Liam McAlister performed well in the Raiders’ net on Saturday. Picture by Robin Crossley.
ICE HOCKEY WIGHTLINK Raiders suffered double defeat last weekend — denting their chances of retaining ice hockey’s English National League Division 2 title.
Raiders were 2-0 up against the main challengers to the crown, Romford, on Saturday, but somehow managed to lose 3-2, while at the huge rink at Milton Keynes a day later, they lost 5-4.
Against Romford, Raiders knew they would have to perform exceptionally well to get the points and, with good results at home, they began confidently, peppering the Romford net with more than 20 shots in the first period, while restricting Romford to just nine.
They should have opened up a comfortable lead early on when a Romford player was thrown out of the game with a five-plus-match penalty for high sticks on Dan Murdy. But with the man advantage they could not find a way through. Romford, having survived the onslaught, grew in confidence and towards the end of the period the game had levelled out.
Despite end-to-end play, neither side could get on the scoresheet, until the 36th minute when Raiders drew first blood.
Persistence paid off when, after a period of sustained pressure, Raiders finally utilised a powerplay and Joe Rand poked the puck home from an acute angle. Assists went to Dominic Hopkins and Arran Strawson.
In what had been an eventful second period — where fights had threatened to break out and a linesman was ejected by the referee for abusing Romford fans — Raiders were deservedly on top.
Early in the third, a great wrist shot from Jeremy Cornish early on gave the Raiders a cushion, but just six minutes later Romford had pulled a goal back.
It was a dubious effort, the puck forced home during a goalmouth scramble where netminder Liam McAlister had lost his helmet, and therefore play should probably have been stopped.
Nevertheless the goal stood, and Romford, sensing a comeback, pushed forward again, equalising with eight minutes left with a great shot from Juraj Huska.
Shortly afterwards, Nathan Taylor was penalised for hooking and, with just one second left on the advantage, Romford netted the go-ahead goal.
Raiders pushed for an equaliser and even pulled McAlister off the ice in favour of an extra attacker in the final minute, but were unlucky.
On Sunday night, having given it their all the evening before, summoned the energy to take on MK Thunder and started brightly when Damon Larter netted in the seventh minute.
MK equalised five minutes later but Raiders retook the lead early in the second period when Joe Rand, who had earlier hit the post, made it 2-1, at 25.16.
However, two goals inside four minutes gave MK the lead and from this point, Raiders were always chasing. Steve Gossett and Cornish scored for the Islanders but MK kept on edging ahead and took the win.
Man of the match for both games was Richard Facey.
Raiders host Cardiff ENL Devils tomorrow (Saturday) at Ryde Arena. Face off is at 6pm.