FLINTSHIRE FREEZE 1-15 ALTRINCHAM ACES 15 DECEMBER 2002

This match was virtually decided ninety minutes before face off. Whilst the Aces were getting ready in the dressing room, the Freeze players rolled up at leisure over the next hour - the result was that only one team seemed up for this match. Aces were minus Kevin Cassidy, Freeze were missing two regulars.

Greg Allen forced an early save from ex-Aces goalie Dave Clancy before Simon Mills received a minor for elbows that wouldn't have been given if the referee had seen it from the other angle. After a woeful Freeze powerplay had failed to put the Aces goal under pressure, Nick Crawley did well to keep the puck from crossing the blue line and his pass was slotted home by Brian Worrall. Simon took another minor but as he returned to the ice, a perfect pass from Greg Allen dissected the Freeze defence and Billy Price skated in and shot past Clancy. A minute later, Steve Michie won the puck and it fell to Stephen Elliott to put inside the far post. Aces were well on top and had three good chances as Greg hit the post before we forced two great saves from Clancy. The fourth goal came soon with Steve Daly passing from behind the net to Brian in front of the net to make no mistake. Phil Verstappen made one of his two (official) saves in the period to deny Mark Stokes before Stephen levelled Peter Founds with a great body check forcing Aces fans into a bit of double take when they realised who'd given the check (Mr Elliott obviously has more to his game than just being a goal machine at the moment).

The second line had three early second period attempts on the net before Stephen's pass opened up the defence for Simon to round the keeper and net. A Tim Dempsey shot on the powerplay hit the boards and rebounded back for Steve Daly to add number six. A rare Freeze attack as Jason Hewitt returned to the ice after a minor saw Mark Stokes set up Founds for a short handed goal on the break but any Freeze hopes of a turn around were dashed when Greg beat Mark Hobson and set up Billy to make space and beat new Freeze goalie Matt Compton. That left the score at 1-7 at the second interval.

Third period scoring started when Jason was put through on his own and scored easily. The inevitable scuffle arrived at 46.16. Stokes tried to pick a fight with Greg, the well known Aces hard man (?), Tim steamed in from the blue line to set down some ground rules and then Freeze goalie Compton jumped on Tim. Elsewhere, Compton's brother Danny set on Jason. Once the dust settled, Tim, Jason and the two Comptons got Game penalties (Tim plus an extra Game, later changed to a 10 min misconduct). Stokes got someone to fight his fight as usual and escaped with a minor. With Clancy back in goal, Billy was sent down the right and shot along the ice inside the far post. With Aces now on the powerplay, Stephen latched onto a loose puck and shot in. Greg got the puck from Brian in front of the net and with Clancy sprawling, waited and put it in. In the aftermath, Stokes tried a cheap shot on Billy and after a brief fight with Phil Keelan disappeared with 2+10. Greg had an easier time with the next one after being set up by a pass from Billy. Brian got the thirteenth goal receiving the puck from the corner and shooting through the goalie, also scoring the fourteenth with a shot from the left hand side face off circle. Greg finished off the scoring as the clock ran down, skating in beating Clancy easily.

A totally one sided game although Phil did make more saves than the seven shots officially credited. Freeze were doing well just to get the puck over the red line in the last period and would struggle against Bradford or Grimsby on that form. Mark Stokes was a sad shadow of his former self (not that his former self was ever that popular!). The danger with the Blackburn and Flintshire away games in the past has sometimes been whether the Aces players were properly up for the games - that wasn't an issue for us on Sunday.

0-1 03.27 Worrall from Crawley
0-2 06.20 Price from Allen
0-3 07.10 Elliott from Michie and Keelan
0-4 12.01 Worrall from Daly
0-5 22.39 Mills from Elliott
0-6 24.20 Daly from Dempsey PPG
1-6 32.10 Founds from Stokes and Richie SHG
1-7 34.04 Price from Allen
1-8 42.03 Hewitt from Worrall
1-9 47.02 Price from Crawley
1-10 49.50 Elliott from Stretton PPG
1-11 40.13 Allen from Worrall
1-12 41.25 Allen From Price and Crawley
1-13 51.00 Worrall from Price and Crawley
1-14 51.43 Worrall
1-15 51.50 Allen from R Richardson

ACES

Tim Dempsey 0+1, Greg Allen 3+2, Russ Richardson 0+1, Steve Michie 0+1,
Brian Worrall 4+2, Nick Crawley 0+4, Jason Hewitt 1+0, Simon Mills 1+0, Arran Richardson, Stephen Elliott 2+1, Billy Price 3+2 (MoM), Luke Stretton 0+1, Steve Daly 1+1,
Phil Keelan 0+1,
Danny Higgin Phil Verstappen (7s, 1g, 85.71%),
SOG 7-71 PIMS 78-72