Romford Raiders Vs Slough Jets 1st November 2009

Romford Raiders 2 Slough Jets 4 (0-0 : 0-0 : 2-4)

After the heavy defeat to Milton Keynes the night before, Raiders fans would have been forgiven for fearing the worst, as Slough came to Romford on Sunday night.

The first period saw very little in terms of goal mouth action, as the teams managed just 13 shots between them, and no goals. Neither netminder was forced into making anything other than regulation saves, with both teams defences coping well. Romford came out desperate to prove a point after their performance last night, and chased every puck, finished every check, and generally made life very uncomfortable for the visitors. The only note on the game sheet for the period was a penalty on Ryan Giles for holding, which was killed off the Raiders. Romford thought they had gone ahead when a shot from Dean Tonks flew into the roof of the net, but the linesman had already blown for offside, and the goal was washed out.

The second period saw a little more in term of goal mouth action, but still no goals. Euan King was the busier of the 2 netminders, and he denied both Peter Poljakek and Michael Bowman with pad saves. Both teams had plenty of time on the powerplay with 14 minutes of penalties handed out during the 20 minutes. But despite this neither team was able to find the back of the net.

With no goals in the first 40 minutes, the final 20 minutes saw all the goal scoring action, with the teams sharing 6 goals. Just 1.12 into the period, the visiting side finally broke the deadlock, as Poljakek tried a wrap-around effort, and although King was able to block this effort, the forward was able to pick up the puck, and force it home at the second attempt. It got worse for Romford, at 45.26, as excellent work from Bowman behind the net, set up Carl Thompson to double the advantage from close range. At this point Romford could have let their heads drop, and the game drift away, but that was not what happened. Instead, less than a minute later they reduced the gap to 1 goal. Danny Marshall fed the puck to Jesse Hammill on the blueline, and the coach sent in a shot that went through the traffic in front of the net, passed the unsighted Charlie Kaylor, and into the net, at 46.24. This was just the boost Romford needed and they piled the pressure on the Slough goal, and finally managed to find a game tieing goal. Hammill was again heavily involved as Kaylor dropped his shot, and with the puck loose in the crease, Marshall reacted quickest to poke the puck home. Kaylor was now looking low in confidence, and dropped a shot from Dallas Costanzo, but was relived to see the puck go wide. Romford needed to get shots on the young goalie, but instead were trapped in their own zone. Having finally broken out of the zone, and mis-placed pass was intercepted by Paddy Ward, and he sent Peter Jasik clear of the Romford defence, and he scored, at 55.44 to give the visitors the lead again. With Romford now chasing the game it was always likely Slough would take advantage, and they did with a controversial goal, at 58.19 to finish off any hopes of another Romford comeback. A shot from Slava Koulikov was saved by King and referee Boniface blew the whistle thinking the puck was covered. However, it was not covered, and Bowman slide it into the net. Despite this being after the whistle, the goal was still allowed to stand, and the game ended with the scoreline at 4-2

Man of the match for Romford was King, with Ward the Slough choice.