BILLINGHAM EAGLES V ALTRINCHAM ACES
ENHL NORTH
31ST MARCH 2001
Saturday the 31st saw the Eagles playing host to the Altrincham Aces, following Billinghams wasted journey to Altrincham 2 weeks ago, calls had been made between both teams and the EIHA to come to an agreement over the way to proceed with the cancelled game, the Eagles wanted tonights game to count as double points, however the Aces had made an offer to compensate us for the cost of the coach and were resisting the double points issue, they offered us a game slot of Sat 7th at Altrincham, with the Eagles on the road to Blackburn on the 8th John Rogers felt that it was to great a commitment to ask to try and schedule a doubler header at such short notice, with guidance from the EIHA John stood his ground and felt the double points soloution was acceptable, however I was informed thatAltrincham were to appeal. The Eagles were tonight without Tom Griffiths and Stephen Wallace who were in Lithuania representing Great Britain at the world U-18 Championship at Elektrenal, Kaunus Lithuania.Ian Richardson returned to bolster the Eagles blue liners after missing a number of games due to injury.
1st Period
The anti climax alarms started to ring the minute I saw the size of the Altrincham bench. On an occasion that could salvage a semi final place for the Aces they had brought a very short bench (12).In contrast the Eagles had a bench of 20 players. The Eagles got things going with a Andy Fletcher goal with assists from Paul Windridge and Martin Lewis. Aces found themselves short handed at !0:13 when Hewitt was called for a 2 min tripping penalty, the power play lasted for forty seconds untill Martin Lewis hit home a Gary Dowd pass from behind the net. Under a minute later the Aces cut the deficiet with a well taken, back hand, diagonal lift from Thomas beating Eagles net minder Simon Burns.Eagles got the go ahead goal at 16:39, an even handed goal scored from close range when Andy Fletcher tapped home a Martin Lewis rebound with second assist to Gary Dowd. The first closed Billingham Eagles 3: Altrincham Aces 1
2nd Period
The second opened without Mick Chidley and the game was being ran on the two official system as Mick had damaged his hamstrings. The game had seemingly ran out of Puff the Billingham Youngsters were getting a good percentage of ice time. At 23:22 the Aces collected a 2 minute tripping penalty, which they played off without loss, within a minute of returning to full strength the Eagles again found themselves on a power play when Paul Fleury was called for tripping, again the Aces played the penalty off. After half a game penalty free the Eagles were themselves called as Shaun Buckley sat for 2 minutes. With the penalty played off the Eagles added another goal to their tally at 36:15 an even handed goal scored by David Flett with an assist to Andy Wells and Andre Malo.The second closed Billingham Eagles 4 : Altrincham Aces 1.
3rd Period
As the third progressed it was clear that all fight had gone from the Aces, this gave Andre a chance to put in some on ice coaching with some of the younger team members. At this point as the Aces were doing very little to get back into the game, I found it hard to figure out why they objected to playing for double points, as any ambition of beating the Eagles seemed to have gone out of the window. Eagles Graeme Harrison was called for a 2 minute roughing penalty at 51:49, that was played off without loss, then at 52:34 Andy Fletcher was called for a 2 minute hooking penalty. During the resulting power play the Aces called a time out. As play resumed the Eagles were off the gas untill at 55:02 Brian Perry was called for a 2 minute roughing penalty, with the penalty played off the game was decided. Final score Billingham Eagles 4 : Altrincham Aces 1
PERIOD SCORES
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | FINAL | |
| BILLINGHAM | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| ALTRINCHAM | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
PENALTIES
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | FINAL | |
| BILLINGHAM | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| ALTRINCHAM | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
SHOTS ON GOAL
| SHOTS FROM | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BILLINGHAM | 10 | 11 | 9 | 30 |
| ALTRINCHAM | 7 | 8 | 5 | 20 |