Streatham continued their strong home form with a solid 6-3 win over Milton Keynes Thunder in the Cup.
Icing without star import Jakub Klima, Streatham made a number of changes to their line up for a game with nothing but pride at stake.
Head Coach Warren Rost took a back seat and allowed Assistant Terry England to take charge of the team with the strategy of rolling four lines throughout the game.
With less than two minutes gone Redskins defenseman Stewart Tait found himself sitting a 2+10 penalty after bemoaning a slashing call and getting a misconduct from referee Tysoe in the process.
Streatham weathered the MK powerplay and then scored the opener as Russ Stevens (top right) latched onto a Michal Oravec pass and slotted past Mark Woolf in the Thunder goal.
Speedy Streatham winger Liam Rasmussen was lucky to get away with just a two minute boarding call after a clumsy hit on Jamie Randall from behind, but with four minutes to go in the period, Stevens tipped the puck past a Thunder defender out of the corner and then skated onto fire past Woolf from the angle.
Streatham looked like they might extend their lead with Woolf making two excellent stops from Joe Allen and then Chris Rasmussen.
It was MK however that pulled a goal back with the clock ticking down, as a looping wrist shot by Ryan Gadeke from the blue line evaded the glove of Stefan Nubert in the Streatham goal and bounced over the line.
Streatham hit penalty trouble in the most bizarre circumstances with less than a minute to go as defenseman Adam Mahoney attempted to clear the zone from a face off and his slapshot managed to strike alternate referee Ian Hayden on the leg.
The official reacted angrily and then the pair had words from which the end result saw Mahoney handed a ten minute misconduct call.
The second period started scrappily with both sides struggling to get any flow to their game and this was not helped by an early injury to Allen who lost an edge near the boards and hurtled head first into them before slumping to the ice.
Allen iced only a couple of more shifts after that incident, and it was the visitors who drew level seven minutes from the restart.
A spell of pressure from the Thunder finally paid dividends as a goalmouth scramble saw the puck fall invitingly for forward Martyn Snape at the back post and he showed composure before roofing the puck into the far top corner of Nubert’s net.
Coach England got the response he was looking for from his team as two minutes later Dom Hopkins fired an unstoppable shot from the blue line that flew past Woolf and into the back of the net.
Streatham looked like they would ease away three minutes later as Stevens teed up Captain Joe Johnston in the slot and he made no mistake to score and make it 4-2.
If the home fans thought their team would coast to victory they were given a stark reminder of the Thunder’s resilience with 26 seconds to go in the second period. Mark Turner skated hard down the right wing past a sluggish Redskins defence and then his cross goal pass was tipped home through Nubert’s legs by Maksims Petruks.
Finely poised at 4-3 to Streatham, the third period saw the Thunder run out of steam and the Redskins four lines show their worth.
With seven minutes to go, Hopkins slid the puck over to Mahoney on the point and he skated to the top of the circle and his wrist shot beat the unsighted Woolf to make it 5-3.
Stevens completed his hat trick in the unlikeliest manner with four minutes remaining in the game as a face off by Oravec came to him in the slot and his one timer went under Woolf’s glove and into the net on a shorthanded play.
This took away any hope of a Thunder comeback and Streatham sealed a relatively comfortable 6-3 win.
