Lee Valley Lions 4 - 6 Cardiff Dragons

The Cardiff Dragons under 14’s made the trip to Lee Valley for their top of the table clash with the aim of keeping their 100% record intact.

The game started at a great pace with both teams intent on attacking. The Dragons were rewarded at 5.22 with a fantastic solo effort from #16 Giovanni Raffaelli. Lee Valley responded immediately getting the equalizer just 51 seconds later. But the Dragons again attacked straight from the face off with #6 Mathew Thomas scoring from a rebound off a Daniel Mann’s slapshot.

The lead was short lived again, Lee Valley this time getting the equalizer just 8 seconds later. Despite some great end to end hockey both teams failed to add to the score with the first period ending 2-2.

The Lions stunned the Dragons by taking the lead just 3 minutes into the second period. Although this seemed to spur the Dragons on and they scored 2 quick goals from #12 Josh Haslam and #18 Tom Parkinson restoring the Dragon’s advantage to 4-3.

At 35.02 the Dragons took a 2 goal lead for the first time in the game with defender Giovanni Raffaelli claiming a shorthanded goal, his 2nd goal of the game with a great slap shot. Lee Valley though would never give up and again brought the game to within one setting up a tense final 5 minutes.

The Dragons were piling on the pressure but just couldn’t find a way past Lee Valley’s outstanding netminder. With 2.08 remaining the Dragons found themselves shorthanded. Lee Valley pulled out all the stops to try and clinch the equalizer, they pulled their netminder with just over a minute to go to have a 6 on 4 player advantage but the Dragons dug deep and rounded off a 6-4 win thanks to Dragons #7 Danny Mann’s empty net goal with 28 seconds remaining, a great finish.

The Dragons outshot Lee Valley 12-4 in the 2nd period as they fought hard to keep their promotion push on track and are they are currently top of the second division.

The u14’s next game is against Bristol on Sunday 20th January at the Cardiff Bay Ice rink, with a face off at 16.15,

Report by Scott Buglass

Man of the Match # 9 Giacomo Raffaelli
Spirit of a game # 6 Matthew Thomas

Statistics
M Thomas 1+0
D Mann 1+2
J Haslam 1+1
Gio Raffaelli 2+0
T Parkinson 1+0