Additional Comments:

An expectant crowd arrived at the Lee Valley Ice Centre for the first home game of the new ice hockey season but left wondering if the Lions had signed more than one defenceman!

The Lions suffered a defeat to a very different Tigers team than they met in the Isle of Wight at the end-of-season tournament back in May. With a full bench of 22, they had a ready supply of fresh legs and constantly outpaced the Lions, who were suffering from a high proportion of passes going astray and an inability to clear the puck out of their own zone.

The game did not start well for the home side, as inside the first two minutes a shot took a deflection to leave Andrew Boot in the net stranded, but seemingly luck was also on the Lions side as within a minute, a shot from Gennadi Yufit careered off another Lions’ player’s legs into the Tigers’ net.

The game was shaping up to be a physical encounter as both sides battled for the puck and for a while the match looked to be quite even, the home side going ahead with a well-worked goal as Michael Jacobs slotted home from close range, assisted by Fedotovas and captain Michael Ranby. However from here on the Tigers began to dominate, scoring four unanswered goals before the end of the session. Three of these goals were on breakaways, where the Lions’ defence was nowhere to be seen, leaving their netminder exposed as one, and sometimes two or three Vectis players skated in unchallenged. When the Lions did get near the Tigers’ goal, their defence was solid, with players sliding on the ice to block the passing lanes.

The second period started as an improvement for the home side as they held their own for nearly ten minutes and even pulled a goal back, Stas Prokofiev scoring a short-handed goal on a rare Lions breakaway. Vectis then stamped their authority on the game with three more goals, two more breakaways leaving Andrew Boot very little chance and one goal straight from a face-off.

Just before their third goal of the period, Michael Ranby got ejected from the game for what looked to be a challenge which normally would have merited only a minor penalty, but the Tigers’ player that he hit into the boards fell to the ice and took a long while to get up. He had sustained a shoulder injury which required an hospital visit and as such Ranby was given an automatic match penalty, missing the following day’s away game at Basingstoke. Arguing with the referee got Romanas Fedotovas a ten minute misconduct at the same time.

The final session saw the teams exchange a single goal, the Lions’ effort from Michael Jacobs as he kept one step ahead of the Tigers’ defencemen. The home side then lost another player: Fedotovas seemed intent on self-destruction as, following a tustle in the offensive zone, he followed Tigers players down the ice before being called for a check from behind, which resulted in a game misconduct penalty.

An exciting, goal-filled game and for a neutral supporter or new fan it would have left them wanting more. But the home fans will want to see distinct improvements, especially in defence. It is great to see Fedotovas on a skate from one end of the rink to the other and he is very good offensive defenceman, but when he or others lost the puck during this game there was no cover and the fans lost count of the number of odd man rushes the Tigers put together. The Lions’ goalie must have been sick of the sight of black and orange jerseys coming at him with no white ones in sight.

Referees were Tottman and Ross.

Thanks to Tony Boot for writing this match report.