By Xanthe Boursier-Gazzard

The Bristol Honda Pitbulls skated away victorious with the two points last night in their only game of the weekend against the Berkshire Bees.

Defensemen Ben Davies and Sam Smith continued to be out of the lineup this week through injury; however, we saw new signing Jay King make his second appearance in Pitbulls colours.

The Pitbulls were the first to get onto the board in the opening twenty minutes, with an initial shot coming from Mason Lipsey not long before Tanner Butler could fire a shot from the right face off circle, top shelf past Max Wright. Both teams took the puck back and forth, with Balaz coming close off the pads of Tommy Nappier while Ewan Hill and Elliot Lewis took chances for the home side. However, it was Butler once again who would get another for the Pitbulls and give them a two-goal cushion, cutting the puck past Wright. Despite this, the Bees had one in them as Josh Poole pushed the puck to the back of the net swiftly following penalties on both teams, opening the scoring for the visitors.

Entering the second period, the home side were stunted with multiple back-to-back penalties, which resulted in Liam Morris receiving the puck from Dominik Gabaj and flicking it high past the Nappiers reach to get the equaliser. The home team combatted this with two more goals in quick succession, the first from Lipsey tapping it in from the left of Wright and the second from Nick Pryce, who weaved past the away side’s defence, launching a shot deep to close the second period with a scoreline of 4-2.

The Bees were determined to apply pressure heading into the third period, with Dan Rose being one of many to take a deflected shot in the first few minutes as Nappier continued to hold his own. Bristol here called a timeout, which was shortly chased by Gabaj reaching the back of the net for the away team off the back of Vanya Antonov. The Pitbulls were persistant with attempts to push back, with Rhys Smetham, Jacob White-Sey, and Bari McKenzie all having their chance on net to delay the visitors regaining possession, ending the game with a 4-3 win to the home team.

Man of the Match for the visitors went to Liam Morris and to Nick Pryce for your Bristol Honda Pitbulls.

Image : Pete Fears