Seahawks ‘Raid’ Romford for Two Valuable Cup Points
Hull Reckitt Seahawks v Romford Raiders – 06/10/2024
After a challenging two weeks on the road for the Hull Reckitt Seahawks, a puck was finally dropped back on home ice.
Earlier this week, the Seahawks embarked on ‘Operation Sell Out E Block’ in the build up to returning to Hull Arena. The mission had been so successful that it resulted in a bumper crowd, with the vast majority of those packing the rink keen to see a Seahawks performance that would turnaround recent fortunes after a 5-4 overtime loss away in East London to the Raiders last weekend and an 8-3 defeat at Milton Keynes Lightning the night before.
A result against Romford mattered for so many reasons, but not least because it would keep momentum going for the Seahawks in the cup – having only played one match in the competition back in September – when they beat the Bristol Pitbulls down in the Southwest in the opening round of fixtures.
Last night’s match was a sometimes-ill-tempered affair, but Hull secured the points with a 5-2 victory in a game that Seahawks Coach, Matty Davies, described as ‘a much-needed result’.
The first period started at a frantic pace as the teams went end-to-end on the break, keeping Jordan McLaughlin and Ethan James busy as both net minders were called into early action to keep the match scoreless.
The Seahawks passing was sublime and the movement between the lines was causing real problems for the Raiders defence, which was finally breached, at 4:25, when Jamie Chilcott took control of the puck and played a pass across the ice to Dave Phillips whose effort on goal was finished at the backdoor by Bobby Chamberlain. One-nil to the Seahawks.
However, just two minutes later (6:34), parity was restored as Hull conceded an equaliser from Shaun Miller who took advantage of a powerplay opportunity, as Declan Jones sat two minutes for delaying the game, with a slapshot.
An issue with equipment forced the Raiders into a brief change in net as James went off the ice for Thomas Brown.
Almost the first act of Brown was to pick up the puck from the back of the net, as the Seahawks took the lead through James Spurr’s first goal of the season, as the forward tipped a shot in, assisted by Owen Bruton and Johnny Corneil.
Issues resolved; James went back between the pipes for the Raiders hoping to see the rest of the first period out without further incident. However, that wasn’t to be.
At 19:17, there was a scramble in front of the goal and Chamberlain stepped up to score his second of the night, assisted by Owen Sobchak, to take the Seahawks in at the first period interval, 3-1up.
Hull had now taken control of the game and were in no mood to ease up in the second period.
With just 40 seconds on the clock, the Seahawks worked a fourth goal through Emil Svec, at 20:38, assisted again by Sobchak.
The second period saw tempers flare and emotions boil over, keeping the officials and those in the penalty boxes busy.
At 35:36, the Seahawks were playing shorthanded, with Bruton sitting a two-minute penalty for hooking. But, despite being on the penalty kill, the Seahawks looked threatening on the breakaway. Lee Haywood would capitalise on such an opportunity, going front hand/back hand before scoring Hull’s fifth of the game, assisted by Corneil and Jones.
A fiery second period ended 5-1 to the Seahawks and with an all-mighty melee in centre ice that saw Kohen Taylor, for the Seahawks, and Joe Tomalin, for Romford, given five-minute penalties for fighting as well as two-minute penalties for Chamberlain and Svec and Adam Laishram, of the Raiders, for roughing.
The third period started with Romford reducing the deficit, at 40:39, on the powerplay through Canadian forward Andrew Shewfelt, assisted by Tjay Anderson, but that was as good as it would get for the Raiders with Hull piling on the pressure to increase their lead. However, the match would yield no further goals for either team and ended 5-2 to the Seahawks.
“Last weekend didn’t go our way, so we needed a good performance tonight,” said Davies.
“I was angry and disappointed after last night’s result [the defeat to MK Lightning]. Given the quality in this team, it isn’t acceptable to lose like we did.
“Milton Keynes is a difficult place to go, and we got exposed a little bit. That is why I wanted to see us back at our best against Romford. We put lots of pressure on them and, aside from the two powerplay goals, I felt we contained them well. We didn’t give them a great deal and I feel that our efforts deserved a few more goals.
“We needed a bounce back to show what we are capable of. It is still early days in the season, and we are improving all the time.”
Next up for the Seahawks is a cup and league double header against the Leeds Knights and while Hull had the measure of their West Yorkshire rivals in pre-season, Davies isn’t taking anything for granted.
“There are no easy nights in this league,” said Davies.
“After our games with them last season, there is now a little bit of history between us, and the fan bases of both teams look forward to these matches.
“Confidence going into next week will be key and that means good preparation in training and continuing to build on our strengths, such as our penalty kill, and working on creating and converting more goal scoring opportunities for ourselves while limiting what they can do in front of our goal.”
By Mark Bateman
