Seventh place London Raiders travelled down to take on eighth place Solent Devils Sunday night, as London were looking to bounce back from their 3-0 defeat to Invicta Dynamos, Saturday night.
File Photo is courtesy of Tom Barnett
Right from the start, the play went end to end, as each team tried to assert their dominance over the other.
Devils were given the first advantage, as Mason Webster was given two minutes for slashing Mitch Murray.
While attacking during the power play, the refs hand went up for a delayed penalty, so Christian Cole made a dash for the bench to get an extra skater on the ice.
This extra pressure gave the Raiders a problem, and Murray took the puck to the goal. Michael Gray managed to stop the first shot, at which point the ref blew the whistle due to the delayed penalty. Unfortunately for Murray, as the whistle was blown he got hold of the rebound and got it past Gray, but as the whistle had gone the goal was disallowed.
Raiders captain, Tom Davis, then took his seat in the sin bin (boarding), which gave the Devils a 5 on 3 opportunity.
Michal Oravec took the opportunity to go on the offensive for the Raiders, and if it wasn’t for the quick reactions of Cole in the net, he would have put the visitors ahead despite having two of his team mates off of the ice.
Raider successfully killed both penalties, but the Devils managed to keep up pressure on their goal. The Raiders were dangerous on the breakaway, but the puck spent much more time in front of their goal.
Alex Trendall clearly liked the feeling following his first Devils goal last week, and this week danced his way around three Raiders, got a blistering shot off which was deflected by Gray, and unfortunately was denied scoring off the rebound.
Raiders then lost Sebastian Downing, as he was caught holding George Norcliffe, but once again Raiders managed to prevent the Devils from making the most of it.
Bailey Chittock had a moment with Monty Gailer against the boards, so Murray went in to have words with him about it. Chittock received two minutes for high sticks, and Murray was given two minutes to cool off for charging.
Early in to the second period, Richard Facey bought the puck from neutral ice, along the wing, and dragging two Raiders with him went behind the Raiders goal. Facey ended up coming back across the goal line, almost all the way in the opposite corner, looking for support in the middle. Seeing the rest of his team mates tied up, but spotting a gap everyone else missed, Facey, despite only being inches over the goal line, managed to flick the puck behind Gray, and in to the net.
Raiders quickly managed to equalise, however, as the puck came to Marek Nahlik as he was heading off the ice for a line change. Nahlik, almost at the door to the Raiders bench, fired it with huge power towards the Devils goal. The sheer speed meant that almost everyone on the ice missed it, and Cole had no time to react before the puck hit the netting at the back of the goal.
Devils went straight on the offensive, Gray managing to save Raiders, stopping ten shots in less than two minutes. Raiders, finally got their own power play, as a huge slash from Alex Murray resulted in him getting a two minute tripping penalty.
This meant that Cole came under the type of pressure that Gray had just been facing. Somehow, Cole managed a huge splits save, resulting in him with one skate against each post in the Devils goal. Devils managed to kill off this penalty, and were soon rewarded with another power play.
Robert Vares was sent off the ice, for charging Mitch Murray in the corner. Seconds later, Davis had another stint in the sin bin for slashing Norcliffe. This gave the Devils a 5 0n 3 advantage for a whopping one minute and thirty eight seconds.
Seconds later, Mark Robinson got the third penalty in less than a minute for the raiders, for tripping Facey.
Domink Hegyi, who had been a real presence on the ice for the Devils, was then sent out for cross checking.
The puck was dropped in the Devils zone, but was quickly cleared out by Alex Cole, to Alex Murray, who took it down the ice. With support from brother Mitch, Alex got behind the last defender, and flicked the puck under Gray’s arm, putting the Devils ahead for the second time in the game.
Two minutes in to the third, Webster learned a lesson that he will probably remember for a while, and will probably play the rest of the season with a well fitted cup. The look on his face following a flick up from the corner, was enough to show he was not wearing one during this game.
Richard Brown, then took a penalty for the Devils, after he was holding the stick of Veares.
The face off happened in the Devils zone, and while the puck was out at the blue line, Mitch Murray managed to tackle the Raiders offence and somehow found himself with two thirds of the ice and only the Raiders net minder in front of him. Heading towards the goal at speed, Gray came out to shut him down, but Murray danced round him just inside the Raiders zone. Heading now at an empty net, Murray flicked the puck on its way. Somehow, one of the Raiders defence made it back and dived to stop it.  The puck hit the post on its way in, but just before it crossed the line, the goal was knocked off its moorings by the sliding defender, and, despite the puck ending up in the net, the goal was subsequently waved off.
The Devils continued their attacks, and Gray was given two minutes for delay of game, which was sat by Sam Roberts.
Roberts returned to the ice, and Heigy was given another penalty for the Devils. This time, for holding.
Raiders managed to use the extra man, with Webster feeding Nahlik, who sent in another huge shot from the Devils blue line, in to the back of the net, giving him his second goal of the evening and tying up the game once more.
Final score line read, 2-2, giving the Devils their seventh tie of the season.
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