No turning back now as the 3rd period started up with pride
at stake for Bracknell who had it all to do. With Guildford Smoke
putting on a united team effort and showing vast improvement as a team,
they were not letting up the pressure. Relentless skating from Robertson,
Gallagher and Rees up front, was a constant threat for the Bracknell B52s. The
defensive unit also playing good safety hockey for Guildford giving good support to their
netminder. At 41:56 Guildford found their 5th goal of the game from Gallagher assisted by
Robertson. Bracknell heads dropped. Back to the grind and now a 5-0 scoreline.

Bracknell battled to find that 1st goal they really needed and were at last rewarded, with their opening goal
of the game coming at 42:18 (18 A .Wybrott unassisted) a well taken tight angled wrist shot from the corner
finding the back of the net. Could Bracknell salvage something out of this game…?
Heads began to lift a little and belief grew in the camp that we could play better hockey, with the B52s getting their 2nd
goal from Andy Downs assisted by Neil Porter and Paul Munson at 47:14. The score looking all the more respectable at 5 – 2
 the B52s began to dig themselves out of the 2 period mess that preceded them. The team wondering why they had struggled for
2 long periods were at last now playing some clever positional hockey and piling more shots onto the Smoke net. The last 10 min of
the game allowed Bracknell to redeem themselves as 2 further goals followed for Andy Downs, completing his hat-trick, with an assist to
Andy Collins, the 3rd goal assisted by captain Mark Gibson, scored at 48:04 & 57:06. A now focused Bracknell B52s had, against the odds,
now pulled themselves back into this game with the score at 5 – 4 and just under 3 min left to improve on this.

Guildford looked a bit concerned now for the 1st time in the game as a few well placed passes from Bracknell nearly found the back of the Smoke
goal, only to be denied by the Guildford netminder. The last 30 sec of the game saw Bracknell pulling their netminder (Munson) for the 6th player and
a final assault on the Guildford net, but they just missed out on that final goal. At the buzzer the gaming ended with a great win for Guildford Smoke 5-4. Bracknell produced 10 minutes of good hockey which nearly pulled them right back into the fray. At least some dignity was restored to the B52s, who
would now be hungry to prove their worth on the return game the next night at the Guildford Spectrum.
 
MOM for Guildford Smoke…………… # 9 Sam Fenwick
MOM for Bracknell B52s……………... # 37 Pete Litwin
Beers sponsored by Neil Porter


              Coaches Thought.........”Don’t prepare the fire till you landed your catch”