Lee Valley Lions

Oxford City Stars

Goals

Penalties

Lee Valley Lions

Oxford City Stars

Additional Comments:

The away leg against Oxford in October 2006 had provided elation for the Lions as they achieved their first ever win since reforming in 2005. For the home leg the team were without Andy Watt and James Hatfull but Ben Williams and Romanas Fedotovas made welcome returns from their bans.

Lee Valley were caught on the hop right at the start as Oxford broke away just two minutes into the game. The shot was foiled by netminder Glen Jackson, who was making his full debut following an extended period of injury (he had played the last 20 minutes of the previous week’s game at Peterborough). Jackson continued in fine form as a flurry of shots headed his way, but a pass from Tom Hooper across the front of the net allowed David Gregory to knock in Oxford’s first goal at 06:55.

The same players were instrumental in Oxford’s second goal which was scored at 08:47. This time assists went to Gregory and Joe Oliver as Tom Hooper flipped the puck over Glen Jackson’s shoulder and into the top corner of the net.

At 2-0 down Lee Valley did not lose enthusiasm for the game and at 18:13 Ben Williams scored for the home side, the assist going to Scott Beeson.

The Lions grew in strength during the second period and applied increasing pressure on Oxford netminder James Skaife. Scott Beeson took a pass from Paul O’Neill but the shot went straight into Skaife. Darren Elliott then scored the third goal for the visitors at 21:21, the assist going to Dean Francis.

Andrzej Maslak battled hard in the Oxford zone and eventually found his way through at 21:35 to bring the Lions back to within one goal of the Stars (assists going to Stas Prokofiev and Paul O’Neill).

At 23:18 Romanas Fedotovas was on the receiving end of a harsh boarding call, and as he sat out his 2-mins shots began to rain in on Glen Jackson in the Lions’ goal but all were successfully deflected. The Lions continued to attack the Oxford goal, defenceman Fedotovas skating end to end and trying a wraparound, followed by a slapshot from the blue line. Although both attempts were unsuccessful the pressure was on and it was Andrzej Maslak who evened the score at 36:05 with a goal that was assisted by Ben Williams and Paul O’Neill.

Not yet finished, Maslak scored his hat-trick at 37:31, thanks to a tape-to-tape pass from Michael Jacobs. All three goals followed eachother, making the hat-trick all the more unusual. This fourth goal nudged the Lions into a fragile one-goal lead.

Just before the period ended fisticuffs broke out between Lee Valley’s Michael Ranby and Oxford’s Adrian Haigh. Both received match penalties for fighting, while Oxford’s Captain Darren Elliott also received 2-mins for interference.

The final period started and a rolling puck very nearly gave Lee Valley their fifth goal. The fifth goal did eventually come at 49:41 courtesy of Scott Beeson, assisted by James Scott-Joseph and Romanas Fedotovas. At the other end of the ice Glen Jackson demonstrated amazing reflex saves with a poke check followed by a slide across that saved an almost certain goal.

Two goals ahead and with only a few minutes remaining in the game the Lions’ could afford to play safe. This proved relatively easy, despite Oxford pulling their netminder to gain an extra skater. Several attempts were made to shoot on Oxford’s empty net but all went wide.

Lee Valley were ecstatic to beat Oxford again, especially as the Stars were sitting even higher in the league table than when the two teams previously met. Happy faces left the ice on what was a fitting conclusion to the last home game of the 2006/07 season.

Referee was Dodsworth, Linesmen were Meekison and McGill.

Many thanks to Tony Boot for writing notes which helped me with this report.