Mark Pitts
Sunday evening, the Solent Devils hosted the Slough Jets in the two teams quarter final game. This was supposed to be a competition of two legs, however, Slough had trouble securing the ice rink and as such the league ruled that the competition could be decided in one game rather than two.
This took the excitement of post-season hockey up a notch, with both teams wanting to make sure they got to go to Bracknell the following weekend for a chance to lift the cup.
Things started quickly for the Devils as they got the scoring started just three minutes in to the game, Drew Campbell and Alex Murray attacking the Jets goal, but finding no way through to the net, knocked the puck back to Ben Lock who saw a gap and deftly puck the puck through it.
The only penalty of the period came a minute later, when Nathan Darmanin sat two minutes for tripping Richard Facey, but the Devils couldn’t capitalise on the advantage and Darmanin returned to the ice still just one goal down.
Half way through the period though, the Devils struck gold once more, when Murray buried the puck following a pass from Richard Facey.
The second period, saw Slough take the game up a level, as they came out with a vigour and intensity they seemed to lack in the first period. This took the Devils somewhat by surprise and they conceded an early goal. Net minder Chris Douglas cleared the puck from the Jets goal to Luke Reynolds, and Reynolds found Darmanin in space. Darmanin then went on to slip the puck past Christian Cole in the Devils goal.
Minutes later, on a power play (Jack Standing penalty for tripping), Murray and Facey helped set up Drew Campbell to make the score 3-1 to the home team.
Alex Trendall
Mark Pitts taking a penalty for interference put the Devils on defence, but when Murray cleared the puck from the Devils zone, Facey chased it down the ice, and taking his time watching how Douglas was moving, picked his moment to lift the puck over the net minders glove and giving the Devils a short handed goal.
The celebrations were ended a minute later though, when Douglas once more sent the puck from his area, this time Darmanin providing the assist to Reynolds, as Reynolds brought the score to 4-2 heading in to the second break.
After the third period started, there was once more an early goal, this time Pitts being the one to find the net after he and Alex Trendall had been pressuring the Jets defence and net minder.
With a little over ten minutes of the game left, Reynolds earned a penalty after charging Trendall, and sat in the sin bin saw Facey and Murray head down the ice with the puck, feeding Campbell to score the Devils sixth.
Timo Lindgren managed to help Jets captain, Liam Underdown pick up the Jets third goal, but it was a small consolation with so little time left in the game. As the final buzzer went, the Jets took a round of applause from the fans, and left the rink to head home, the 2017/18 season now over for them.
The Devils, however, will be heading to Bracknell where they will be facing Guildford Phoenix on Saturday evening in the semi-finals in game two. Game one will be played between Oxford City Stars and Chelmsford Chieftains on Saturday afternoon.
The winners of these two matches will play on Sunday evening to determine the Play Off winner.
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