I predict a riot

I've been threatening a hockey post for weeks, so here you are -- what might become a weekly slot, if there is enough to write about.

Tonight saw another home win for the Chieftains -- but what should have been a comfortable game against the Barons was instead scrappy and low-scoring. A first period with no goals at all hardly had the crowd on their feet, and the usual drums were strangely quietly as the fans had little to sing for.

A low-scoring game shouldn't necessarily make for an uninteresting one, but the Chieftains didn't seem on top of their game -- frequently losing their possession, and fouling up shots at the net. Things got worse as the Barons drew first blood with a lucky goal. There was the usual penalties for and against both times -- the usual refs with no idea what was actually going on, and several opportunities where it looked like there would be blood on the ice before the night was through.

Energy was low, even moving into the third period -- what usually spurs the Chieftain boys into an aggressive counter-strike this evening seemed to do little to encourage them. Everything changed when Randall evened the score, and suddenly with everything to play for we realised that we could still win this tonight. A 1-0 lead was hardly insurmountable, I've seen them recover spectacularly from far worse, but it was the equalising goal that I think the team needed to show them.

The Barons should never have been a match for the Chieftains, the game was stop-start all night, and I think the two combined are what made it seem so washed-out. It could have gone either way, but the victory was sealed by Palov's goal in the second half of the last period. With only 9 minutes remaining on the clock, the Baron's seemed to take the familiar approach of looking for trouble. They could still have equalised -- you could tell everyone there felt it, just as there was going to be tears before bedtime.

Despite a penalty in the closing minutes, the Chieftains secured their win -- but even with the game won, a fight broke out and it seemed like someone wasn't going to be happy without settling their own score...