Ice Hockey: Flintshire Freeze draw 7-7 with Solihull Barons

Nov 18 2010 by Alec Doyle, Flintshire Chronicle

Flintshire Freeze 7Solihull Barons 7

AN action-packed thriller at Deeside Ice Rink was well worth the entry fee as the Freeze were held to a draw by the North Two leaders.

Fresh from their double-header in Scotland the previous weekend, the Freeze turned in a determined performance to the delight of the home crowd.

The Barons opened the scoring however with just over four minutes on the clock.

Unperturbed, the Freeze kept their heads and Chris Jones soon equalised thanks to an assist by player-coach Marc Lovell.

The pair then helped James Parsons to a fine goal to take the Freeze into the lead.

And with just 33 seconds left of the first period, Jones slotted home a beautifully worked shot assisted by Andy Chappell and Simon Furnival to make it 3-1.

The second period saw Jones leave the ice due to a facial injury.

A rattled Freeze allowed the Barons to score within 10 seconds and the game started to get feisty, with both sides taking minor penalties.

Jones returned to the ice but another injury saw them allow the Barons to level after Freeze netminder Phil Crosby fumbled.

The home lead was restored after a goal was disallowed only for Chappell to bury the rebound. Jones saw a shot tipped over the bar before scoring a double as the period ended 6-3.

Peter Gazda put the Freeze 7-3 up but the Barons piled on the pressure forcing some great saves from Crosby but he couldn’t hold them at bay.

At 7-6 Crosby was winded and seconds after the restart, a minor penalty for Flintshire allowed the Barons to make the most of a powerplay goal to level the scores at 7-7.

Freeze are away to Sutton on Sunday.