To start their 2016/17 season, the Solent Devils invited NIHL league 2 side, the Basingstoke Buffalo to the Gosport Arena for a pre-season challenge game.
Early in the first, young defender, Kyle Goddard, was found to be checking from behind, earning himself two plus ten in the penalty box. Buffalo, with the extra man advantage, took the puck deep in to the Devils zone, moving well and pressuring Jacob Stoodley in his Devils debut. It was barely twenty seconds after the puck dropped, that it slid under Stoodley, Greg Martyn with the pass that allowed Warren Jones to knock it in to the net.
Matt Lawday receiving his Man of the Match award from a fan
It was a slow start for the Devils, with the new members of the team finding their feet with the existing Devils, and Goddard still sat in the sin bin.
Eventually though, while pressurising the Buffalo defence, Mitch Murray took the puck across the ice in front of Sam Calder – on a two-way contract between Buffalo and Devils, and using his momentum to carry Calder’s attention, Murray slipped the puck back to an oncoming Richard Facey, who sent it past Calder and in to the net.
It may have taken over sixteen minutes for the Devils to make a mark on the score board, but it didn’t take a whole minute for them to strike again. Oliver Denis, sending the puck out of the Devils zone, to player/coach, Alex Murray, who took the puck and a few blue shirts all the way to the Buffalo goal, where he spotted a gap between Calder’s skate and the post. The gap turned out to be just bigger than the puck, and the buzzer sounded as the Devils went in to the lead.
New Devil, Mark Pitts, was sent to the penalty box for an interference minor, and Buffalo picked up their second power play goal of the game. Josh Richards with the final touch, after an assist from Hallam Wilson, sending the teams to the changing rooms for the first break with the score tied at 2-2.
The Devils exploded out of the changing room after the break, and took the Buffalo by surprise, leaving the visitors unable to improve on their two goals in the first period but the NIHL 1 team getting themselves seven goals. Mitch Murray scoring two, with two assists, while his brother Alex got his second goal of the game, and two assists. Facey too, got a second goal and a pair of assists. Kyle Goddard fired in a blistering shot from the blue line, which went hammering past Calder, who could do nothing but watch as the puck flew past him. Two of the new Devils clearly wanted in on the action, as Matt Lawday and Scott Greenfield got a goal each too, meaning at the end of the second the scoreboard now read 9-2.
Devils managed another quick goal at the start of the third, with captain Alex Cole managing to get through as there was some confusion in front of the Buffalo goal.
Basingstoke managed to rally though, and put up a good fight, not letting the Devils walk it in to the goal and still pressuring to try and get more of their own.
The Devils, however, with their experience of playing in the higher league, and the additional training they have been putting in over the summer, not only held the Buffalo at bay, they managed to break through twice more.
Richard Facey spending a few moments with his shirt sponsor this season, Skye
The first – and the Devils eleventh – with less than ten minutes to go, gave Lawday another goal, and then, in the dying minutes of the game, Perry Stewart got his Devils career off to a start and made the final score read 12-2.
For his efforts in the game, Matt Lawday was awarded the Man of the Match award for the Devils, and received his accolade from a beaming fan following the handshakes on the ice.
Devils start their season proper, with three away games, the first of which where the visit Chelmsford Chieftains, Sunday 18th September.
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