Sunday night, a depleted Solent Devils team played host to league leaders, Chelmsford Chieftains.
Richard Facey dodging Oliver Baldock – photo courtesy of Dave Chapman
Devils were missing captain Alex Cole, Kyle Goddard and Ben Lock, the three of whom form an integral part of the Devils defence. Coupled with this, Rhys McCormick, Monty Gailer and Jake Stoodly absence made the Devils look very underpowered during the warm-up.
Chelmsford received an early bench penalty, but successfully kept the Devils from using it, and then seconds after it expired they went ahead and scored themselves a goal. A quick pass from Liam Chong saw Daniel Hammond take the puck down the wing, and his perfect cross in front of the Devils goal to the oncoming Juraj Huska gave them the lead with barely three minutes played.
For the rest of the first period, the Chieftains looked dangerous, they had scored once and were certain they could do it again. The Devils, however, tightened up at the back, and despite being so depleted, seemed to shock the away team with their resolve and determination to fight so hard.
It was this determination from the Devils, that not only prevented them conceding any more goals, but they were creating chances themselves that almost saw them level the score more than once. The score at the break, however, was 1-0 to Chelmsford.
The Devils came out strong in the second period, and with just over a minute played Oliver Denis took the puck from the Devis zone, along one side of the rink. As he crossed the blue line at the other end of the rink, he was under pressure from the Chieftains defence, but saw Sam Rudkin coming up the middle to support him. With the defence on Denis, Rudkin had the time and space to line up a shot properly, and his wrist shot beat Ben Clements and levelled the score.
This goal was Rudkin’s first goal as a Devil, after playing 82 games over four years.
Minutes later, Alex Murray was sent to the box for tripping Grant Bartlett, and when Mark Pitts was sent out for hooking the Chieftains had a 5 on 3 advantage. Credit to the Devils though, because Murray returned to the ice following his penalty, then Pitts was released from the sin bin, and the score was still 1-1.
It couldn’t last forever though, and Chieftains managed to score, this time with Oliver Baldock putting the puck in to the net.
The Devils didn’t let it stop them, and they fought on. It took time and effort, but eventually Pitts and Matt Lawday set up Rudkin, who once more tied the score for the Devils.
The buzzer went and the scoreboard read 2-2, the crowd were cheering, and everyone was looking forward to the third period.
As the third period started, it definitely lived up to expectations, with fast and aggressive hockey. With Richard Facey in the penalty box, the puck was taken in to the Devils zone, and with the Chelmsford players sending it round and round the zone, looking for a gap while the Devils tried to get back out of danger, but the speed the puck was going they were pulled out of position, giving Hammond the gap he needed to slide the puck in to the net.
Sam Rudkin celebrating with the team following his goal – photo courtesy of Dave Chapman
This bought Facey back in to the game, and play restarted in centre. Aidan Doughty passed to Facey, who more than made up for his penalty by scoring, bringing the game back to a tie after just fifteen seconds.
With just over five minutes left to play, Cameron Bartlett gave Grant Bartlett the pass he needed to push the Chieftains back in to the lead.
The Devils once more, set to with determination, and two and a half minutes later the home crowd were on their feet giving all the support they could to the team, when Murray and Doughty helped Facey to equalise once more.
Disaster struck for the Devils, when Jake Sylvester beat Christian Cole, giving the Chieftains their fifth goal of the evening, but with less than two minutes on the clock the Devils couldn’t get the goal back and the game finished 5-4.
Speaking after the game, assistant coach, Martin Clayton said “the team played really well, it was a shame we couldn’t come away with a point but we are all really proud of what happened tonight.”
The Devils have a double header weekend coming up, when Saturday night they host Milton Keynes Thunder before heading to Streatham on Sunday
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