ROMFORD, UK – A disappointing campaign for the Romford Raiders came to an end on Sunday with an entertaining 9-4 defeat to Guildford.
The Raiders’ season has been a turbulent one, in which pretty much anything that could’ve gone wrong has done so. They have seen coaches depart, a lot of player movement and other various off-ice troubles.
In particular, the loss of Coach Jesse Hammill after Christmas disrupted the team, and in the second half of the season they suffered numerous heavy defeats. This continued in the final weekend, as they lost 13-3 to fellow strugglers Bracknell. The Bees were playing hard as they tried to secure a playoff spot, whereas the Raiders have been out of the playoff picture for months.
After this heavy defeat, Romford returned home to face Guildford, who were chasing third place. The Flames have an extremely talented roster, and despite underachieving in the league this season, they secured the EPL Cup against Milton Keynes in midweek with an impressive 10-4 aggregate win.
With the season about to end, the Raiders gave a start to young netminder Frankie Sabine. The 17 year-old (only just 17!) is very small, and needs to do some growing in order to fill the net a little more, but he has excellent technical ability and should be set for a good career in British hockey.
Guildford took an early lead through defenceman Jez Lundin, before Melicherik added a second. Canadian Dallas Costanzo pulled one back for the Raiders from close range, but goals from Gary Clarke and Nathan Rempel gave the Flames a commanding 4-1 lead at the end of the first period.
The Flames started the second period strongly, and fired three quick goals in (through Rob Lamey, Clarke and Lubomir Hurtaj) to make the score 7-1. After that, they took their foot off the gas, content to contain the Raiders, and around the net they tried increasingly fancy plays. Romford sniper Darius Pliskauskas did manage to pull one back before the end of the period though to give the crowd something to cheer.
At the beginning of the third period, it was the Raiders who caught their opponents cold this time, as Pliskauskas scored inside fourteen seconds with the best goal of the game. Romford youngster Frankie Harvey flashed down the right wing, before dropping it back to Captain Danny Marshall at the blueline. Marshall deked a challenging Flames player before sliding a perfect pass to the back-door where Pliskauskas was waiting to finish past a prone Dean Skinns.
Encouraged by this success, Romford pressed harder and soon made it 7-4 with a powerplay tally from Costanzo. They then went close several times, before Rempel killed of the comeback with a shorthanded goal. Gary Clarke scored his hat-trick goal with a minute to go, to make the final score 9-4.
That marks the end of a season to forget for Romford, but one that may be their last in the English Premier League. It has already been announced that current owner John Scott will not be in charge next season, though it does seem as though a new owner will be in place soon enough. In the Romford match night magazine, Scott said: “It has been an interesting year ‘serving’ my favourite team but now is the time for my successor to get his work underway and thank heavens he will have a bit more time than I did.”
It remains to be seen whether the new owner will opt for ENL or EPL hockey next season. The decision will be based on finances, and whether the Raiders can afford to be competitive in the EPL. If they can, then that is surely where they will remain, but if the only way to be competitive is to drop to the ENL then that must be the right direction for the club to take
Contact the author dave.lambert@prohockeynews.com
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