Wightlink Raiders 10-2 Milton Keynes Thunder
ENLS1
Planet Ice, Ryde, Isle of Wight
28/01/2012
The Wightlink Raiders put one of their bogey teams to the sword with an excellent performance in a one sided league encounter at the Ice Cube on Saturday. Earlier in the season the Thunder had travelled to the island and surprised the Raiders by beating them 4-1 but there was to be no hint of such a surprise with this encounter. The Raiders, who had to play without the services of suspended player coach Jeremy Cornish, dominated this encounter from the start and the biggest surprise was that it took them nearly 12 minutes to get the first goal. The Raiders had had what looked like a good goal disallowed prior to this when a shot from Joe Rand appeared to bounce of the back of the net and come to rest under the body of the MK goalkeeper. The referee disallowed the goal apparently thinking that the puck had not entered the net despite the goal judge lighting the lamp to indicate that the puck had gone in. In the previous match the MK’s huge goalkeeper David Cassidy had seemed unbeatable but in this game he seemed shaky from the outset. As sometimes happens with ENLS1 matches we only had two officials for this match, Emilio Fusco taking the senior role with youngster Andy Cook backing him up both officials had good games in what was an easy match to officiate.
Alex Murray broke the deadlock with a fine individual effort and from that point on there was only going to be one winner. The Raiders stayed in the ascendancy for the remainder of the period and doubled their advantage in the sixteenth minute Richard Facey scoring from short range being assisted by Joe Rand and Aaron Strawson. The Raiders outshot the Thunder 13-6 in the period and Liam McAllister in the Raiders goal was having one of the quietest nights of the season so far.
In the second period The Raiders roared into action and put the match beyond MK’s reach in the first 6 minutes of the period. Joe Rand, Alex Murray and Aaron Strawson and getting onto the scoresheet. Joe Rand’s goal being a very nice wraparound effort. MK then pulled their keeper; David Cassidy who left the ice angrily slamming his stick of the boards as he left, being replaced by the backup keeper Patrick Russell. This did seem to stem the flow for a few minutes but the Raiders added to more quick goals in the 31st minute from Aaron Strawson and Kieron Annis and the game was all over as contest. MK did get themselves onto the scoreboard before the end of the period when Goode scrambled one past Liam McAllister who was still having a very quiet night. The high point for most of the crowd in this stanza was Raiders Dan Pye’s huge open ice hit on the Thunders Goode which left the Mk player flat on his back on the ice with his helmet – which had been knocked clean of by the hit – spinning on the ice beside him. The Raiders dominance continued to be reflected in the shot count, the home team besting the Thunder 20-8 in the period.
At the start of the third period The Raiders switched goalkeepers to allow young Dan Weller-Evans some much needed ice time. Unfortunately as the Raiders did seem to have taken their foot of the gas a little bit the first thing Dan had to do was pick the puck out of his net when Steve Maile stuck one through his 5 hole on a breakaway. Happily after that Dan settled and made some good saves. The final period was played with less intensity than the previous 2 but the home team was still well in control and added further goals from Dominic Hopkins, Grant Rounding and a blue line slapshot from captain Damien Larter to take their tally into double figures. Again outshooting the Thunder 15-5 in the period.
This was a very satisfactory performance from the Raiders. MK Thunder are a team which the Raiders should beat but all too often fail to do so. However on this occasion once the Raiders had the noses in front the result was not in doubt. Coach Jeremy Cornish declared himself satisfied after the match. ‘There are still some things that we need to work on but that was pretty good’ he stated. This good home form should mean that our next Visitors, the Bracknell Hornets, should be in for a tough evening when they visit the Ice Cube next Saturday (04/02/2012)
The Man of the match awards went to Nidal Phillips of MK and to Kieran Annis for the Raiders.
Report by: Dave Logan—Stats—
4.07 WR pen Murray 2 intereference
11.41 Wightlink Raiders 1-0 MK Thunder – Murray unassisted
12.39 WR pen Hopkins 2 roughing
12.39 MKT pen Maile 2 roughing
15.13 MKT pen Florey (Jake) 2 tripping
15,53 Wightlink Raiders 2-0 MK Thunder – PPG Facey, Rand, Strawson
16.50 WR pen Pye 2 holding + 2 roughing
16.50 MKT pen Florey(Jake) 2 rouging
20.47 Wightlink Raiders 3-0 MK Thunder – Rand, Rounding, Facey
24.14 Wightlink Raiders 4-0 MK Thunder – Murray, Facey
25.52 Wightlink Raiders 5-0 MK Thunder – Strawson, Rand, Taylor
28.08 WR pen Taylor 2 roughing
28.08 MKT pen Maile holding
30.14 Wightlink Raiders 6-0 MK Thunder – Strawson, Gannaway, Murray
30.41 Wightlink Raiders 7-0 MK Thunder – Annis, Gosset, Gannaway
35.58 Wightlink Raiders 7-1 MK Thunder - Goode (H), Goode ©, Mboya
36.39 WR pen Murray delay of game
43.30 Wightlink Raiders 7-2 MK Thunder - Maile, Phillips
47.01 Wightlink Raiders 8-2 MK Thunder – DP Hopkins, Annis, Pollard
48.21 Wightlink Raiders 9-2 MK Thunder – Rounding, Facey, Rand
53.29 WR pen Bound 2 tripping
53.29 MKT pen Maile 2 holding + 10 misc
56.11 MKT pen Goode (H) 2 hooking
