Lee Valley Lions

Basingstoke Buffalo

Goals

Penalties

Lee Valley Lions

Basingstoke Buffalo

Additional Comments:

After the first home success of the season against Slough, Lee Valley Lions’ fans were hoping for a respectable result against Basingstoke Buffalo so were more than a little surprised to finish on the wrong side of a 6-16 score line. In fairness, for a neutral fan the game was full of exciting hockey with a plethora of well-executed goals, but most of those in attendance were fans of the home team and they went home disappointed. Whether the previous week’s victory was an influence on how the players approached the game is not clear, but they were found wanting in a number of areas.

The first twelve minutes of the game was a fairly even contest as the teams swapped goals. Basingstoke went ahead when a collision between a retreating Lions defender and a Buffalo forward exposed Lee Valley to a lone forward who slotted neatly past netminder George Alley. The Lions equalised on the power play as Romanas Fedotovas found Michael Jacobs, who put the puck on Michael Ranby’s stick at the far post for a one-timer past the Basingstoke netminder. It took less than a minute for Basingstoke to re-establish their lead, followed a couple of minutes later by a third.

At 11:25 Lee Valley hopes were raised as Stas Prokofiev scored a great goal. He nearly lost possession skating away from the Buffalo net, but spun and shot in one fluid motion over the goalie’s shoulder. There were one or two more highlights for the Lions, but from here on in it was mostly consolation stuff as the team from Basingstoke proceeded to demolish them. Five unanswered goals during the remainder of the first period sealed the Lions’ fate as a series of defensive errors exposed the goaltender, whose mistakes in that department didn’t help either. Shots-on-goal statistics tell the story as the Lions were out-shot 22-8.

Lee Valley changed their netminder for the start of the second period for veterna Liem Le Huyen. However, Le Huyen was exposed in the first minute as the Lions’ defence allowed a forward to evade them and the netminder was beaten. He then had a shot from the blue line escape his glove before the Lions pulled one back through James Hatfull. Sadly just nine seconds passed before the Buffalo scored again on a delayed penalty. A glimmer of hope came when, with a Buffalo player in the box for tripping, Romanas Fedotovas scored from just inside the hash marks, but soon after he got ejected from the game for roughing when a skirmish got out of hand. The Lions then pulled another one back only for Basingstoke to score again eleven seconds later; one more goal from them and the period ended with a scoreline of 5-13.

Although out-shooting the opposition by 29 to 11 in the second period, Liem Le Huyen giving up five goals saw the return of George Alley to the Lions’ net for the final session. Pressure was almost constant on Lee Valley, who lost the period by three goals to one. An unlucky Alley saw one goal take a cruel deflection and float over his outstretched glove, which had been perfectly placed to make the save.

Basingstoke were a superb team and some of their players had stand-out performances – notably their goalie, Craig Astill, and two forwards – Andrew Campbell (scoring 4+4) and Dean Phillimore (4+5).

From the Lee Valley perspective it is difficult to take many positives from this game, but there were a couple of guys who stood out. Stas Prokofiev who won Man of the Match with a brace of goals and Joe Berry, who was tireless as a two-way forward and has matured into a confident, unselfish player.

Referee was Rafter, Linesman was Beynton.

Thanks to Tony Boot for writing this match report.