Guildford Smoke vs Slough Scorpions

League Game 1

A new year and a new, expanded format for the League. The addition of 3 new teams saw the League start earlier – in fact some games had already been played before the defending Champions, the Guildford Smoke took to the ice. First up, our near neighbours, the Slough Scorpions.

Slough often struggle to ice a full squad (full credit to them for never waiving off a match though) and tonight saw the face-off pushed back by 15 minutes to give them time for players to arrive – we’d be poor hosts insisting on playing against a single line. Since the conclusion of last season, Tom Groves, arguably their best player has come across to the Smoke after being a regular at training.

With a target on our backs Guildford were keen to send a message to the league and to themselves – no slip ups were to be tolerated.

The team took that to heart, winning the opening face-off and cycling the puck through Dean Orgill to Dom Ballard from where Eugene Gallagher on his return from surgery calmly took the opening goal, just six seconds into the game. Welcome back Euge, but you took too long to score, last year Leo scored after 5 seconds ;-)

Lest we thought it as all going to be our own way we were reminded that the Scorpions do have players capable fo scoring as a defensive howler let Dan Robson in on Vic Falsetta to score low and the scores were tied, with only 34 seconds gone. But the goal rush wasn’t finished as, still in the opening minute, Rob Griffiths, on his home debut picked up the puck and evaded the defenders to score and restore the lead. Three goals in a minute by the teams.

The game now settled down as early season form (or lack thereof) began to show – the lack of recent practices due to snow and Christmas showed as chances went missing, shots went wide and a few mistakes crept in. 8 more minutes had elapsed before Rob scored again, once again unassisted. 3-1 Smoke

The pressure was now cranked up; with only a dozen players, Slough were already beginning to look fatigued against the 3 full lines that the Smoke were rolling. At 9:38 Eugene returned the favour to Dom Ballard, setting up his goal and thirty seconds later Rob had secured a hat-trick all in the first period. One final goal, scored short handed saw Tomas Navratil set up by Rob and the period ended with a commanding 6-1 lead.

Anyone expecting a start in the 2nd like in the 1st was disappointed, having to wait nearly 4 minutes for the opening goal. Perhaps surprisingly it went to Slough , indicating they weren’t going to just lie down and take it. A response was due and this quickly came on the powerplay, although the offending player barely had time to enter the box before Dom scored from a won faceoff by Tomas. 30 seconds later it was Dom again, for the 2nd Smoke hat-trick of the night!

Within 2 minutes, Dom moved into top scorer of the night, bullishly going through Slough and scoring an unassisted goal, to propel the Smoke to a 9-2 lead. Things were tight at the back, the forwards and D were supporting one another and there was some good link up play.

Next up was Mike Brown, scoring from good work to win the puck by Dean Harwood. I had to check the records and found that, surprisingly, this was Mike’s first goal for the Smoke (pending a couple of missing gamesheets) so congratulations to Mike. Still before the halfway mark of the match Eugene scored his 2nd. By now it seemed to be only a question of “How many?” and perhaps that thinking got into the home side, a few passing opportunities were missed and Martin in the Slough goal was doing his best against a barrage of shots. There was only one more goal in the period and it was another first timer as Ross Marshall in a rush of blood found himself with an open lane all the way to the crease, he duly took it and forced the puck home for his 1st Smoke goal, 30 seconds from the period end

(He was so excited, even in the intermission, that he managed to wipe out in glorious fashion right on the centre line)

Into the 3rd, the Smoke lines were juggled as Tomas had to leave after his skate blade came loose. The period also saw a brief cameo by Tom Groves in net before he realised he was too tight and took the wise decision to not risk it in what was a safe period.

By now the Scorpions were visibly tiring, most of their offensive efforts were directed at feeding Robson the puck to try and get a goal, something the Smoke anticipated by close man (often double man) marking. There were still plenty of goals though – apologies to you fans of symmetry that despite another 6 home goals, that this time Slough didn’t crack the net.

First up was Mike Brown, discovering a liking for this scoring lark and getting his hat-trick. Eugene wanted to figure in that category too and duly did so, fed by Dom – I thjnk we can safely say he’s back. Sam Smith then got his name on the scoresheet before 2 more goals by Rob pushed the Smoke past their highest ever score. There was just time for Sam S to stick handle past the (must be) exhausted Slough keeper and put the final note on a resounding 18-2 victory – we saw last year that goal difference came into play so it was a good opening result that gives the team a boost of confidence going into the next match. After a scrappy opening period the team effort, all 3 lines chipping in showed through – a great result.

Man of the Match was well won by Rob Griffiths