Last weekend saw top flight hockey come to town as the Dundalk Ice Dome hosted the last Celtic Cup match of the season to be held in Ireland as the home side Charlestown Chiefs took on the Fife Flyers, in a battle that saw the Scottish side having the last laugh with a good first and final period of play.
Saturday night saw the Flyers taken the first period into their own hands as they had a 3-1 lead going into the second period. Mistake after mistake from the Chiefs gave the Flyers the time and possession where they took all the chances that they could get which was evident after the first twenty minutes of play.
In he second, the Chiefs came out of the intermission with a winning mentality, something that was missing in the first. Although the Flyers opened the scoring in the second period through Lewis Glasgow, the Chiefs (formally known as the Latvian Hawks) bounced back with a goal from Serjes Selenkovs. And it got better for the home side as they started somewhat of a come back with three goals within five minutes and closing the scoring margin to 5-3 for the Flyers going into the third and final period.
But it was the Scottish men who came out of the traps flying with three goals being added to their score sheet after seven minutes of play. The Chiefs were searching for another goal but there efforts where not paying off. Coach Aigars Brencis called upon local net minder Sean Pepper to play the remaining ten minutes in between the pipes, and his performance paid off only letting one goal go passed him due to poor defence giving Fife a 4-10 win.
On Sunday afternoon the two teams took to the ice once again for the final match of the weekend that saw the gloves being dropped by both sides in the opening four minutes when Vlad Zak and Steven Lynch went head to head that resulted in both being kicked off the ice for fourteen minutes under the referee’s decision. The first saw a better defensive side within the Cheifs but the Flyers where able to break the defence players on two occasions which ended the scoring 2-0 going into the second period.
Steven King from the Flyers opened the scoring in the second which the Chiefs replied with a goal from Aigars Brencis. A rough fifteen minutes followed both on and off the ice, as a dispute amongst fans arose. The Flyers found two more goals bringing the second period to 6-1 in favour of the Flyers
The third period saw very little from both sides as not many scoring opportunities where being created. But with seven minutes remaining before the final whistle, the Flyers let their defence guard down which seen the Chiefs taking advantage through a goal from Alex Fzodorovs making the scoring to 7-2.