Oxford receive frosty reception
The Blues friendly game against a touring Munich University team proved to be in stark contrast to their previous League and friendly wins this season
The first period was a fast-paced battle between the two teams. Munich opened the scoring and Oxford failed to respond despite some good chances starting a clean game with very few stoppages.
Oxford goalkeeper Leon Pickering generally played a strong match, but let out too many rebounds. He paid the price for this when he faced a volley of six powerful shots in under a minute, all of which were saved.
The first period ended shortly afterwards and Oxford went into the dressing room three goals down.
Munich dominated the second period despite a valiant effort from Oxford whose attacks were dangerous but often too short-lived. However, both teams were frustrated by their inability to convert shots into goals.
Oxford were playing together for the third time with a team largely different from last year and Munich's seemingly telepathic communication and teamwork gave them the edge.
Despite being a larger team than Oxford, Munich preferred to avoid playing contact and indeed it was frequently unnecessary. At the end of the second period, it was 6-0 to Munich.
The third period saw Oxford playing a different game. Determined not to lose their dignity, they fought much harder and their attempts were rewarded with a goal by Sam Salisbury.
Oxford's efforts were largely foiled by spectacular goalkeeping but the match took a decisive turn in their favour.
Munich's confidence in offence was gone as the defence began to hang back and forwards started to make long passes back down the ice rather than lose possession.
The game also took a more physical edge as Munich began to take their defence more seriously.
At one point the Germans had only three men on the ice as two of their players were benched for two minutes each.
After the game, the German players pleaded inebriation as an excuse for not beating the Blues more decisively. Their claim may have been borne out by their 24-2 crushing of Oxford's second team on Saturday.
18th Nov 2004