Rampant Raiders rout Redskins

ROMFORD, UK – Frankie Harvey returned to the Raiders side after a two-week layoff, combining with player-coach Danny Marshall and new import signing Juraj Huska to rout an ailing Streatham Redskins side 10-1 on Sunday evening.

Harvey, Marshall and Huska combined for 6 goals and 11 points as they demolished a Streatham side besieged by illness. The Raiders chased Redskins’ starting goalie Stefan Nubert after a six-goal first period that, if anything, still failed to reflect the home sides dominance on the game. Harvey’s return sparked the Romford offence into it’s first double-digits game of the season; he and Huska scored twice during the opening period as the home side rattled up the goal count. The Raiders netted in all situations; 5-on-4, 5-on-3 and short-handed. Harvey, particularly lively early on, was rewarded during a Streatham powerplay after he’d broken up the ice from his own blue-line. The 18-year old fell to one knee off the rush, backhanded the puck cross-ice to the supporting Joe Allen and picked up the rebound for his 10^th goal of the season. Marshall netted during a 5-on-3 powerplay after a succession of pot-shots had drifted wide of Nubert‘s right-hand post, Tyrone Miller blasted home his second of the season from the point and Huska converted after a gorgeous tic-tac passing play by Marshall and Harvey in the offensive zone. The Redskins’ only goal, a slapshot from outside the blue-line that an in-form Michael Gray really should have stopped (Michael Ranby the scorer). Scoring opportunities lessened as the Raiders gave additional ice-time to the likes of JJ McGrath and Tom Davis in the second and third periods, a justifiable tactic with the game already won. Harvey, still searching for his hat-trick, came agonisingly close on more than one occasion. He stumbled in-close as he attempted to bundle home a rebound from Marshall’s shot, fanned on another attempt and fired a couple of shots straight at Redskins goalie Will Sanderson (relieving Nubert late in the first). Two or three goalmouth scrambles denied the Raiders far more than the three goals they posted in the second, Huska completing his trick off a slapshot after stripping the puck from the Streatham defence. The Raiders themselves made a change in net at the start of the third period, giving valuable minutes to back-up ‘tender Glen Jackson in place of a much under-worked Gray. Still Streatham offered little going forward, Jackson restricted to kicking out shots from distance as the game wound down. Never one to let things die quietly, the Raiders’ JJ McGrath dropped the gloves with the Redskins’ Jack Tarczycki for a bout that was almost as lopsided as the scoreline. The Raiders would soon get their 10^th of the night after another turnover at the Streatham blue-line. Tom Davis stripped the puck away, moved in and stuffed the puck through Sanderson’s five-hole to complete the scoring on a great night for the home side. The Raiders will, of course, know to expect a far sterner test when the two sides meet again next Sunday at RVW in the Raiders only game of the weekend. Contact the author – alex.nunn@prohockeynews.com