Oxford Rising Stars 1-9 Peterborough Phantoms NIHL 2
Match Report by Ian Dibley
Table topping Peterborough arrived in Oxford, looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the season. Oxford were buoyant after a run of good results, but the game didn’t start well for them as 71 seconds into the game the visitors took the lead when James White netted with Conor Pollard and Nathan Pollard bagging the assists. The name Pollard was to appear many times throughout the game. Oxford settled into their game and went toe to toe with Peterborough in a fairly even period. Oxfords defence was breached one more time in the period when Nathan Pollard finished off a delicious drop pass from Sam Barlow past Stars netminder Kayla Poole. This goal was short handed as Bradley Wright sat a 2-minute minor penalty for slashing.
The 2nd period saw Peterborough dominate the play as they outshot the hosts by almost 2 to 1. The visitors extended their lead in the 26th minute when the hard-working Jordan Ho fired past Poole, with Ross Clarke and Leo Markey picking up the assists. A further away goal was scored in the 34th minute when Wright collected a Nathan Pollard pass and scored.
The 3rd period started as many Oxford periods seem to start with the them conceding early on. This time, within a minute of the restart, and it was Pollard from Pollard and White. Eight minutes later it was the same three players combining, this time Conor scoring from Nathans pass and White, again, picking up the secondary assist. This signalled in change in goal for the Stars with Charlie Hanley taking over from Poole. His first task was to pick the puck out of the net as Ho, scored his second goal, less than a minute after the previous goal. A minute later and the home side were on the scoreboard with Ed Crotty accepting the puck from Sam Arnold to post his 5th goal of the season. Back came Peterborough and in the 54th minute were awarded a penalty shot which Hanley saved from White. There was time for Peterborough to add two further markers, both scored by Conor Pollard with the assists going to Ho and Nathan Pollard on both of them.
Final score saw Peterborough win 9-1, with significant contributions from the Pollard twins, with Conor ending with 3 goals and 3 assists and Nathan finishing with 2 goals and 5 assists. The win, coupled with other results, means that Peterborough have qualified for the end of season playoffs before the end of November, such is their dominance, at present.