Eighth in the league Solent Devils had another double header weekend, this weekend, and Saturday saw them heading to London Raiders, currently holding to seventh place by one point over the Devils.
Early in the game, Monty Gailer went down hard, cutting his chin on the ice behind the Devils goal. Raiders captain, Tom Davis was given a two minute penalty for kneeing. Gailer was helped from the ice, but shortly later was taken from the rink in an ambulance and was kept in hospital for overnight observation. Gailer was diagnosed with a concussion, and given a fetching bandage to wear to cover the gash in his chin.
Ralfs Circenis celebrating his goal against Bracknell
The rest of the first period, was an end to end battle but fairly continuous play. Marek Nahlik gave the Devils another power play, as he was caught slashing, and Raiders received two power plays, the first for George Norcliffe hooking, the second because of a cross check from Richard Facey.
Other than that, the first period ended in a stalemate, at 0-0.
The second period however, was much more eventful. The puck was still being moved end to end, but Facey, Steve Gosset and, Ralfs Circenis peppered the Raiders goal with shots, however none of them managed to beat Michael Gray.
Eventually, with an assist from Norcliffe, Mitch Murray finally got one through a gap, and started the scoring for the Devils.
This opened the flood gates, as despite losing Gosset for tripping, Circenis managed to get a short-handed goal with an assist from Facey. Mitch Murray then went on to get an assist as his brother Alex scored. Mitch got yet another assist, this time with Facey scoring the goal (Andrew Magee picked up an assist on this goal too).
All four of these goals, came in just over minutes of play.
London managed to answer back just before the break, as Mason Webster found Davis, who sent the puck on to Nahlik, who managed to beat Christian Cole in net for the Devils.
Seconds before the break, Facey and Webster had a small issue on the ice. Facey was given two minutes for holding, and a further two plus two for roughing. Webster received a matching two plus two for roughing.
The third period, was a triumph of defence for the Devils, and Cole knocked away all ten shots that made it though. While defending well, this didn’t stop the Devils going on the attack, Gray managed to stop the twelve shots that he faced.
Facey, once again had a trip to the sin bin, this time for holding one of the Raiders stick. This didn’t change anything however, and the Devils not only won this game, they also managed to put themselves a point above Raiders in the league, taking the seventh spot from them.
Sunday, the Devils were back at home and played host to the Bracknell Hornets.
This game was physical from the outset, with both teams using their bodies to great effect. This obviously resulted in keeping the referees quite busy throughout the game.
Each team received three penalties during the first period, however neither team managed to score and the first period ended 0-0.
Mason Wild advancing, with Steve Gosset and Alex Trendall in the background
The first period started, with Devils head coach, Alex Murray in the penalty box due to the hooking call he picked up seconds before the break, but the Devils managed to kill this penalty and he returned to the ice with the score still tied.
Another pair of penalties for the Hornets, and a pair of penalties for the Devils saw four separate power plays, however the game past the half way mark with neither team getting the scoring underway.
While on the attack, the referee stopped the game as Bracknell were offside. J.J. Pitchley disagreed with this call, and was very vocal with the referees about this. As his tirade continued, the referees lost patience with him, and he was given a two minute penalty for misconduct. Even while sat in the sin bin, Pitchley continued telling the referees how “irrelevant” and “ridiculous” they are, building in both speed and intensity as the door to the ice was closed.
When one of the Devils off ice team asked Pitchley to moderate his language due to their being children in the crowd, his frustration was then vented at the fans, telling people they could leave if they didn’t like it.
Before play restarted, William Stead was sent to the sin bin too. Stead was given a delay of game penalty, for what appeared to be the Hornets not deciding who should be on the ice or not.
Fortunately, Stead’s arrival in the penalty box gave Pitchley a friendly face, and Stead managed to calm his team mate down.
This was the catalyst that was finally needed, and Ralfs Circenis got the scoring underway, with assists from George Norcliffe and Richard Facey.
The Devils managed to strike again just before the second break, with Alex Murray and Andrew Magee assisting Mitch Murray to his eighth goal of the season.
Andrew Magee being denied by Matthew Smital in the Hornets goal
Coming out in to the third, the Hornets found another gear, and from the face off the puck was taken straight to the Devils zone. Several passes later, Stewart Tait sent a cross to Josh Martin, who took the puck round behind the goal, trying for a wrap around that Christian Cole managed to knock away. Unfortunately for Cole, Bradley Watchorn was there to pick up the rebound, and he managed to get it around Cole who hadn’t recovered from the previous save.
One minute and four seconds later, Richard Brown put the Devils back in the lead by two following a breakaway and pass from Facey.
This was followed by several minutes of fast and frantic hockey. The Devils wanting to extend their lead further, and the Hornets trying everything to cut it back down.
While behind the Hornets goal line, George Norcliffe saw Facey in space in front of the goal, and managed to get the puck through to him. Facey then went on to fire it in to the top right corner, making the score 4-1.
Pitchley was once again upset by this, and as he left the ice hit his stick against the side of the rink, snapping it in. He then went on to teach the away team bench a lesson with his hands.
Hornets managed a late goal, with less than two minutes to play, when from just inside the Devils blue line, Martin fired a huge shot straight in to Cole’s glove. The power of the shot, made the puck bounce up and out of the glove, and it flicked in to the Devils goal.
Hornets managed to get a couple more penalties in the last ninety seconds of the game. Firstly, Watchcorn was sent out for holding Circenis. Then, with seconds to go, Martin was spotted using his elbow on Alex Cole. The referee quickly got there, obviously expecting trouble, although Cole didn’t seem interested, and kept his arms by his side. Martin, however, saw an easy target, and Cole got a knock on the nose for not having his guard up. This earned Martin two, plus two, plus ten, with only seventeen seconds left in the game.
It finished a triumphant weekend for the Devils though, as they took this game 4-2, extending their lead over London by a further two points.
All photos are courtesy of Dave Chapman
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