ICE HOCKEY
WIGHTLINK Raiders dropped points in a crunch South East Trophy clash against a below-par Invicta Dynamos on Sunday.
Player-coach Jeremy Cornish was disappointed to only come away from Gillingham with a 4-4 draw in the South East Trophy match, with Dynamos equalising with just a second left on the clock.
On the club’s website, he said: " If it wasn’t for a couple of mental breakdowns in the final few minutes in Invicta, we would have cruised to a 4-2 win. Invicta struggled all night to generate any offence and instead of just focusing on defence and closing out the game we let them have a point."
Raiders had powered into an early two-goal lead, man of the match Niall Bound and Corey Watkins netting within 20 seconds of each other, but by the end of the first, Invicta had pulled level with goals from Peter Vaisenen and Callum Best.
Two goals in the second period from Craig Tribe and, on the powerplay, Alex Murray, seemed to have given Raiders the win they wanted as, with three minutes left on the game, they still held the advantage.
But a lapse in the final moments allowed Invicta back in, making it 4-3 through Vaisenen and then, while Tribe sat out a slashing penalty, equalised at the death through Andrew Smith.
The evening previously, Raiders had enjoyed a comfortable 6-0 victory over the previously tough Milton Keynes in the league.
They suffered an early blow when Murray exited thanks to a high sticking penalty but came through strongly and took a 1-0 lead while on the powerplay, through Tribe.
The second half took some time to get going as well, Raiders not building on their lead until 36.07 when Jiri Hanzal netted on the powerplay. Richard Facey made it 3-0 just before the break.
In the final period, Raiders pulled away further with Nathan Taylor opening and Facey and Hanzal grabbing their second goals.
Tomorrow (Saturday), Raiders host Streatham Redskins from 6pm, but while they hope to welcome the return of Robbie Brown from a concussion, they will be without defenceman Dan Pye after he broke his wrist during the weekend’s games.
An X-ray on Monday revealed he had broken his wrist in the same place that saw him miss the back end of last season. Pye is expected to be out for six weeks.