U18 Away: Nottingham 1 - Bradford 12
On Sunday 26th January 2014, with a much delayed 7:45 face off at Nottingham’s Capital FM Arena the Bulldogs faced the Jaguars. At the home game back in September we took the points beating them 12 – 0, so our expectations were high.The game started fairly even, with a number of shots on Nottingham net minder Holly Steeples, and a couple on Andy Button. But at 3:52 Nottingham’s James Beatty and Bulldogs Max Broadhurst were both given 2 minutes for boarding and again at 9:08 Adam Barnes also sat 2 minutes for boarding. It was not until 13:46 that Ryan Kemp found the back of the net assisted by Adam. At 14:44 Max was blown on an elbow penalty which caused Nottingham’s number 14 & 16 to have a go at him, they all sat for 2 minutes leaving the players 4 on 3. Connor Parkin took the advantage and scored the power play goal at 15:26 assisted by Adam. The end of period score was 2 -0 to the Bulldogs.The second period started and the Bulldogs again had the Jaguars in their zone for much of the time. At 24:55 a frustrated Jaguar, Thomas Woodward was sat for 2 minutes for an interference penalty. At 29:53 Ryan again found the back of the net assisted by James Royds and shortly after at 32:38 again Connor scores assisted by Max, followed by a great goal from Abbie Culshaw, assisted by Max and Josh Richardson at 33:47. At 34:16, around the Bulldogs net Andy Button saves a shot on, but the Jaguars find the rebound, and sneak the puck in when Andy wasn’t in the area. End of period score is 5 – 1 to the Bulldogs, with no penalties. At the end of the period there was an ice cut on this already late running game, so at 9pm we all went back to the changing rooms. Glenn then informed us that Sutton had beaten Sheffield, the league leaders, so our two points were very much needed to take us two points behind them!In the third, the game was on, the Nottingham net minder was obviously tiring, and the Nottingham team were 1 man down due to an abuse penalty from the bench; so at 41:08 the Bulldog Captain, Connor Parkin scored his hat trick power play goal assisted by Abbie and Max, this was very closely followed at 41:57 by a first goal of the evening from Adam, assisted by Ryan and Hannah. At 43:11, Jay was sent to the penalty bench for elbowing. Whilst short handed, the Bulldogs kept the puck in the Nottingham zone for most of the two minutes.At 46:15 Ryan scored his hat trick goal, assisted from Adam, and this goal said goodbye to the Nottingham keeper. With the new keeper between the pipes, and showing us he could do the splits the game got underway again. In just over a minute at 47:43 Ryan scored his fourth goal again assisted by Adam. At 52:22 a scuffle around the Nottingham net and following a rebound found James Royds ready to push the puck into the net with his first goal this game. At 53:07 James Birtwistle was sent for a two minute sit for elbows. As soon as Bradford were back to full strength Ryan again found the back of the net with a fifth goal, this time assisted by Lewis Baldwin at 55:12. Thirty seconds later Adam scored his second goal assisted from Ryan, giving the final score 12-1. Shots on goal to Andy were only 24. Shots to the Nottingham keepers were 62 in total. Well done to all of the team. Man of the match award went to Team Captain Connor Parkin. It was 10 pm and we were all in Nottingham, on a school night, but we WON!! Now the U18 Bulldogs are only two points below the top of the league.