Chelmsford beaten as Streatham march on
Chieftains denied a comeback in exciting clash
Streatham survived a late Chieftains comeback in Essex as the squad took maximum points from their two London Cup fixtures this weekend.
Nate Gregory got the start between the pipes for the RedHawks, who had beaten Invicta Dynamos 7-1 in South London twenty four hours earlier. Chelmsford lined up with two new faces in their line-up since the sides last met with Michal Korenko and Stan Lascek boosting their squad.
Player Coach Michael Farn got the team off to a great start with just five minutes on the clock, as his powerplay effort silenced the large home crowd and got the visiting fans on their feet. The hosts hit back four minutes later through Grant Bartlett before Vanya Antonov replied within a minute to put Streatham 2-1 up.
Soon after, Ben Ealey-Newman and TJ Fillery were ejected from the game after dropping the gloves right in front of the visiting fans.
Two early goals in the second period from Antonov and Farn gave Streatham a nice three goal cushion, until two quick responses from the hosts pulled it back to a one goal game. Darren Brown and a second from Bartlett getting the big crowd responding excitedly to their goals.
A crucial fifth goal for Streatham through Josh Ealey-Newman before the end of the period gave Streatham a 5-3 lead going into the final period.
Three minutes from the end, youngsters Connor Smith and Kieran Raynor dropped the gloves in an unlikely bout, before Cameron Bartlett scored for Chelmsford on the powerplay to set up an exciting final two minutes.
To the relief of the visiting fans, Streatham held out for a narrow win, despite outshooting the Chieftains 54 to 25 over the sixty minutes.
Streatham now hold a commanding lead at the top of the London Cup group with three wins and no defeats in a round-robin with Invicta, Chelmsford and Romford.
