Saturday night, Solent Devils travelled to Oxford to face the Bristol Pitbulls, as the two teams continued their assault on the new NIHL League 2.
Alex Murray
Not icing, was the Devils number one, Christian Cole, his spot between the pipes taken over by Devils back up netminder, Aaron Taylor. As the Devils lined up before the game, it appeared the Devils would be extremely short handed, with just fifteen players on the ice.
After Giacomo Raffaelli was sent to the penalty box for interference, the Devils pushed hard, using the man advantage, and were rewarded when Christopher Hocquigny beat Ross Miller in the Pitbulls goal after just 3:53 played. Assists by Mark Pits and Alex Trendall.
The two teams held each other at bay, until there was less than two minutes left of the first period when Richard Facey earned himself an unassisted goal.
In the dying seconds of the period, the Devils picked up a penalty, Facey for hooking. He was followed very shortly in to the box by Pitts for interference. This gave the Pitbulls a 5 on 3 advantage for 1:32 at the start of the second period.
Back to full strength in the second, and the Devils continued their assault, despite the short bench, and were rewarded again after just over five minutes of play when Facey and Alex Murray helped Drew Campbell make the score 3-0.
This, however, wasn’t enough for the Devils, Hocquigny and Pitts providing the assistance for Trendall to score, just forty seconds after Campbell’s goal.
Heading towards the end of the period, the Pitbulls bit back, Michael Hargreaves with the lone assist on Raffaelli’s third goal of the season.
Forty two seconds later, as the referee had his hand in the air for a delayed penalty against the Pitbulls, Trendall helped Pitts to make it 5-1.
This was followed just twenty seconds later by defender Ben Lock firing the puck in to the goal, making it 6-1 right before the break. Assists on this goal from Facey and Murray.
Aaron Taylor
The Pitbulls managed to come out in the third period fighting, and were rewarded with a quick goal, Richard Hargreaves and Adrian Smith helping Olly Shone get the puck past Taylor for the second time in the game.
It didn’t matter to the Devils though, as Facey gave Campbell another assist, followed a few short minutes later by Sam Boothroyd scoring from Daniel Shire and Alex Cole’s assist.
Pitbulls earned a few more penalties following this goal, including Hargreaves getting two minutes for roughing and ten minutes for misconduct, meaning he missed the end of the game, but with no more goals, the Devils saw out the match 8-2, their third victory in a row.
The Devils return home to Gosport this weekend, for Saturday evenings match against the Chelmsford Chieftains, face off at 5pm at the Gosport Arena.
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