Coach Hargreaves not too worried by surprise draw

BRISTOL Pitbulls started their season with a 3-3 draw against the Invicta Mustangs at the Gillingham Ice Bowl.

Mustangs twice went ahead in the first period, with Shannon Taylor equalising for Bristol on both occasions, including a short-handed effort for his second goal. However, a goal by player-coach Richie Hargreaves ensured the Pitbulls went into the first break with a 3-2 lead.

Mustangs tied the game midway through the second period to set up a thrilling finish. But, despite both teams forcing big saves out of the two goalies, there was to be no further scoring.

Invicta were clearly the happier team at the final whistle in what will likely be seen by the rest of the league as a surprising result.

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"While I'm a little disappointed like everyone else, I still think it was a point gained rather than a point lost," said Pitbulls coach Richie Hargreaves. "Given Invicta's record last year, it perhaps should have been an easier start to the season. But I would have been a lot more disappointed had the game been at home."

Invicta had already played two games while this was Bristol's first competitive outing of the season.

Hargreaves said: "It doesn't matter how hard you train, you can't quite get that match sharpness you need to get right into the game. To all intents and purposes, this is a completely new squad, so it was always going to be tough."

Hargreaves is happy his team are on the right track.

"I was really happy with how we kept their score down. In previous years, we've always been involved in high-scoring games, whether we won or lost. As a result, I've set the team a goal of not conceding more than five goals a game and we managed that.

"While we created a lot opportunities, the quality of our shots wasn't as good as I would have liked and that is something we will look to address in training this week.

"But we are building this team from the back and I felt that we took pride in our defence and, at this stage, that is more important for me."

The game had to be delayed for several minutes when Pitbulls defenceman Tom Asprey hit the boards hard chasing a loose puck.

"Tom is limping a bit, but seems to be OK," said Hargreaves. "I think it's his pride that's hurt more than anything. But, when you have guys trying to do tight turns at 30mph on ice that wasn't particularly good, these things happen.

"We still hope he will be back for the Slough game, however."