Saturday night, Solent Devils hosted Lee Valley Lions with the Devils first home game of the season, and for the fans it was a true goal bonanza.
Christian Cole stopping a shot courtesy of Steven Ferguson.
The Devils found the back of the next at 6:25, when head coach, Alex Murray, and Richard Facey earned assists on Sam Rudkin’s third ever goal for the Devils.
A little over two minutes later, Murray and Facey picked up another assist each, this time with Drew Campbell getting a powerplay goal as Daniel Tamasauskas watched from the penalty box after his check from behind.
Not even two minutes later, Murray got his own goal, making it 3-0 to the Devils, with Daniel Shier earning an assist.
Forty seconds later, James Andrew in the Lions goal was beaten again, with Devils captain Alex Cole and Alex Trendall helping Mark Pitts get his second goal of the season.
Rudkin got his second goal of the game just fifty nine seconds later, Sam Boothroyd with this assist.
Sam Rudkin picking up his man of the match awards from a couple of excited fans courtesy of Steven Ferguson
The team in the scorers box had a slight respite following this, with it taking a whole five minutes more before they needed to record yet another Devils goal. Campbell getting another assist, with William Crossley on a two way with the Devils U18s earning a point as Richard Facey picked up a goal for himself.
Despite being 6-0 down, the Lions never gave up, and battling on at the end of the first period, captain Nick Alley pushed Matthew Hepburn to get a goal for the visitors.
Fourteen seconds later, Alley got his own, unassisted goal, shocking the Devils, making the score 6-2 as they headed to the first break.
After the second started, it was evident that the two goals right before the break had given the Lions more energy, and they were fighting back hard against the Devils. Unfortunately for the Lions, Chris Fox sitting a penalty for slashing gave the Devils an opening, Rhys McCormick getting himself an assist, with Facey as Campbell got his second goal of the game.
Two minutes later, Campbell helped Facey get his second too. After this, Lions netminder, Andrew, left the net and Brett Shepherd replaced him.
A fresh netminder didn’t intimated the Devils, and Rudkin earned his hat trick, unassisted and short handed as Ben Lock stat two minutes for elbows.
Crossley and Trendall picked up another assist each, and Pitts got another goal, this making the score 10-2 with little less than five minutes left in the second period.
The scorers box was given a real break this time, with no goals or penalties until just over two minutes in to the third period, more assists for Campbell and McCormick, another goal for Facey – a hat trick for him to go with Rudkin’s.
The Lions continued to fight, and two goals in just over two minutes proved they hadn’t just rolled over, with Alley leading the charge, getting a goal from Geldard’s assist, then giving an assist with Fox as Ross Sin-Hidge beat Christian Cole in the Devils goal, making it 11-4.
With only ten minutes left in the game, and such a difference in goals, the crowd expected the Devils to let up and just run down the clock, but the players had different ideas.
First, Campbell and Facey gave assists so Murray could get his second goal of the game, then Alex Cole and Murray helped Christopher Hocquigny get his first goal as a Devil.
William Crossley taking a quick breather on the ice courtesy of Steven Ferguson.
With the score at 13-4, Christian Cole surrendered the Devils goal, giving U18s two-way Toby Hall his first bit of ice time at this level.
The Lions, still not down, despite the huge score line from the Devils saw them go on to test Hall several times. In a display of acrobatics and lightning fast reflexes, Hall stopped the few shots that made it past the Devils defence, getting the crowd on their feet shouting his name as the Devils buried him in a pile of bodies after one particularly deft glove save.
The final buzzer went, earning both teams a huge applause from the fans, the Devils, obviously for the sheer amount of goals, the Lions for not giving up and pushing the Devils right until the last second.
Man of the match Rudkin, when asked about his hat trick said “It’s nice to get some goals, but it is nice that everyone else is scoring as well, we have been struggling with that lately.”
Looking ahead to next weekend’s fixture which will see the Devils head to Slough to face the Jets, head coach Murray said “Lukas Smital and Chris Douglas are game changers, we have to go there ready to play, and hopefully pick up two points.”
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