Leone hat-trick silences Hornets

ROMFORD, UK – Anthony Leone’s hat-trick ensured that Romford secured their seventh consecutive league win as they edged past a defiant Bracknell Hornets side 6-4 at Rom Valley Way on Sunday. The Raiders failed to assert themselves on their opponents for much of the sixty minutes, perhaps due in part to yet another one-game weekend for the team. The Raiders haven’t had a two-game weekend since the first week of December and it clearly impacted their passing game against a Hornets side tried and tested in a close 3-2 win over the Oxford City Stars on Saturday. Hornets goaltender David Wride stopped 35 of 41 shots faced and was perhaps unlucky to finish on the losing side. Wride stopped Juraj Huska’s slapper point-blank from the right circle before kicking out his left pad to deny a breakaway late in the first. Notable too were a pair of big glove saves from the slot that kept his side alive against a below-par Raiders team. Romford captain Leone opened his account after just 90 seconds, roofing a rebound after Wride had made a sharp save in the crease. Bracknell would answer back through Tony Barclay at the ten-minute mark after Billy Phillips had been binned on a tripping call, the first of two minor penalties for the Romford defenceman on the night. Frankie Harvey fresh from a hat-trick of his own last weekend restored the Raiders lead just 29 seconds later before both sides traded goals at the tail-end of the first period. Tom Fisher initially tied the game at two for the Hornets after converting from JJ Pitchley, though Huska’s wonderful solo effort and Leone’s second of the night staked the Raiders to a fortuitous 4-2 lead after one. With Wride doing his damnedest at one end, it was an iffy moment from Raiders’ goaltender Michael Gray that allowed the door to slip ajar early in the second. Dan Hughes’ floated wrister from out wide somehow found its way past an evidently furious Gray, the Raiders goalie sprawled facedown in his crease for a good 30 seconds afterward. That, however, would not be the biggest frustration for Romford’s #1. With Phillips again in the box  this time for interference a scrappy defensive zone face-off allowed Bracknell to drive to the net and level the game on a rebound. Tom Smith the scorer, Gray the expletively annoyed. AJ Smith and the Hornets’ Ben Duggan slogged it out at centre ice before Leone‘s breakaway hat-trick goal split the game open for the last time, Jason Buckman putting the spoilers on things with the Raiders’ sixth midway through the third period. Cruel on the excellent Wride, perhaps, but two desperately important points for the home side. Contact the author – alex.nunn@prohockeynews.com