SHEFFIELD, UK – Sporting their Christmas jerseys, the Sheffield Scimitars made heavy weather of despatching bottom of the table Romford Raiders 6-2 at Ice Sheffield on Saturday evening. This was a game that will not last for long in the memory but in the end it was 2 well deserved points for the home team. The Scimitars dressed only 14 skaters for this fixture with Ben Bowns, Lee Haywood and Tom Squires away on GB U20 duty. Only 1 netminder was included, the mighty Pasi Raitanen who put in a fine performance despite being less than 100% fit. The Scimitars coach Jon Rowbotham was also unwell and stayed away from the team bench to avoid spreading the sickness amongst his team.
The Romford Raiders iced three import D-men and this emphasis on defence led to a somewhat tepid opening to the game. The Scims seemed to struggle to find any rhythm and the Raiders appeared content to contain the hosts and counter attack when the opportunity arose. The game seemed to lack pace and the small festive crowd struggled to get involved.
Romford scored the opening goal on a 5 on 3 powerplay on 9:43 , Chris Jones netting from close range. The Raiders seemed to be holding the lead fairly comfortably when the Scims found their touch just before the end of the period, Peter Slamiar and Mark Stewart scoring within 30 seconds of each other to give the home team a lead they barely deserved at the first period break.
The second period continued in the same vein as the first. Chris Wilcox extended the Scimitars lead before Frankie Harvey reduced the margin back to a single goal. In the final period the home team finally secured the win as a couple of mistakes from Romford netminder Euan King allowed the Scimitars to finally pull clear. Chris Sykes and Stephen Wallace adding their names to the score sheet. The most entertaining period of play came when Romford pulled their keeper whilst on the powerplay with four and a half minutes still remaining. The Raiders net led a charmed life during this period but when the powerplay ended, Euan King was sent back onto the ice only to be pulled again a few seconds later. Stephen Wallace then scored his second of the night with an empty net goal.
Romford at times in this game played some very attractive hockey but away from their home ice the Essex team appears to be very short on confidence and in the end this was a comfortable win for the Scimitars. The Sheffield team can look forward to the return of their GB players to bolster the team for the tougher challenges ahead.
The following evening both Sheffield and Romford had their matches postponed. Sheffield due to the inclement weather and Romford due to the ice being unfit as problems with the Zamboni and damage from a foam party left the surface unplayable at RVW.
Contact the author Dave.Logan@Prohockeynews.com
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