishing 47 mins in penalties dished out. Bristol got their 3rd of the night through Adrian Smith on the power-play. Score now 5-3 to Fire. Dave Christian scored Fire’s 6th goal of the night, that goal lead to Jordon Powell being handed a 10 min penalty for excessive celebration. Tamas Elis finished off the scoring with his 3rd and Fire’s 7th of the night. Fire win their penultimate league home game of the season and take the winning streak in all competitions to 15 games.
Fire play the final league home game of the season this Sat against Wightlink face-off 18:30 at Ice Arena Wales where we are hoping that the league trophy will be presented to the team. Fire then head to Basingstoke the following evening to take on the Buffalo.
