Lee Valley Lions

Haringey Greyhounds

Goals

Penalties

Lee Valley Lions

Haringey Greyhounds

Additional Comments:

This was the third time the Lions had encountered the Greyhounds this season and after suffering two narrow defeats everyone was hoping it would be third time lucky.

The game started well for the Lions who put constant pressure on Haringey’s net for the first few minutes. The tables then turned as Stefan faced a barrage of shots that were all successfully deflected until 11:07. Jamie Hirst got lucky, the puck literally trickling over the line while Stefan was out of reach.

Three minutes further into the period Haringey’s David Print broke away, forcing Stefan to face a one-on-one that went wide. Just a few seconds later, however, a shot from Danny Cox hit home, the puck hurtling past two or more players who probably prevented Stefan from seeing it coming.

A swift dive from Romanas Fedotovas stopped a third Greyhounds goal. Back on his feet Vas manoeuvred the puck down the entire length of the ice but failed to hit his target. Play promptly moved back to the other end as gaps in the Lions’ defence allowed the Greyhounds a further one-on-one opportunity. The shot was stopped admirably by Stefan and the first period ended just seconds later.

Romanas Fedotovas demonstrated his speed again as the second period commenced. He took the puck the whole way, scoring a brilliant first goal for the Lions at 21:12 with an assist going to Richard Hodge. Chris Goddard made a valiant attempt to put the puck past David Wride a couple of minutes later but a fall put paid to his success.

Haringey fans and even some of their players seemed to think they’d scored soon after, but play continued. A 2-mins Tripping penalty against Kwabina Oppong-Addai allowed the Greyhounds their first powerplay opportunity of the game and they capitalised on this with a goal from Ricky Rutherford at 33:47.

Just two minutes later, at 35:42, Liam Doyle’s attempts to jab the puck out from under Stefan’s glove made Mark Swaine see red. Mark dealt the best of the blows and was handed a 5+Game for Roughing but Doyle didn’t escape punishment as he received 2+2 for Roughing too.

The final period started and again the Lions reacted with a swift goal at 51:17, this time scored by Kwabina Oppong-Addai and assisted by Paul O’Neill. The narrowing scoreline caused Haringey Greyhounds to call a time-out, but they failed to score again.

A great shot from Richard Hodge was stopped by Wride just over three minutes later, then at 49:04 Haringey’s Captain, Adam Hyman, received 2-mins for Slashing. So angered was Hyman that he began to batter the plexi with his stick. This caused referee Szucs to award a 10-mins Misconduct penalty, followed by a Game penalty. Upon being ejected from the sin bin Hyman threw his stick, made unsporting gestures to the Lions bench and stuck his fingers up at fans! Unsurprisingly his ridiculous behaviour meant he had to be escorted to the dressing rooms.

With five minutes left on the clock and a scoreline of 2-3 the Lions were desperate to equalise. Scott Beeson made a brilliant shot on goal but failed to get past the Greyhounds’ netminder. Lee Valley called a time-out and although the intention was to pull Stefan the opportunity to do so didn’t arise and the final score remained 2-3 (the Lions winning the final period 1-0).

Referee was Szucs, Linesmen were Hiscock and Beck.