Streatham 2 - 13 Cardiff Junior Devils

On the back of the trip to the southern island spirits were high and a wave of excitement could be felt on the bus leaving Roath park.

The friendly confines of East London today’s stage for game 8 of the season. The second shift of the game saw the tally commence when a cross crease rebound of a Josh Haslam’s wrsit shot fell nicely to Damon Butler who duly posted it behind the goalie. Three minutes later the scorpions were level, would this be a re-run of last week? Lewis Jones restored the lead by recovering his own face off loss and shooting high from the blue line straight into the top corner, apparently his favourite target. It took five minutes of sustained pressure before Streatham cracked again Butler returning the favour to Haslam who chipped a rebound top shelf. Before the scorer could even switch on the microphone Haslam emulated Jones goal of five minutes previous straight from the face off, 4-1. Goal five was a just reward for Giacomo Raffaelli’s fruitless hard work the week before. An old fashioned crash the net play allowing him to slot home a Matty Thomas rebound. Streatham’s response was to raise the physical side of their game and got away with a lot of border line calls, Nathan Dunn back on form wasn’t so lucky a high elbow saw him taking a breather his team mates getting some penalty kill practice. The period finished with him still sat there and Cardiff outshooting the hosts 10-4.

Early in period two Alex Mancuso with a two minute minor for roughing got to watch a sweet two man rush where Kieron Latchford set up Lewis Jones. With nothing between him and the glory the tap home was a mere formality. Back to full strength Joe Morris drew a slashing penalty setting up the first of only 2 power play chances for Cardiff. Some fancy accurate passing on the offensive zone saw Lewis Jones denied his hat-trick only for Nathan Dunn to open his account by lifting a backhand over a pair of leg pads while sliding on his knees-not something we practice but hey they all count! Jones finally getting his hat-trick at 23:48-Dunn unable to apply enough mustard to beat the goalie and reach the goal line Lewis poked the puck the last couple of centimetres. To round of another productive shift Jones accepted a pass from rookie defender Megan Lawrence and use dCallum Palmer as a decoy to thump home a slapshot the scorpion’s netminder no where to be seen. A solid performance by James Wallace saw him replaced by Luke Lawrance. To make things difficult for the replacement goalie Gio Raffaelli made a clumsy sweep check of some ones ankles, another chance to demonstrate a wall like penalty kill. Not even a shot faced. Dunn doubled his personal total with a wrister off the post, Johan Hennius picked up a helper at 27:30, double figures for the second time this season. Through Jones’ fifth and final score of the day a characteristic of the Devils play seems to been highlighted a one two punch almost every restart involving an urgent net drive following a strong face off win. Second period scoring was completed by Butler doing the clean up work on Dan Mann’s rocket from the point-in a cruel twist in his first game back Mann was denied a single point, not for the lack of trying a solid return after such a nasty and prolonged rest. The second period for the scorpions could be summed up by the friendly hug applied by #24 to Joseff Lawrence almost seperateing his helmet from his head! 2+10 the reward probably just a little frustration that boiled over. Shots for the second read 16-9 in Cardiff’s favour (most of the Streatham shots were actually dump in’s that missed the end boards).

The mission for the third period was demonstrate how to win with dignity, neither team benefit from running up a score so hold the opposition an protect a lead not something that can be done in practice sessions. And so the period became once again very physical but on the whole clean players simply stood their ground when challenged. Morris, Kathryn Robinson and Ellis Price all knocked the opposition to the ice while protecting their blue line. Callum Palmer drew a line under Cardiff’s scoring when at 36:40 a rebound by Dunn following some tic tac toe passing, Nathan rebound itself was a rebound from Jones’ slapshot at the netties pads-second and third efforts by Cardiff something we’ve not seen all year. Perhaps unlucky for some including Luke Lawrence who replaced James Wallace=mid way through the second 13-1 wasn’t to be the resting place. The junior devils having lifted off the gas a little too much allowed three rebound chances before Streatham got a late consolation to complete the day’s work 13 – 2. Alex Mancuso showed us he can still irritate the coach and the opposition getting two more this time for tripping, again a kill without conceding a shot proves the hard work is paying off. Right on the final buzzer Streatham’s penalty minutes jumped to 28 courtesy of a check from behind Cardiff’s reached 8 a reasonable total form such a feisty game.

Game Stats

Goal Scorers:

Lewis Jones 5+2 Nathan Dunn 2+3 Damon Butler 2+2 Josh Haslam 2+1 Callum Palmer 1+1 Giacomo Raffaelli 1+0 Kieron Latchford 0+2 Matthew Thomas 0+1 Megan Laurence 0+1 Johan Hennius 0+1 Alex Mancuso 0+1

Shots on Goal:	Man of the Match:	Spirit of the Game: