For the second evening of hockey for both teams this weekend, Sunday night Solent Devils played host to London Raiders for a mid-table match up. Going in to the game, Devils were one point ahead of Raiders in the league, as, the night previous Devils had won in Bracknell where Raiders had lost at home to Wightlink Raiders.
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At the start of the game, the players removed their helmets for the national anthem, and Mitchell Murray was stood with his head bandaged from the previous night’s incident, however looked fit and ready to play.
Both teams were obviously hungry, and wanted to prove their dominance and this game started at a great pace with both teams attacking hard from the off.
Penalties came thick and fast, with a total of sixteen minutes of penalties in the first period (twelve for Raiders, four for Devils), most of these from enthusiastic play rather than deliberate attempts to cause mischief.
One check however, from Marek Nahlik on Devils defenceman Ben Lock, saw Lock go down hard on his knee. Lock made it off the ice under his own power, however didn’t return for the rest of the match and instead took a trip to A&E.
There was a small tussle between Richard Facey and Mason Webster, just after the fifteen minute mark. Following the two of them leaving the ice, the puck was dropped at one of the spots in centre ice, passed back by Bailey Chittock, flicked over the crowd who still hadn’t moved from the face off, by David Oliver, where it was picked up on the blue line by Raiders captain, Tom Davis who took it all the way to the goal and beat Christian Cole between the Devils pipes.
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The puck was dropped in the centre, where it was immediately taken to the Raiders end by the Devils, but on a clearance the puck was sent back out and picked up in centre by Michal Oravec, who found himself behind the Devils defence and one on one with Cole. Moving at speed, Oravec fired the puck low and was rewarded with seeing it slip between Cole’s legs, and scoring the Raiders second goal in 15 seconds.
The Devils, however, refused to roll over, and with the puck being sent around the Raiders zone, head coach Alex Murray got himself positioned in the centre, so when the puck came to him from Domink Hegyi he took the opportunity to drive it home hard.
The second period, was as frantic and hard fought as the first, with the tempo of the game increasing as time went on. The Devils were obviously desperate to claw back the one goal lead Raiders had, and the Raiders were only looking to increase it.
Mason Wild, received two minutes for tripping. While skating with the puck, he went down and tried to keep the puck away from the attacking opposition. A wild swing saw him knock his stick in to the skates of an oncoming player, sending him tumbling.
Rio Grinell-Parke was sent to the Raiders side of the sin-bin, for a slash against Mitchell Murray, while Murray was on his way to the goal.
Hegyi received two minutes interference for taking away Liam Chong’s stick.
Once his stick was returned, Chong went on to rattle the Devils post. This lead to a turnover in the Devils end and Hegyi who had just returned to the ice picked up the puck and took it on a strong run to the Raiders goal, crossing it to the supporting Facey, who hammered it hard in to the back of the goal. Unfortunately for Facey, the shot was so hard the puck bounced straight back out and was picked up by the now recovered Raiders defence.
A few seconds later, when there was a stop in play, Raiders net minder Michael Gray seemed to tell Blaine Evans the puck had indeed gone in the goal, however by this point it was too late and the goal had already been waved off.
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Several more penalties followed, as the teams pushed harder and harder. Ralfs Cercenis seemed like a man possessed, as he single-mindedly went after his objective of trying to get another goal.
Not long before the break, there was a big check to Circenis, who went to the locker room for the break and did not return, he too was sent to A&E to be checked over.
The third period started, with Raiders battling hard. They knew that winning this would give them the two points they need to finish the weekend in the spot above the Devils in the league, and clearly wanted to be able to take that home with them.
There were several more penalties in the third, and with barely two minutes to go, Alex Murray was sent out for two minutes for hooking.
The Devils didn’t want to be a skater down, so took the brave decision to pull net minder Cole. Pulling the net minder is obviously a risky move, but with the Devils being one goal down, a tie would secure them the point they needed to stay one above Raiders.
Unfortunately, for the Devils, this plan didn’t go how they hoped. While attacking hard, the puck dribbled out of the Raiders zone and was picked up by Davis and taken straight down the ice, where it was simply a matter of him lining the puck up with the Devils goal and letting its momentum do the rest of the work. This bagged him his second goal of the evening, and made the score 3-1 to Raiders.
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