Derby hopes dashed
Telford Tigers recorded their second league win of the season when they beat Chelmsford 5-4 - but then lost the derby at Solihull despite scoring first through an ineligible player. Telford Tigers recorded their second league win of the season when they beat Chelmsford 5-4 - but then lost the derby at Solihull despite scoring first through an ineligible player. Hopes of a weekend English Premier League double went up in smoke on bonfire night with a 6-4 defeat at Solihull in a game wrecked by Milan Kostolny being ejected after an admin error - and more than 160 minutes of penalties. Sunday saw the penalty fireworks at Solihull Barons. Tigers went into the fixture without Huska, the Slovakian taking his turn to sit out due to the four imports in a game rule. Disastrously for Tigers, Kostolny's name was missed off the official gamesheet - meaning that when he scored the opening goal of the night, it was disallowed and Kostolny ejected as an unofficial player. Read the full story in the Shropshire Star
Hopes of a weekend English Premier League double went up in smoke on bonfire night with a 6-4 defeat at Solihull in a game wrecked by Milan Kostolny being ejected after an admin error - and more than 160 minutes of penalties.
Player-coach Claude Dumas returned to add to the offensive threat with Jared Owen suspended.
And Saturday saw Slovakian goalie Peter Betinec rested as Dumas joined Kostolny and Juraj Huska up front to put Chelmsford under sustained pressure. Picured is man of the match, Telford Tigers' netminder Daniel Heslop covering the puck to deny Chelmsford's Ratislav Palov.
Tigers dominated from the start, and Huska opened the scoring with a powerplay goal at 9:43, assisted by his countryman Kostolny. Just 20 seconds later Huska fed a perfect pass to Paul Graham for No 2.
Chieftains were not to be denied for long and Duane Ward scored past Daniel Heslop early in the second period.
Tigers restored the balance with a short-handed goal which appeared to have been fired in from the blue line by Ashley Stanton, but was awarded to Daniel Mackriel.
Again Chelmsford were playing catch-up and last year's league top scorer Kyle Amyotte punished Telford for not clearing the puck when he made it 3-2.
Dumas restored the advantage, but John Cotton brought the deficit back to one with a powerplay goal in the 36th minute.
That man Dumas netted a flying one-on-one goal at 41:17 and, although Tigers tightened up their defence for the remainder of the game, Chelmsford's Ratislav Palov made it 5-4.
Chieftains pulled their goalie to try to force the equaliser but, for the second week running, Tigers defended to the buzzer and jubilantly took the points.
Sunday saw the penalty fireworks at Solihull Barons, with most of the 160 minutes resulting from one incident in the first period.
Tigers went into the fixture without Huska, the Slovakian taking his turn to sit out due to the four imports in a game rule.
Disastrously for Tigers, Kostolny's name was missed off the official gamesheet - meaning that when he scored the opening goal of the night, it was disallowed and Kostolny ejected as an unofficial player.
There was more misery when tempers flared just five minutes in and Jason Parry and Daniel Croft were thrown out of the match as the result of a brawl.
Solihull settled to the game better and took a 3-0 lead into the first break.
Jim Corfield brought Tigers back into the match with a cracking goal at 28:57, and Daniel Mackriel added a powerplay effort at the midway point.
Paul Graham made it 3-3 early in the third and, although Solihull took the lead again, Mathias Soderstrom equalised at 52:17.
However, with Tigers down to just two lines, Barons scored twice within six seconds to put valuable league points out of Telford's reach.
By Caroline Garbett
