Saturday away match: Streatham Redskins 2, Wightlink Raiders 6
Sunday home match: Streatham Redskins 8, Solent & Gosport Devils 6
By David Carr
Streatham Redskins had a mixed weekend as they took two points from a possible four. On Saturday, the Londoners travelled to the Isle of Wight to take on a strong Wightlink Raiders team.
Despite taking an early lead thanks to a perfect slap shot from Stevie Balmer, the Redskins could not hold on and goals from Richard Facey, Kieran Annis, Jiri Hanzal, Robbie Brown, Alex Murray and Corey Watkins, only interrupted by a Redskins goal by Dom Hopkins gave the home side a 6-2 win.
On Sunday, the Redskins hosted newly promoted Solent & Gosport Devils at Planet Ice Brixton. Streatham got off to the perfect start as with only 45 seconds gone in the game, Jakub Klima played a neat one two with Joe Johnston in the zone before firing low past Christian Cole in the Devils net.
Five minutes later it was 2-0 as Dom Hopkins steamed into the slot before firing home a Stewart Tait (pictured bottom left) pass.
Straight from the face-off Klima exchanged passes with Tait and then skated through the Devils defense before slotting the puck past the stranded Cole.
Streatham made it an incredible three goals in less than a minute as Hopkins again appeared unmarked in the zone and he was picked out perfectly by Klima and made no mistake with the finish.
Streatham appeared to be cruising to a big victory, however Solent fired a warning shot two minutes later, as former Redskin Kent Johnson glided past a static Streatham defence before rounding Stefan Nubert in the Redskins goal to get the visitors on the score board. Streatham had their fifth goal on the powerplay as Klima again hit the target after good work from Joe Johnston and Russ Stevens.
The Devils came out harder in the second period and got their reward as James Carlin fired the puck into the top corner of the net after Kieran Perella had broken free down the right wing and switched the puck across to him.
Five minutes later it was 5-3 as Mitchell Murray shot the puck past Nubert from a Will Francis pass. Despite a number of minor penalties disrupting Streatham’s attempts to get back into the game, the home side did start to trouble Cole in the Devils goal with Johnston and then Klima both hitting the post in quick succession.
Streatham finally got a much needed sixth goal with less than a minute remaining as the Devils coughed up the puck on their own powerplay and Johnston skated down one on one with Cole before fooling him with the drop of the shoulder and firing low into the net. With the score at 6-3 Solent started the third strongly again and got an early powerplay goal through Greg Wyatt. The home fans nerves began to jangle four minutes later when youngster George Norcliffe managed to poke the puck home from close range to put the visitors within a goal of the Redskins.
Devils enforcer Adam Rich made his first appearance of the night shortly afterwards as he tried to goad Miller into a fight, but the Redskins blue liner stuck to his game and Rich skated back to the bench.
Streatham got the respite they needed with eight minutes remaining in the game as the hardworking Joe Allen (pictured top right) pounced on a stray pass from the Solent defence to score. Less than two minutes later Streatham had their three goal cushion again as Klima got his fourth of the night thanks to his combination with Stevens and Johnston.
Solent were not quite finished and Kris Abbott outskated the Redskins defence down the left wing before hitting a stunning slaphot into Nuberts far top corner from just over the blue line. There was controversy on the final buzzer as Redskins forward Jamie McIlroy finished a big hit on a Devils player which left the latter lying on the floor for a few minutes to recover.
The game finished 8-6 to the Redskins with both teams coming together in the handshakes after Murray appeared to have words with Reynolds. Streatham could reflect on a much needed two points whilst Solent will take much from the fight they showed despite going so far behind early on.
Man of the match for Streatham – Joe Allen
