SUNDERLAND CHIEFS V BILLINGHAM EAGLES
ENHL NORTH
12TH NOVEMBER 2000
Sunday 12th November saw the Eagles on the road to the Sunderland Chiefs who due to problems with their own Ice pad at the Crowtree Leisure centre were " tennants " at the Newcastle Arena.
Eagles were again depleted with injurys, Tom Brown was hoped to return tonight after he picked up his ankle injury in the physical game against Whitley , Paul Windridge was also sidelined as a result of an injury collected at Whitley ( pulled stomach muscle ) that he antagonised the night before in the game against Grimsby, making a return after leaving the Grimsby game early was Stepen Wallace who looked to have picked up a knee injury
1st Period
The first opened with Sunderlands Christian Lloyd putting the Chiefs ahead at 1:15 when he forced home a loose puck at the foot of the left pipe. The game was fast and free flowing, however the Eagles were having problems breaking out of their own end and were losing the puck mid ice, with frustrations starting to show the Eagles collected a 2 minute bench penalty for comments made to referee Lawley after a warning regarding the verbals coming from the Eagles bench. Sunderland stretched their lead at 9:20 when Liam Ditchburn found the back of the Eagles net with a power play goal. The Eagles were still lacking that vital spark that they needed to find to stay in this game, when at 13:52 a shot from Simon Hehir landed to the rear of the Sunderland keeper and Gary Dowd pounced and forced the loose puck into the Chiefs net, as the Sunderland players protests were aired and waved away the goal stood and the Eagles were of the mark. The first closed Chiefs 2: Eagles 1
2nd Period
Only 49 seconds into the second and the Chiefs were again in the driving seat as their top scorer Stuart Potts netted the Chiefs third of the night. Things were starting to look grim for the Eagles when under three minutes later Chiefs Michael Bowman netted their fourth for the night.It now became obvious that Eagles Stephen Wallace would not be playing any further part in the afternoons proceedings following his injury the night before at home to Grimsby.However things were starting to gel a little for the Eagles, and after some intense pressure from the Eagles it was again Gary Dowd that found the back of the Chiefs net ably assisted by Simon Hehir and Martin Lewis at 28:07 this goal gave Gary his 150th League point with the Eagles.. The game remained free flowing and without penaltys as both teams tried to make advantage. The second closed Chiefs 4 : Eagles 2.
3rd Period
As the third opened the Eagles had their work cut out, the team talk from Andre Malo in the dressing room must have fired the boys up as 2 and a half minutes into the third the Eagles hit a purple patch netting three goals in a minute and 2 seconds of play, goal three for the Eagles scored by Brian Perry assisted by Andy Fletcher and Scott Ward at 42:31, goal 4 for the Eagles was scored by Martin Lewis with assists from Simon Hehir and Gary Dowd at 43:23, goal 5 for the Eagles and completing Gary Dowds second hatrick for the weekend assisted by simon Hehir and Andre Malo at 43:33. With the Eagles having gone from 4 : 2 down to 5 : 4 ahead in just over a minute the roles were reversed and the Chiefs were looking ripe for taking. Alas it was not to be as Chiefs James Waller going in 2 on 1 against Wes Fawthrop leveled the game at 5 each. The atmosphere lifted and the game started to sizzle. In the 53rd minute the forward line of Dowd, Lewis and Hehir turned up the heat but some respectable saves from the Sunderland keeper kept the shutters down. At 3:41 Tom Griffiths blasted home a one timer supplied by Brian Perry with another assist to Ian Richardson Eagles were back in the driving seat with a one goal lead. With five minutes left to play the Chiefs Stuart Potts hit a shot straight through the pads of Wes Fawthrop to level it at 6 goals each. With 1 minute left on the clock and the Eagles down to 3 men playing against Chiefs 5 a rush from the Chiefs resulted in a low powerful shot pinging of the pipes. The Eagles remain unbeaten in their League campaign but this game nearly cost them that unbeaten run.
An entertaining game where the Eagles took their time to get into the game.
PERIOD SCORES
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | FINAL | |
| SUNDERLAND | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| BILLINGHAM | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |