Lee Valley Lions

The Lee Valley Lions travelled to a newly-refurbished Slough Ice Arena on Saturday for their third game of the season against the Jets. After two heavy defeats to start the season, the Lions were hoping to kick start their campaign with a win.

However the Lions were once again short-benched; although they handed debuts to Yasin Sridhar and Tom Hnilica, and welcomed Joshua Irish back after five years away from the club, they were missing Oliver Glover, Ben Gillingham, Joe Weare, Jack Ball and captain Simon Jones – giving them 12 skaters. Steve Grout started in net.

The Jets fielded 18 skaters and started with former Lions netminder Brett Shepherd in goal.

First Period – The Lions started the game well, putting pressure on the Jets and defending well in their own end and killing off an early penalty. However another hooking penalty against Joe Berry led to another Slough powerplay which the home side converted, Sean Norris (7:09, assisted Danny Rose and Lukas Smital) firing a rocket of a slapshot past Steve Grout and into the back of the net.

The Lions got a powerplay chance of their own shortly afterwards and couldn’t convert, before then losing Tom Hnilica for twelve minutes after a 2+10 call for checking from behind. The Jets ramped the pressure up as the period went on and were rewarded with two goals within the last four minutes of the period; first Norris (16:43, assisted Smital and Liam Poulson) got the puck past Grout after sustained pressure in front of the Lions net, before player-coach Smital (18:38, assisted Norris and Timo Lindgren) got on the scoresheet himself to make it 3-0. That was how the score would stay at the end of the first period, with the Jets outshooting the Lions 27-7.

Second Period – The visitors were caught cold at the start of the second frame, Norris (20:54, assisted Smital and Sam Talbot) completing his hat-trick less than a minute into the period. And things got feisty a few minutes later when Norris objected to a hit from Yasin Sridhar which led to a shoving match; Sridhar received two for clipping and two for roughing, while Norris received 2+2 for roughing and Slough’s Luke Reynolds also received two for roughing. This put the Lions on the powerplay and they duly converted to get the score back to 1-4, Joe Berry (23:30, unassisted) showing great determination to put the puck past Jets goalie Shepherd. It was Berry’s second goal of the campaign.

Unfortunately for the Lions, their joy was to be short-lived as Lindgren (24:06, assisted Rose) scored a shorthanded goal to put Slough 5-1 up. And things would get worse for the visitors as they would ship three more goals in the next eight minutes as their legs began to tire; Talbot (26:54, assisted Simon Griffiths), Talbot again (29:48, assisted Smital) and Smital (32:56, assisted Talbot and Liam Underdown) doing the damage. In between those three goals, the Lions had created numerous chances with Tom Hnilica and Joshua Irish both coming close on a couple of occasions.

The Lions did get their second goal shortly afterwards though as Berry (34:41, unassisted) scored his second of the night to bring the score back to 8-2. Slough then went 9-2 up through Ryan Handisides (36:30, assisted Underdown and Rose) before Hnilica (39:13, assisted Nicky Brathwaite) scored his first Lions goal on his debut with a cheeky backhand over Shepherd. There was still time for Slough to score once more, Underdown (39:41, assisted Rose and Handisides) making it 10-3. That was how the period with end, with the Lions playing probably their best period of the season to date and creating numerous chances, and only being outshot 24 to 17.

Third Period – The Lions came out well at the start of period 3, forcing Liam Underdown into a delay of game penalty and then scoring on the resulting powerplay, Hnilica (42:16, assisted James Joseph) grabbing his second of the night to bring the score back to 10-4. However just 42 seconds later, the Jets got another goal through Talbot (42:58, assisted Smital and Reynolds). This seemed to take the wind out of the sails of a depleted Lions side, as the Jets started to dominate proceedings more and more and scored two further goals through Rose (44:59, assisted Handisides and Underdown) and Smital  (45:29, assisted Harry Harcup and Talbot).

The Lions then lost player-coach James Joseph to a 5+game for slew-footing, putting them down to 11 skaters; they killed the first three and a half minutes of the major penalty well before finally conceding their 14th goal through Talbot (50:16, assisted Smital). The last ten minutes saw the Jets score four further goals with the Lions dead on their feet, with one each for Benjamin Eastwood, Harcup, Smital and Talbot making the final score 18-4 in favour of the Jets.

It was another frustrating game for the Lions; it was a better performance than the first two games of the season, with four goals scored and numerous chances created. But once again a short bench and tired legs cost them against a team with lots of scoring quality, as the score climbed higher and higher at the end of the game. Man of the Match for the Lions was double goal scorer Berry, while Slough’s Sam Talbot took it after scoring five goals on the night.

GAME STATS

Final Score: Slough Jets 18-4 Lee Valley Lions

Period Scores: 3-0/7-3/8-1

Shots: Slough Jets 86-32 Lee Valley Lions (27-7/24-17/35-8)

Penalty Minutes: Slough Jets 14-45 Lee Valley Lions

Scorers: Slough – Lukas Smital 4+9, Sam Talbot 5+4, Danny Rose 1+4, Sean Norris 3+1, Liam Underdown 1+3, Harry Harcup 1+2, Ryan Handisides 1+2, Timo Lindgren 1+1, Benjamin Eastwood 1+0, Liam Clark 0+1, Simon Griffiths 0+1, Craig Cowell 0+1, Liam Poulson 0+1, Luke Reynolds 0+1

Lee Valley – Joe Berry 2+0, Tom Hnilica 2+0, Nicky Brathwaite 0+1, James Joseph 0+1

Goaltenders: Slough – Brett Shepherd (60:00 played, 32 shots/4 goals against)

Lee Valley – Steve Grout (60:00 played, 86 shots/18 goals against)

Man of the Match – Joe Berry (Lee Valley), Sam Talbot (Slough)

The Lee Valley Lions can announce a further addition to our roster with the signing of Joshua Irish.

The 24-year-old forward came through the junior ranks at Lee Valley before playing two senior seasons for the Lions in 2011-12 and 2013-13, scoring two goals.

The next four years saw him move up north to attend university, playing two seasons each for the Bradford Sabres and Leeds Gryphons in the BUIHA. He scored 143 goals during this time, assisting on a further 35 for a total of 178 points at a rate of almost four per game.

Now after a season out of hockey, he returns to the Den to strengthen the Lions’ roster this season.

Josh already made his first appearance of the season last night in Slough, impressing straight away with his energy and creating a few good scoring opportunities too.

Click here to see Josh’s career statistics courtesy of eliteprospects.com.

Joshua Irish during his first spell with the Lions (Photo: Patrick Ayling)

The Lee Valley Lions are delighted to announce the signing of Canadian-born blueliner Yasin Sridhar.

Yasin was born in the Canadian province of Ontario, but is EIHA-trained and thus does not fall under the club’s non UK-trained player contingent.

The 26-year-old played three seasons for the University of London Dragons in the BUIHA (British Universities Ice Hockey Association) between 2013 and 2016, appearing in 27 games and scoring 12 points (four goals, eight assists) while also sitting 52 penalty minutes.

During his time with the Dragons, he was a team-mate of current Lions netminder James Andrew.

Yasin now takes his first step into NIHL league hockey with the Lions, with the club hoping that he can help to shore up the backline.

He will wear the #4 jersey for the Lions.

Click here to view Yasin’s career statistics courtesy of eliteprospects.com.

Six days after opening day defeat to the Chelmsford Chieftains, the Lions were back in action on Saturday as they played their first home game of the season. Visiting the Den were the Peterborough NIHL2 Phantoms.

The Lions handed first appearances of the season to Joe Miller, Nicky Brathwaite and Richard Hodge; while Oliver Glover and Tom Hnilica were unavailable to play and James Joseph took up coaching duties from the bench. This gave the Lions 12 skaters plus netminders James Andrew – who started in net – and Steve Grout.

The Phantoms brought along 17 skaters – including former Lions captain Nick Alley – as well as starting netminder Dan Lane and backup Jack Peacock.

1st Period: It didn’t take long for the aforementioned ex-Lions captain to make an impression against his former team-mates, as Nick Alley (0:57, assisted Shaun Yardley) put in the first goal of the contest within a minute of the opening faceoff. Things would get worse for the home side in the opening ten minutes of the game, as the Phantoms showed a lot of speed and skill to bag three more goals. Firstly it was Conor Pollard (3:58, assisted Yardley and Alley) who doubled the score to 2-0, before Yardley (7:11, assisted Alley) and Jordan Liddell (9:27, assisted Jack Sansby and Samuel Dean) extended the lead to 4-0.

In what was a first period without any penalties, things calmed down a bit after the fourth goal as the Lions tried to create some offensive chances, but the next goal would come from the visitors as Pollard (15:49, assisted Alley and Sam Barlow) made it 5-0. The half dozen was then complete in the 17th minute with Jake Samal (16:30, assisted Ross Clarke and Callum Worthington-Evans) extending the score to 6-0.

The Lions did have something to shout about just 14 seconds later though, as Joe Berry (16:44, unassisted) intercepted the puck and hared down the ice to score past Dan Lane on the breakaway and get the score back to 1-6. That was to be the last goal of the first period, with the Phantoms outshooting the home side 24-6 in the opening frame.

2nd Period: The Lions were once again caught cold at the start of the second period; and again it was Alley (20:19, assisted Yardley and Pollard) who punished them with an early goal just 19 seconds in. The Lions then did a good job of keeping Peterborough’s forwards quiet in the next passage of play, with netminder James Andrew making some impressive saves and the defencemen also showing great commitment to block some dangerous shots.

However, the defensive barricade couldn’t last forever; and it was Pollard (27:53, assisted Yardley and Alley) who completed his hat-trick and made it 8-1 to the visitors – with Peterborough’s top line once again doing the damage, their slick passing just proving too much for a tired Lions defence. The Lions then swapped netminders in the 29th minute, with Steve Grout coming into net in relief of James Andrew; but just under two minutes later Grout was already picking the puck out of the net after Sansby (30:53, unassisted) scored a bizarre unassisted goal.

Two more goals followed in the second period – which once again passed without any penalty minutes being called – as Pollard (32:05, assisted Yardley) put the Phantoms into double figures before Alley (36:40, assisted Yardley and Pollard) completed his own hat-trick to extend the score to 11-1. There were to be no more goals in the middle frame, with the Phantoms outshooting the Lions 29-2 in the period – numbers that reflected their dominance on the night.

3rd Period: The Lions went into the 3rd period trying to limit the damage and not concede too many more; but the Phantoms were relentless in their pursuit of more goals. It took until the 46th minute, when Peterborough used their first powerplay of the game – Lions forward Jordan Sullivan was sitting two minutes for a late hit – to good effect, as Craig Ellis (45:41, assisted Barlow and Yardley) made it 12-1.

The Phantoms then scored a quickfire double to extend the score again to 14-1; first Pollard (46:33, assisted Ellis) got his fifth of the night before Alley (47:35, assisted Pollard and Ellis) got his fourth. However despite all the goals being scored, the Lions were still trying their best to keep the score down and were still playing hard – with Jack Ball in particular making several gutsy plays, sacrificing his body to block shots or intercept loose pucks despite the high scoreline.

Nonetheless, the Lions continued to tire as the game went on, with the short bench becoming more and more evident as time went by. The Phantoms completed their scoring between the  54th and 58th minutes with a trio of goals; Dean (53:19, assisted Sansby and Robert McDonald), Hunter (54:13, assisted Sansby and Dean) and Dean (57:04, assisted Bradley Wright and Sansby) doing the late damage.

There was still something for the Lions fans to cheer late on however, with Richard Hodge (57:56, assisted Berry and James O’Brien) – playing his first game for the Lions since the summer of 2014 – racing clear to bury past Phantoms netminder Jack Peacock after nice buildup play from Joe Berry and James O’Brien. There was also a scrap in the dying stages of the game, as former team-mates Alley and Berry dropped them and sat 2+2 each for fighting.

The final buzzer sounded with the Lions once again going down to a heavy defeat against well-drilled opponents. Phantoms captain Conor Pollard was awarded Man of the Match for scoring 5+3=8 points on the night, while Michael Jacobs received the same award for the Lions after a tireless performance up front.

The Lions will be hoping that, when the likes of Glover and Joseph come back into the team and Hnilica makes his debut, things will start to look up for them. The next game is away at the Slough Jets in two weeks (Saturday 29th September). Faceoff in Slough will be at 17:45.

GAME STATS

Final Score: Lee Valley Lions 2-17 Peterborough NIHL2 Phantoms

Period Scores: 1-6/0-5/1-6

Shots: Lee Valley Lions 16-82 Peterborough NIHL2 Phantoms (6-24/2-29/8-29)

Penalty Minutes: Lee Valley Lions 10-8 Peterborough NIHL2 Phantoms

Scorers: Lee Valley – Joe Berry 1+1, Richard Hodge 1+0, James O’Brien 0+1

Peterborough – Conor Pollard 5+3, Nick Alley 4+4, Shaun Yardley 1+7, Jack Sansby 1+4, Samuel Dean 2+2, Craig Ellis 1+2, Sam Barlow 0+2, Jordan Liddell 1+0, Connor Hunter 1+0, Jake Samal 1+0, Callum Worthington-Evans o+1, Robert McDonald 0+1, Bradley Wright 0+1, Ross Clarke 0+1

Goaltenders: Lee Valley – James Andrew (28:36 played, 38 shots/8 goals against); Steve Grout (31:24 played, 44 shots/9 goals against)

Peterborough – Dan Lane (32:05 played, 6 shots/1 goal against); Jack Peacock (27:55 played, 10 shots/1 goal against)

Man of the Match – Michael Jacobs (Lee Valley), Conor Pollard (Peterborough)

The Lee Valley Lions are delighted to announce the return of experienced forward Richard Hodge after four seasons away from the sport.

36-year-old Gillingham native Hodge started his career in the EPL with the Invicta Dynamos, where he played three seasons between 1998 and 2001. He then moved to the Lions for the club’s first two seasons after reforming in 2005-06 and 2006-07, scoring a total of 12 points (six goals and six assists) during that time.

After two seasons away, Hodge then returned to the Lions in 2009 – this was the start of a five year spell with the club. Over the next five seasons, he played a total of 105 games, scoring 88 points (43 goals and 45 assists). Hodge was also alternate captain of the Lions during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 campaigns.

He now returns to the Lions and the sport of ice hockey, hoping to help the club move up the table this season.

Hodge will wear the #18 jersey for the Lions.

Click here to view Richard’s career statistics courtesy of eliteprospects.com.

Richard Hodge during his last season with the Lions in 2013-14 (Photo: Julianne Bonner)