THIS Sunday's clash with Romford Raiders has been described as a 'must win game' by Gary Clarke.
After mixed results last weekend the Chelmsford Chieftains are currently four points behind their bitter rivals in the National Ice Hockey League Division One South table and have played a game more.
Two weeks ago Chelmsford lost to the Raiders 3-2 and Clarke, the player-coach, says his team has to be prepared for a physical battle. He knows though that they can draw on two cup wins earlier in the campaign.
"They're a very aggressive hockey team," he said. "You need to be able to give as much medicine as you take but at the same time stay controlled disciplined and just keep your eye on the prize really.
"We can't get sucked or do anything stupid
"It's a must win game and we're going to do everything we can.
"I don't think anybody has won in Romford for the past year and a half except us, so we just need to make sure we play our style of hockey and make sure that we don't get caught up in the occasion and hopefully we'll come out on top."
Before that game Chelmsford travel to the Streatham Redskins in the league cup, it's a competition Clarke is taking seriously. He said: "It's an opportunity for us to prove that we can go and win on that small rink. It doesn't matter what silverware is on the line we want to win every game."
Ahead of those games a virus has been sweeping through the squad Michael McKay, Mike Ranby and Tom Castle were all missing from last weekend's games through illness while captain Danny Wright is batting back from an ankle problem. All are expected to return for the weekend.
Last weekend started badly for the Chieftains when they threw away a 4-0 advantage against Streatham and lost 6-5.
The Chieftains were fortunate early on as they got a five minute powerplay after Russell Stevens was sent from the game for a nasty knee-on-knee hit on Ross Brears which saw the Chieftains youngster struggle from the ice and play little part in the rest of the game.
The Essex side took full advantage as Clarke, Julius Sinkovic and Darren Brown all ran in goals during the five minutes with an extra man before Danny Hammond made it 4-0.
Former Chieftains star Jakub Klima then netted for the home side before a maker from Stewart Tait to leave it at 4-2 after one period.
It was all Streatham in the second as three goals in two minutes from Klima (two) and Tait made it 5-4 to the Skins. Returning Tibor Schneider then fired home to make it 5-5 but completely against the run of play Klima notched his fourth of the night on 51:38 and it was enough for the Streatham side to hold on.
Clarke said: "I still believe we had enough to win that game. We were winning but things just seemed to fall apart at the seams. It was very frustrating to see."
The next day the Chieftains bounced back and won 6-2 against the Cardiff NIHL Devils.
Hammond, Schneider and Sinkovic all netted before the end of the first period to leave the Devils shell-shocked.
The second was a much more physical affair with the gloves coming off twice in a short space of time. Firstly Cameron Bartlett squared off with Chris Hart in a short and uneventful scrap before Danny Cox and Ross Wilkinson had a classic bout that Welshman Wilkinson won.
However, the important events in the game are what affects the scoreboard and Sinkovic and James Ayling both netted before Rupert Quiney and Sean Scarbrough pulled two back for the visitors to make it 5-2 after 40 minutes of play.
In the final session the Chieftains scored again through man-of-the-match Hammond and that was that for the scoring.
Clarke surmised: "The last time we played them they beat us 3-0 so it was an opportunity to get one back over on them and all the guys responded very well."
Tom Castle has been awarded the Karen Bloomfield Memorial Trophy after the game in recognition of being voted player-of-the-month for November.
