Sunday night, saw Solent Devils head out to take on last Sunday’s rivals, Milton Keynes Thunder.
Last Sunday, Devils had twelve skaters and two net minders, this Sunday, Devils managed fourteen skaters and two net minders. Thunder last week, had nine skaters, and one net minder, this week however, they managed a much healthier fifteen skaters and two net minders.
Richard Brown
Things started well for the Devils, when Alex Cole and Richard Facey set up Andrew Magee before two minutes of the game had even been played.
Play continued, with both teams battling for supremacy, when Magee and Murray helped Facey get himself a goal.
Less than a minute later, Facey and Magee got another point each, for providing the assists, this time to Mitchell Murray, putting the visitors three goals up in under ten minutes.
This obviously lit a rocket under the Thunder bench, and within seconds of the puck dropping Ross Bowers got a goal back, with assists from Tom Mboya and Nicholas Poole.
Luc Johnson found Glenn Billing five minutes later, and Billing managed to close the gap with Thunder’s second goal of the period.
The only penalty of the first period came as Nidal Phillips was given a two minute minor for tripping, however Thunder managed to kill this off and Phillips returned to the ice with the score still 3-2 to the Devils.
Three seconds later, with barely ten seconds left before the break, Edward Knaggs’ pass to Poole helped them both get assists, with captain Jamie Line managing to tie things up nicely before the buzzer.
Coming back after the break, both teams got straight in to the battle, with Thunder managing to claw ahead as James Clarke’s goal made the score 4-3, with the assist coming from Billing
Devils picked up another power play, as Mboya was found to have been hooking, but once again Thunder managed to kill it off.
Devils were already on the attack as Mboya returned to the ice, and within five seconds of the sin bin door closing, Magee received a second assist, with another assist going to Alex Murray for setting up his brother Mitch for his second goal of the game.
Steve Gosset was sent to the penalty box shortly after the goal for tripping.
Thunder managed to capitalise on this, Alex Whyte with the first assist, Line getting an assist to go with his earlier goal, and Bowers once again getting the puck past Sam Calder in the Devils goal.
With the game now being played at a frantic pace, Knaggs passed to Mboya, who sent the puck on to Billing, who extended Thunder’s lead over the Devils.
The Devils started the fight back, spearheading the charge was Facey and Mitch Murray. The two of these found Magee, who did what he came back to the Devils to do, and scored another goal, bringing the contest back to within one.
Two minutes later, Ralfs Circenis had the puck, and spotted Richard Brown, to whom a quick pass was made. Brown got the puck through to George Norcliffe, who managed to get his seventeenth goal of the season, and meaning the game went to the second break at a tie.
The third period, the puck went back and forth on the ice, with each team managing to fend of the other.
Around half way through the period, Devils managed to break through, and the puck ended up on the wrong side of Spencer Caminsky once more. The referees however waved this goal off, and the puck was brought back out for a face off with the score remaining at 6-6.
Fourteen seconds from the end, Mason Wild was found guilty of tripping, but the Devils held out Thunder for the dying moments of the game, and left with their ninth tie of the year.
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