Streatham Redskins delighted their biggest crowd of the season with a convincing 8-4 defeat of arch rivals Invicta Dynamos at Planet Ice Brixton.
Boosted by the return of the previously banned Shaun Smith and new import Michal Oravec making his home debut, Streatham started the game with a full strength squad for the first time this season.
Head Coach Warren Rost shuffled his lines after the previous week’s defeat in Chelmsford with the lively Joe Allen replacing Russ Stevens on the top line.
The two teams skated out in front of the biggest crowd of the season so far with face off delayed slightly to allow the extra numbers through the door.
The changes on the ice appeared to be working early on as Streatham dominated the start of the game. Alllen carved out an early opportunity but was denied by David Wride in the Invicta goal and then Adam Mahoney saw his point shot saved as the Redskins piled forward.
It was Invicta however who opened the scoring against the run of play as Nathaniel Rose played the puck over to Harrison Lillis on the left wing and his wrist shot squeezed past Redskins goalie Will Sanderson from the angle.
Streatham hit back almost immediately as Jakub Klima (top right) picked up the puck in the neutral zone and skated over the blue before firing an inch perfect wrist shot past the unsighted Wride to equalise.
Six minutes later Streatham took the lead as Klima teed up Joe Johnston and he calmly slotted the puck into the bottom of the net before celebrating wildly.
Streatham’s dominance was confirmed with less than two minutes to go in the period as Dom Hopkins played through Klima and he rounded Wride to make it 3-1 to the Redskins.
The second period saw the Dynamos come back into the game with Peter Vaisanen and Justin Noble both denied from close range by Sanderson.
Streatham countered quickly and made it 4-1 with four minutes gone as Klima batted down a lofted Casimir Madren Britton cross ice pass and then skated in on goal before shooting the puck into the top left hand corner of the net.
It was a goal of supreme skill but Invicta hit back almost straight away on the powerplay. Callum Best finding Justin Noble unmarked and he made no mistake with the finish skating in on goal and slotting the puck under Sanderson before colliding with him.
Sanderson responded by punching Noble in the head and Streatham resumed shorthanded.
Invicta began to grow in confidence and Nicky Lewis went close to scoring as did Vaisanen again but the Redskins shorthanded unit held firm.
With Stewart Tait sitting in the box for a hooking penalty Invicta’s powerplay unit had another chance to get a goal back but they were punished by more individual brilliance from Czech Klima.
Latching onto a Hopkins pass the Czech skipped through three Dynamos players before shooting the puck into the corner of the net and reeling away towards his delighted team mates.
It was a key goal given the flow of the game and caused Wride to be replaced by Glen Jackson between the pipes, but Invicta were not quite finished as Noble raced down the right wing past a flat footed Redskins defence and scored his second of the evening to make it 6-3 to Streatham.
Former Redskins goalie Jackson, started the game in a manner he probably wouldn’t have wanted to as he spilled an innocuous looking shot from Liam Rasmussen back into play and the on skating Evander Grinnell simply prodded the puck over the line to put the home support back into full voice and put the Redskins 7-3 up going into the third.
Streatham spent the first ten minutes of the third period shorthanded as the Dynamos powerplay units got a full work out but they could not find a way past Sanderson whose night was typified when he made a superb leg pad save from Noble on a one on one.
Invicta also ended up hitting penalty trouble with ten minutes gone and Joe Johnston sealed the game with a superb skate through the Dynamos defence showing great composure before picking his spot past Jackson, with Klima once again the architect on the powerplay.
Then came the backlash as three minutes later Redskins Stewart Tait and Jack Tarczycki tangled after Tait hit Noble, only for Jamie McIlroy to skate over and drop the gloves. As McIlroy was heading to the box Invicta’s Grant Baxter skated across to fight him and all of a sudden both teams were on the ice squaring off as the fans lapped it up.
Streatham’s Phil Manny and Invicta’s Tim Smith both dropped the gloves away from the crowd and then Rose went for Tait before the officials finally managed to get a hold of the situation.
Baxter, Rose, Tarczycki, Manny and McIlroy were all sent for an early shower as the crowd waited patiently for the referee’s to sort out the situation.
Invicta picked up the pace in the final five minutes of the game as Streatham began to look tired but Sanderson was showing no such fatigue as he looked unbeatable in between the pipes.
The Dynamos did end up with a consolation goal two minutes from time as the hard working Noble got his deserved hat trick with a sweet move in front of Sanderson that left both the Streatham goalie and the puck in the back of the net to make the score 8-4 to Streatham.
Streatham were good value for their victory and the crowd gave them a standing ovation at the end as they were cheered from the ice.
Man of the match went to Klima whose goals were of the highest order.
Photos by Rick Webb
