Ice-hockey: Streatham have mixed fortunes as Jets strengthen hold on top of the table
The Redhawks came away from Solent on Saturday with a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Solent Devils. Danny Ingoldsby, Ziggy beesley and JJ Pitchley with the goals for the RedHawks, putting them 3-0 up before Liam Coleman and Alex Murray scored in the late stages.
Sunday saw the RedHawks host the Slough Jets in a game with implications for the closing stages of the league title chase as the Jets were three points ahead of Streatham at the top of the league.
But with the RedHawks holding two games in hand , it was a must-win for each.
Both would test the netminders in the early going, with Streatham’s Danny Milton and the Jets’ Matt Smital having to make big saves early on.
Streatham scored the first goal of the game at 4:27 on the clock. Henry Aiken’s long-range shot found the bottom corner of Smitals’ net off a face off.
The Jets applied pressure in response, with an elbowing penalty by Danny Ingoldsby at 11:22.
It gave the Jets a powerplay, that would be converted at 12:53 by former Redhawk Ben Ealey-Newman.
Ingoldsby made amends for gifting the Jets the powerplay two minutes later at 14:57. Linking up with line mates Damon Porter and JJ Pitchley, he hammered home a rebound off Smital to put Streatham back in front.
The Jets again capitalised on a powerplay early in the second period. Jacob Minter converted at 27:09 to tie the game.
Streatham fired back two minutes later. A returning Josh Ealey-Newman found space in on Smital and fired the puck high glove side into the net at 29:44 to make it 3-2 heading into the break.
Streatham were on the backfoot at the start of the third and already killing a roughing penalty to Brendan Baird from the end of the second period. At 40:17 a delay of game call against Sam Waller put the RedHawks on a five-on-three penalty kill.
While they survived, the Jets built momentum on the powerplay and at 45:17 Christian Mohr made it 3-3.
Following a hooking penalty against Henry Aiken, Seb Mohr converted to put the Jets ahead.
Streatham threw all they could at Smital, looking to tie the game up. But at 59 minutes, pulling netminder Milton for the extra attacker backfired. Dylan Holicka blocked Ryan Watts’ attempt and broke to score the empty netter.
A three-point weekend is far from a disaster, however a loss to a title contending rival that gives the Jets a six-point cushion will not have been the outcome the Redhawks wanted for the weekend. They still have fixtures in hand on the Jets, making a comeback possible. But that comeback has become reliant on other sides taking points off the Jets.
Up next for Streatham it’s the Swindon Wildcats on Saturday, facing off at 5.30pm at the High Road before a crunch match at Chelmsford on Sunday.