Bracknell Hornets made the trip to Gosport on Sunday night, looking to bounce back from their 9-2 defeat Saturday and try to pick up their second win of the season. Solent Devils on the other hand, were looking to close the gap on fifth place in the league.
Devils managed to strike early following a turnover in front of their goal, Mark Pitts knocking the puck across the blue line where it was picked up by Oliver Denis. Denis slipped a pass across the Hornets blue line, which threaded between a pair of defenders. Matt Lawday managed to pick it up before the Hornets defence recovered, and spotting a gap under Daniel Milton, Lawday sent the puck between the netminders legs and in to the net.
The Devils were showing the fans a display in team work, moving the puck across the whole rink, pin point passing between each other, and the young, quick and agile players such as Alex Trendall, Luke Tull and Hugo Tibbitts were using their speed and dexterity to weave themselves around the Bracknell team with ease.
Half way through the period, the puck was knocked loose in the neutral zone by Connor Redmond, and picked up by Ben Ealey-Newman who found himself behind the Devils defence, but Mark Baroni closing down on him at speed. As they headed toward the Devils goal, Baroni over stretched as he went to try and knock the puck away and lost his balance, giving Ealey-Newman the time to compose himself and flick the puck over Christian Cole’s shoulder and in to the top of the net.
Despite the Devils still keeping the huge team effort going, the Hornets not only held them from getting back in to the lead, but generated a few chances of their own too. The stalemate held until the buzzer, sending the teams to their dressing rooms with the scoreboard reading 1-1.
Early in the second period, with Baroni sat in the penalty box on an interference call, Tom Avery and Ondrej Pekarik managed to give Jordan Gregory the help he needed to put the Hornets in to the lead.
Being a goal up spurred the Hornets on, and they held the score for the rest of the period, giving the crowd fifteen minutes of great hockey as the Devils tried to catch the visitors and match their much more physical approach to the game.
As the third period started, the Devils knew they had to get the goal back, and they began the effort as soon as they stepped back on to the ice.
Five minutes in to the period, the Devils were rewarded for their efforts, as Pitts once more poked the puck through centre ice, Aiden Doughty helping it in to the Hornets zone where it was picked up by Richard Facey who found himself with enough time and space to line himself up nicely and put the puck over Milton’s shoulder.
With a tied score, and the clock running down, the two teams picked up the pressure once more, with both defending and attacking in equal measure. Try as they might however, neither could break through to put themselves back in the lead and the final buzzer went leaving the score 2-2.
Devils face off this coming Sunday against league leaders, Chelmsford Chieftains, once more at the Gosport Arena.
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