Everyone Active Raiders endured mixed fortunes as they tackled a busy three games in three days where they suffered two defeats and pulled off an upset away to Leeds Knights.
Head coach Sean Easton and his side suffered a heavy 5-1 defeat to Bees IHC on home ice on Friday night.
Former Romford junior Mikey Power struck first for the visitors to give the Bees a 1-0 lead heading into the first period break.
Jj Pitchley levelled the score as he tapped home at the back post on the powerplay as Jacob Ranson laid the puck to the back post after Ollie Baldock found Ranson in the slot mid-way through the second period.
It was short lived as Dominic Gabaj restored their lead on a delayed penalty call before Juha Lindgren then struck just over a minute later to stretch the lead to 3-1.
Christian Mohr then picked out the back of the net to make it 4-1 heading into the third period where Josh Smith rounded off the scoring on the powerplay to seal a 5-1 win.
The following night, Raiders bounced back with a 5-3 win over Leeds Knights in front of a bumper crowd with just 12 skaters.
Kieran Brown fired the puck home at 9.28 after good work by Adam Barnes, although it was a short-lived lead when, just 40 seconds later, Oliver Baldock reacted quickest to back-hand a rebound off Sam Gospel home.
It was another rebound, this time on the power play, that saw Raiders go ahead at 14.39, Dan Scott firing through traffic for Aaron Connolly to pick up the leftovers.
Barnes and Brown combined for Brandon Whistle to fire home at 15.28.
Three minutes later, Brown and captain Sam Zajac were involved in the build-up to a blast from Whistle which made it 3-2 early into the Knights’ first power play of the night.
Raiders levelled at 36.28 when a stretch pass from Sam Cooper found Brandon Ayliffe who raced clear before going five-hole on Niks Trapans.
Barnes was first in the box for a slashing call before Lewis Baldwin got called for high sticks, the Raiders making the subsequent 5-on-3 penalty count when Baldock turned and swept the puck past Trapans at 47.19.
As the hosts pushed for the leveller, Ayliffe pounced on a loose puck from a face-off in the Raiders zone before sprinting clear, evading the attentions of Archie Hazeldine and Baldwin and back-handing past Trapans to make it 5-3 at 54.01.
The third game in three days saw Raiders lose 3-0 to Peterborough Phantoms who picked up their first win of the season.
Brad Bowering scored on the wraparound to put the Phantoms ahead in Romford.
Jacob Ranson fired in a power play effort for the Raiders, only to see it washed out for goaltender interference.
Phantoms held firm and got to the end of the first with their one goal lead intact.
Ales Padelek doubled the Phantoms’ advantage with a close range backhand effort after Callum Buglass’ initial shot was saved by Ethan James.
The Phantoms’ defence remained resolute and only allowed four shots on Jordan Marr’s goal in the second period, allowing them to go into the second intermission in full control.
The Raiders took the risk and pulled their goalie with over five minutes to play and began to pile the pressure on the Phantoms defence as the game entered the closing stages.
But Padelek put the icing on the cake for the Phantoms in the closing stages with an empty net goal to seal the deal and give the Phantoms their first league win of the season!
And Jordan Marr capped a good night for him and his defence with a couple of late stops to ensure a hard earned shutout for Slava Koulikov’s side.
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