Lee Valley Lions

Peterborough Islanders

Goals

Penalties

Lee Valley Lions

Peterborough Islanders

Additional Comments:

The Lee Valley Lions faced a strong Peterborough team that boasted the league’s second highest scorer, Ross Mackintosh. Ex-Romford Raider Tom Looker made his home debut for the Lions, one of his accolades being Biggest Hit of the Year (biggest hit with the girls?!) for his former club.

Just a few seconds into the game the Lions appeared certain to open the scoring but goalie David Whitwell made a good stop. The Peterborough Islanders quickly took possession, allowing Andrew Trentjev to score at 03:12, assisted by Ross Mackintosh and Tom Perkins.

Another chance for the Lions was set up a few minutes later by Nick Braithwaite, but the shot by Darren Wakeling failed to get past the Islanders’ experienced netminder. Soon after it looked like trouble for Lions’ netminder Stefan Nubert, who fell over in his goal and was clearly in pain as he got back up. Nonetheless, Stefan battled on and appeared to recover well.

Ten minutes in and the Lions received a bench minor penalty for having too many men on the ice. Solid defence work and excellent netminding ensured that no goals were conceded, but the penalty was from a basic mistake that could have been avoided. Frustratingly the same mistake was made in the final period, although the Islanders would also be caught out for the same offence.

Ross Mackintosh started to show the Lions who was boss at 15:07 when he scored the first of his three consecutive goals. The Lions found themselves in a powerplay situation just a minute later, but despite several opportunities and plenty of effort the first period ended 0-2.

The second period began and Ross Mackintosh wasted no time in doing further damage to the Lions’ scoreline when he scored his second of the match after just 33 seconds, assisted by Clint Herring and David Micheli. The same Mackintosh/Herring combination was to strike again at 27:10, Mackintosh running rings around the Lions’ defence and blasting a shot straight through the legs of netminder Stefan.

Five minutes later and it was the turn of David Micheli to step into the spotlight, weaving the puck from the far end of the ice to bag the Islanders’ fifth at 33:46. The Lions limped back into the dressing rooms 0-5 down, having made just two shots on goal the entire period.

When the Lions re-appeared for the final period it was evident they’d discovered the fire and energy that had been sorely missing. Rob Courtman ended David Whitwell’s shut-out with a goal just 7 seconds from the opening whistle, assisted by Scott Beeson, and the sudden surge of power unsettled the Islanders as they called a time-out at 44:30.

Fisticuffs broke out between Lions’ “Biggest Hit” Tom Looker and Grant Hendry of the Islanders, Looker removing his gloves and helmet in preparation for the punch-up. The players gave as good as they got and were both handed 2+2 for Roughing at 51:24.

The Lions were awarded their second bench minor penalty at 54:37. Richard Hodge had a one-on-one opportunity for a short-handed goal but his attempt was again thwarted by Peterborough’s David Whitwell. The Lions’ defence held strong until 56:24 when an error by Lions’ netminder Stefan Nubert caused the puck to go directly to Andrew Trentjev. Trentjev immediately powered home a powerplay goal, to leave the final score 6-1 to the Peterborough Islanders.

MOTM for the Lions was given to Romanas Fedotovas (aka Vas), who’d put in a solid performance throughout.

Referee was Dodsworth, Linesmen were Holtham and Rafter.