Sunday night, Solent Devils hosted Streatham Redhawks in front of a crowd bolstered by Wightlink Raiders fans, coming to see Jeremy Cornish coach a team – many of whom are former Raiders – once more, after the Raiders were disbanded earlier in the season.
Photo courtesy of Dave Chapman
Both teams started hard, Streatham coming in from a win in Milton Keynes the night before, the Devils rested but wanting to bounce back from their 12-3 defeat a week earlier at Chelmsford.
Despite the game being fast and physical, it was well played by both teams, with just two penalties throughout the entire match, both of which came in the third period.
The goals, however, were spread throughout the evening, with the first coming well in to the first period. Streatham looked dangerous in front of the Devils goal, moving the puck around, but the Devils took control of the puck, Mark Pitts sending it from behind the goal line out to Aiden Doughty who sent it on to Richard Facey who headed in to the Streatham zone. From against the boards, out by the face out circle, a quick flick sent the puck over Matt Colclough, dipping under the crossbar, putting the Devils in to the lead.
The end of the first period came, and Christian Cole had faced down fourteen shots, blocking them all, taking things to the break 1-0.
Redwings came back after the break, and pushed hard trying to get the point back, which is something they managed after a few minutes. Callum Best, holding the puck behind the Devils goal line, saw George Norcliffe in space. Norcliffe, as the Devils know, is a dangerous player in front of goal, and he did what he is great at, and put the puck in the net.
Speaking of this goal afterwards, Devils coach Alex Murray said “The majority of our game plan was implemented, we set ourselves targets before every game and we have them on the board so the guys can read them whilst preparing. We identified key players for them to try and reduce Streatham’s scoring chances, and to ensure we picked up the late forwards arriving in our zone. Everyone managed to implement the plan, other than me! I went to sleep on a play, and we conceded because of it.”
With the crowd thinking that Streatham now had their rhythm, and the infamous drummer banging her drum, the Devils didn’t let it get to them.
Photo courtesy of Paul Williams
Pitts, once more getting the puck out from the back, this time passing to Facey, who went on to take a shot, this time being stopped by Colclough’s leg pad. Unfortunately for Streatham, Facey had back up from Doughty, who picked up the rebound and flicked it over the still outstretched blocker.
Play continued apace, all the way through to the second break when the score still read 2-1 to the Devils.
Early in the third, Streatham took their penalty, when Liam Rasmussen was sent to the penalty box for charging Facey.
With the man advantage, the Devils went to set up camp in front of the Streatham goal, sending the puck around the area, looking for a gap in the defence. Streatham, however, were pushing back, and were starting to drive the play back towards the neutral zone.
Doughty’s pass back to Facey on the wing, saw Facey quickly come under pressure. The only friendly player Facey could see, was defenceman, Ben Lock. Lock, out at the blue line was ready to receive the puck, and looked up to see the space no one else could find. His one timer hit the back of the net so hard, spectators behind the goal stepped back, and the Devils went wild seeing the score board change again.
The Devils weren’t done, and kept the pressure on, despite Streatham pushing to take control.
Doughty, again, went heading in to the Streatham zone, and taking the puck around behind the net, tried to get a wrap around goal, finding Colclough effectively filling any gap Doughty hoped to exploit. Colclough, however, couldn’t fill the whole goal, and Facey had appeared at the other side of the crease in support of his team mate, a quick pass, and Facey had all the room he needed to score the Devils fourth of the night.
It was then the turn of Devils captain, Alex Cole to sit in the sin bin after his slash on Steve Fisher.
Photo courtesy of Dave Chapman
This put the Devils, on the defence, without one of their key defenders. A concerted team effort though, and Cole returned to the ice two minutes later, with the 4-1 score unchanged, a score which the Devils held until the final buzzer.
“We kept building off each other and staying positive, kept the game clean. We did not want to give them any sort of momentum, which kept us in control for the majority of the game,” said Cole, “The mood was fantastic, our team spirit is what has been getting us through the lows, so you can only imagine what it is like when we are winning!”
Murray continued his earlier statement, by saying “We are delighted with the win, we knew we had to bounce back following last week’s disappointing result, but the guys have been playing well at home recently so it was good to keep the momentum going against a very strong Streatham team.”
Despite picking holes in his own game, Murray was nothing but complimentary about the rest of the team on the night, “Our defensive unit was solid, back up by an impressive goaltending display by Chico, and that allowed our top line to go on and do the damage. Our young third unit played incredibly maturely against a very tough third unit for Streatham, overall, I’m delighted by how we played.”
When asked about seeing out the game and realising they had won, Alex Cole said “To be honest, not at any point did I think we’d won, you just can’t in this league, against teams who on their night can be very dangerous! The last seven seconds of the game, my final shift, that was when it sunk in.”
Devils travel to Milton Keynes Saturday, where they will fight for seventh place against Milton Keynes Thunder, and then the Devils return home Sunday 12th February to host Oxford City Stars.
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