Swindon Top Cats 1 Cardiff Comets 3

Well the hard work has started to pay off. In a tight game The Cardiff Comets skated out of Local Rivals rink with a hard fought victory.
This was despite losing influential forward Beth Williams after 7 minutes to a game penalty and also missing 2 players.

The first period saw Swindon coming out fast at Cardiff and despite Cardiff playing a tight defence it was not a total shock when Swindon took the lead through Becci Hargreaves on the powerplay after 5 minutes.
With the loss of Beth Williams Cardiff reshuffled their lines and finished the period one down but knowing they were capable of keeping Swindon out and improving offensivly.

The second period saw Cardiff keep their disciplined defence and Swindon could not muster any real scoring chances. When they did get a clear shot they found Emma Hayman in great form in the Cardiff Net.
Cardiff offensively were growing in confidence and building on the solid defensive platform, And half way through the period they got what they desvered and equalised. Good forechecking from Emma Jones forced Swindon into a defence mistake and left Kamera Bristow in front of the net to poke home a rebound whilst flat out on the ice. The rest of the period was mainly good special team Penalty killing with Cardiff picking up a few penalties. At the break the feeling in the camp was positive and there was a feeling that the win was achievable...

Cardiff started the third period again keeping the disciplined defence and it really was their better fitness and confidence that was starting to saw with Swindon running out of ideas on how to break Cardiff down.
With eight minutes to go Cardiff got the game winning goal. Nikki Rust-Lombard skated down the right wing drawing out the Swindon Defence before laying a sublime pass to Emma Jones who was driving the net hard to tip in at the far post. Patiance and discipline was then the key word and when Swindon called a time out with 1.49 left the coaching team calmed the girls down to focus on job in hand.

Swindon pulled there netminder straight from the face off and threw the puck deep into the Cardiff zone. There was no panic to get a shot away quickly and the focus was just to keep Swindon out of the zone. Cardiff cleared and when Swindon went to re gain the zone the puck was stolen by Nikki Rust-Lombard who feed Jenny Ball who skated into range before firing into the empty net to seal the victory.

Final Score

Swindon Top Cats 1 Cardiff Comets 3

Jenny Ball 1+0
Kamera Bristow 1+0
Emma Jones 1+0
Nikki Rust-Lomard 0+2