Solent & Gosport Devils 14/02/09

Lee Valley Lions -v- Solent & Gosport Devils 14/02/09

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Lee Valley Lions

Solent & Gosport Devils

01
07
09
11
12
15
16
17
22
25
31
32
49
Daniel Artis (G)
Ashlee Cave
Nick Alley (C)
Sam Partington
Ashley Curtin
Gennadi Yufit
Terry Howlet
Stas Prokofiev
James Hatfull (A)
Michael Ranby
Ruslanas Jegovoras
James Scott-Joseph
Andrew Boot (G)
01
07
10
12
15
16
18
20
21
23
27
35
39
55
77
Martin Clayton (G)
James Bennett (C)
Dean Phillimore (A)
Robert Norton
Jamie Fitzpatrick
Joe Boot
William Francis
Ross Stephen
Richard Hill
Andrew Campbell
Arric Stafford (A)
Sam Loveridge
Nathan Lawrence (G)
Greg Wyatt
Kristopher Abbott

 

Goals

Penalties

Lions
Devils
Lions
Devils
Period 1:
0
1
6
2
Period 2:
2
2
2
4
Period 3:
2
3
2
4
MATCH TOTALS:
4
6
10
10

 

Shots on Goal
Lee Valley Lions(shots on Boot)
Solent & Gosport Devils(shots on Clayton)
Period 1:
16
4
Period 2:
10
8
Period 3:
16
9
MATCH TOTALS:
42
21

 

Lee Valley Lions

Solent & Gosport Devils

Highest Scorer in Match:
Ashley Curtin (2+0)/Nick Alley (0+2)
Dean Phillimore (5+0)
Man of the Match Winner:
Stas Prokofiev

Additional Comments:

The Lions slumped to their third consecutive defeat in this game against Solent, caused mostly by the inability to effectively clear their zone. Coupled with their failure to put shots on goal, this produced a display that, apart from two brief spells, left the fans wondering where the next goal was going to come from. The scoreline of 4–6  flatters the team from Lea Bridge Road as the shots on goal statistics far better reflect the performance, the team from Solent putting 43 (inc one open-net shot) on the Lions’ goal compared to facing just 21 themselves.

Lee Valley were missing hard-working forward Joe Berry from the line-up and were soon facing an injury. The game was fairly even for the first ten minutes, although a lot of the play was in the Lions, zone. Gennadi Yufit was taking the puck along the boards when he was challenged. In the tussle that followed he went down hard and took a while to recover. He had a deep cut on his chin which required some medical attention, but was able to rejoin the team later on in the period.

In the 14th minute Solent were on a powerplay as Terry Howlet sat in the box for high sticks. Andrew Boot in the Lions’ net made a save, but the puck dropped into a melée of players and Solent’s Dean Phillimore managed to poke the puck home to take the lead. At the end of this first session the Lions had been outshot by 16 to 4.

The second period was a more even affair as the Devils from Solent only had two more shots than the Lions and the session was split with two goals apiece. Solent took their lead further ahead in the 29th minute as the Lions gave the puck away on the red line. Dean Phillimore scored his second goal as he found no-one between him and the Lions’ goalie, making a sudden last second deke to slot home.

Solent’s third strike could be described as fortuitous: a shot came in which Andrew Boot looked to have covered, the puck struck a defenceman and deflected to Ross Stephen, who was alone at the far post. From there it was a simple tap in to take a three goal lead.

Lee Valley then had their best five minutes of the match. Firstly Stas Prokofiev scored the best goal of the game as he took the puck from centre ice and went wide, shot from an acute angle and ripped the puck over the Solent goalie’s glove hand into the top corner. The Lions gave the fans hopes as a goal mouth scramble allowed Ashley Curtin to backhand home the first of his two goals of the night. The home team went into the second intermission in a more buoyant mood, now being only one goal down.

The final session was exciting but depressing for the home fans. Ashlee Cave was forced to sit out, a big hit to the knee in the second side-lining him and reducing Lee Valley’s already small number of defencemen. Solent opened up a two goal lead again, Ashley Curtin got his second to pull it back to a one goal game once more, but then as Andrew Boot made a save, none of his team-mates were around to clear the puck and Phillimore had an easy task to bag his fourth of the night. Lee Valley team then had a goal disallowed as the net was off its moorings before the puck crossed the line.

It looked for a while as though the Lions may just have got a “get out of jail free card,” James Scott-Joseph scoring his first of the season with over seven minutes remaining to bring an exciting, if unlikely, climax to the match. With no further scoring, the Lions pulled their netminder with 26 seconds left in the game, in the hope that an extra attacker could salvage a draw. However, six seconds into the play, and virtually straight from the face-off, Solent scored on the empty net to record a deserved 6–4 win, Dean Phillimore having scored 5 of the 6 goals.

Lee Valley need to clear the puck more effectively. They will not win games spending so much time in their own zone and if they cannot do this their forwards will not be able to get the shots on goal required to put any pressure on the opposition netminders. Defence also needs to work on positioning as all too often only one man is left to try and see of two or three forwards. In this game, that one person was sometimes youngster Sam Partington but his valiant efforts did not go unnoticed.

Referee was Hewitt, Linesmen were Tottman and Solovjovs.