Premier League Hockey: St Pat's beaten in minor semi-final by CYMS in golden goal thriller

Saturday's women's Premier League Hockey elimination semi-final was packed with top notch hockey and moments of brilliance for St Pat's but unfortunately they found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-2 scoreline.

Locked at 2-all at the end of regulation, the Saints and the visiting CYMS went into golden goal at Cooke Hockey Complex, and both teams looked set to stay level as the half-time break approached.

However, CYMS earned a penalty corner and made the most of the chance, completing an upset win over the Saints and earning themselves a ticket to the preliminary final.

For the Saints it's the end of the road in 2021.

It was a tough result for Pat's to take after they created chances throughout the contest but found the post twice as many times when compared to the number of times they found the back of the net.

"We created plenty of chances but just didn't put them in. They went down the field near the end of the first period of extra-time, hit one of our feet, penalty corner, and that's always a great chance. Unfortunately in golden goal you have no right of reply," Pat's coach Ben Weal said.

"In the game I thought we played the better of the hockey but we hit the post four times and that's frustrating. That doesn't add to the scoresheet, unfortunately. We were a bit unlucky, and maybe just not strong enough, with our finishing."

The two teams traded goals over an entertaining first half of hockey to enter the main break locked at 2-all.

Defence came to the fore over the second half and neither side could find a way through each other - setting up a thrilling golden goal scenario.

Things didn't pan out as planned for Pat's, and their coach thinks if there's one lesson to take from this game into the 2022 season it will be sticking to the game plan - even when the pressure gets turned up.

"There were a few periods where we panicked and went a bit too direct, especially in that extra-time period. We panicked, tried to get the ball forwarded to quickly and we kept turning the ball over," Weal said.

"When you do that you're just putting yourself under the pump. Throughout the year whenever we'd get a turnover we'd shift the ball away to the help side but we went away from that. Playing the ball direct, back where it came from, is usually where the numbers are."

CYMS will wait a little bit longer to find out their preliminary final opponents after the major semi-final between Lithgow Panthers and Orange United was postponed.

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