BILLINGHAM EAGLES V SUNDERLAND CHIEFS
ENGLISH CUP GAME
2nd December 2000
Saturday 2nd December saw the Eagles playing the second leg of their English Cup game against Sunderland, confusion surrounded the standing of the first leg result as the game was supposed to have ended in an outright winner, as opposed to the 6 all tie. It was suppossed to have been established prior to the game as to whether or not tonight's result could be doubled to overcome the earlier error, obviously six all was a good result for Sunderland who would not want to see a good performance against the Eagles cancelled out.
Eagles would tonight be without Gary Dowd (suspended) Stephen Wallace (injured), Scott Ward and Graeme Harrison, making his return from injury was Tom Brown. It would be Adam Fletts final game for the Eagles as he has just accepted a job offer in London.
1st Period
The first opened with only 32 seconds gone Sunderland's Michael Bowman placing a pass across the goal mouth for Andrew Tindale to hit home a low shot to the left pipe opening the cheifs scoring. At 3:37 Eagles Andy Fletcher sat for a 2 minute slashing call after he retaliated to an un- observed cross check. The Eagles did not stay short handed very long when 19 seconds later Cheifs Chris Earl collected a 2 minute charging penalty, all were played off without loss. The Eagles turned up the pressure but seemed to be thwarted by Sunderland's poke checking that prevented the stringing moves together. At 8:28 Cheifs again went short-handed as net minder Ian Hanson was penalised for a slashing call. Again the Cheifs stopped the Eagles from capitalising on their power play. Sunderland again went a man down at 15:39 when Stuart Potts collected a 2 minute slashing penalty at 15:39, the Eagles were now putting some moves together and took advantage of the power play at 17:09 when Paul Windridge opened the Eagles scoring blasting a slap shot from 2 yards inside the blue line that beat Ian Hanson, assists from Ian Richardson and Simon Hehir. The second period was halted with 3:48 when Chiefs captain Chris Ferry took a powerful shot to the side of his neck/ collar bone area. The first finished early as Chris was immobilised on the ice awaiting paramedic attention. The first closed Billingham Eagles 1 : Sunderland Cheifs 1.
2nd Period
With Chris Ferry having departed to North Tees Hospital the second commenced with the additional 3 minutes carried over. The Cheifs took the go ahead advantage when at 23:45 Andy Muff forced the puck home in a goal mouth scramble. Eagles applied the pressure and Tom Griffiths scored unassisted at 26:20. As Eagles started to put some good moves into play Gareth Crinnion was unlucky that he couldn't get the puck out of his skates and onto his stick to apply the finish to a fast well positioned run. At 28:02 Eagles Andy Fletcher raced up the ice to take up a position wide on the left side where he held the puck, then slipped a pass to Tom Brown in front of the Cheifs net, Tom then pulled the puck back from under the Cheifs pouncing net minder and passed to Paul Windridge who shot home from on acute angle onto an empty net. With the Eagles now in the driving seat they seemed to move up a gear and at 30:11 Simon Hehir moved from behind the Sunderland net, pushed the puck forward towards Ian Hanson then pulled it back onto his back hand and flicked a shot into the net. Eagles next found themselves 2 men down as Andy Fletcher (interference) and Tom Brown (charging) both collected 2 minute penalty's timed at 30:30. As the five on Three advantage started to show Cheifs Stuart Potts blasted home for an unassisted goal to cut the Cheifs deficit at 31:01. Eagles were not going to be brought down Tom Brown returned to his scoring ways at 37:13 when a well placed pass from Andy Fletcher was blasted at an acute angle into the top right of the Cheifs net making it Eagles 5 : Cheifs 3. An unusual goal for the Eagles came under a minute later when Ian Hanson the Cheifs net minder pounced on a shot from Andy Fletcher only for the puck to trickle out from under his body and into the gaze of Simon Hehir who naturally buried it into the Cheifs net. The second closed Billingham Eagles 6 : Sunderland Cheifs 3.
3rd Period
After 2 minutes and forty one seconds into the third the Eagles extended their lead as Paul Windridge collected his third of the night as he forced home a pass from Andy Fletcher at the foot of the cheifs left pipe. Paul was unlucky not to make it 4 goals when as he found himself well placed coming at the Cheifs net Ian Hanson performed a brave move and dived at his skates to rob him of the puck. The Cheifs got a conciliation marker at 57:34 when Tim Mckay scored assisted by John Aisbett. However the Eagles were not finished and Paul Windridge got his fourth goal of the game when he scored assisted by Brian Perry at 58:20. Twenty nine seconds later Brian Perry found him collecting a 5 + Game when he roughed Sunderland's Andrew Tindale. The game closed Billingham Eagles 8 : Sunderland Cheifs 4, making an aggregate score of Eagles 14 : Cheifs 10.
Everyone at Billingham wish Chris Ferry a speedy recovery to his injury, and also a fond farewell to Adam Flett and wish him good luck in his new job in London, cheers Fletty you will be a hard act to follow !!
PERIOD SCORES
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | FINAL | |
| BILLINGHAM | 1 | 5 | 2 | 8 |
| SUNDERLAND | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
PENALTIES
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | TOTAL | |
| BILLINGHAM | 2 | 4 | 27 | 33 |
| SUNDERLAND | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
SHOTS ON GOAL
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | TOTAL | |
|
HANSON |
12 | 13 | 11 | 36 |
| FLETT | 11 | 11 | 8 | 30 |
HOME PLAYER STATS