After a drive riddled with 'average speed 50 checks' eleven eager storm members made it to Swindon for a match up with sixteen eager Topcats (note the difference in lines.... it definitely put our fitness to the test) The ice looked great and felt great but didn't play to our advantage or Ruth - our netminder's advantage who found the narrow rink quite tricky.
Swindon scored two in quick succession halfway through the first, but with four minutes to play Catherine (me) popped one in the net as Amy made a pass from the corner across the crease.... our drills focusing on GOING TO THE NET - STICK ON THE ICE finally paid off. Unfortunately Swindon answered back two minutes later and with forty seconds left in the first to steal our momentum back.
The Topcats continued their assault on Ruth in the second finding the back of the net twice to make it 5 - 1. This was followed by some better defensive playing on our end to hold them off until the end of the third, however without more shots on net we couldn't come back and win even though the play was fairly end to end. Final score: 6-1, a rather lopsided for a game that we should have lost maybe 3-1. A disappointing result after all skating so hard. More work needed in practice to find the back of the net and get the shots off.
Catherine MVP
Practice jumping over the boards and strengthening our abs in advance of our match at Solihull paid off! Storm came out flying in the first period and put an amazing 15 shots on net, dominating the play for the majority. Unfortunately.... we still weren't finding the mesh. After intermission and a good pep talk we took to the ice again and this time connected. Amy pulled the puck back off the face off to Catherine who fired one through the screens in front... GOAL!!! We carried the momentum into the third where things really started to come together. Zuzanna and Amy connected for a brilliant one-two in front of the net to put us ahead by two just seconds into the third. Solihull never gave up though and broke the shut out with ten minutes left to play. We needed some insurance and Mima came through to make the score 3-1 and seal our first and well deserved victory. Great effort by everyone on the bench, let's keep this hunger for the rest of the season.
Catherine MVP
It's a long drive to Sheffield and it's an even longer drive home when you lose REALLY badly.
To be fair though - having a rookie netminder (and I don't mean a budding goalie who loves the challenge - I mean a forward who has bravely offered to strap on pads) face the top team in England with a bench full of Team GB players was always a recipe for disaster.
Somehow the score remained even until 14 minutes into the first - Sheffield is clearly used to scoring fancy goals and waiting for the perfect opportunity. Then someone on their bench fired it at the net and realized.... we don't need to be fancy. Sarah Taylor - our brave forward goalie then faced a relentless attack of shots and saved quite a few of them but she was no match for the slapshots and accuracy of Sheffield who were deftly stepping around our D and shaking off our Forward checks. Our man to man fell apart under the pressure and other than a few rushes and attacks from Catherine (which really did rattle them up - to the point of an almost fight at the end of the third which landed both Catherine and a mouthy, vicious one from Sheffield in the box for the end of the game) it was a one sided affair... and we were on the wrong side. Goal for facing them at home: Contain them to single digit scoring and break there shut out. Let's see how we do in March!
Catherine MVP
Newcastle is a long way to go... Luckily it's the furthest we have to travel this season. We went into the game full of hope that we could get our first win of the season. Unfortunately neither Newcastle or Storm were the same team as last year...
From the first drop of the puck it was obvious Newcastle were going to make us work hard. They played a fast, physical game which we were just not expecting. In the first period the shots were equal at both end, but the Newcastle shots were much higher quality. They were more powerful and more accurate, this is something that Storm need to work on urgently!
At the end of the first period we were 0-1 down, but we were still in it. As we didn't have a bench coach, one of the Newcastle academy staff very kindly stepped into the breech to give us advice.
The advice was fairly typical for storm... Don't make stupid passes, don't mess around near their blue line, just get the puck in the zone and shoot! Oh, and a bit of defence wouldn't go a miss... Even with the good advice the number of shots from Newcastle increased and we were 0-4 down at the end of the second period.
The third period was better, the number of shots was still high (19 in the period), no goals were conceded so the final score was 0-4 to Newcastle. Newcastle is a long way to go to lose... Fingers crossed we can do better when they come down to Streatham!
Ruth Cattell (MVP)
Well the ice wasn't full of holes this week but that isn't very useful if you can't get into the rink! Fortunately that someone showed up with keys and we were good to go.
After our draw with Guildford nearly two months ago we were hoping to pull off something even better. We held them out for nearly 10 minutes but a quick shot saw them take the lead. The fast end to end play continued without a goal for the next 20 minutes until a great rebounded shot from Jade was put away by Marketa, the dents in the table are starting to pay off!This rattled Guildford and we saw an increase in play tempo again, our increased fitness paid off and we held them for another 10 minutes before they scored again. At 2-1 the game started to get more physical with further penalties for Guildford and one for Streatham. In the third period the pace started to tell as a d-man was pulled back up front and Guildford let a third past with only 5 minutes to go.
Overall the game was much evener than our last encounter although the score does not reflect this the shots on goal do, 21:34 to Guildford. Some more work seems to be required on our behalf to get the puck in the net, not in the goalies pads.
Mima Boardman (MVP)
You know it’s not going to be a good day when your home ice is full of holes, covered in pylons and seems to be melting before your eyes. It’s even worse when your opponent is Slough, league champions and a team that reached double digits against us just two weeks earlier. Through some miracle (and a lot of hard work by Coach Rob, the Streatham arena crew and a slew of helpful volunteers) the ice was salvaged and the clock was running… time for a game (that’s Canadian for ‘match’)
Slough came firing out of the gates and was on the board just two minutes in. Five minutes later we were granted a power play – our first of five chances to even the score. Unfortunately, in what proved to be the overriding theme of the game, we coughed up the puck in the neutral zone and Slough rushed back in for the first of two shorthanded goals.
The second period saw Streatham more involved, beating Slough to loose pucks, and showing them that we can be physical too. This landed us in the box a few times, Sarah for an elbow and Zuzana for a bodycheck, but our penalty kill proved strong and we managed to limit Slough to just one goal.
Starting the third we found ourselves down two skaters due to injury and illness but raring to make a comeback… or more realistically, win the period. The first ten minutes were great, again we showed them that Streatham is not to be pushed around. Unfortunately, our shots just couldn’t seem to find the back of the net. In the end two things kept us from reaching our goal:
* We ran out of gas, and
* Teresa Lewis of Slough decided it was time to play… racking up a hat trick and an assist in less than ten minutes.
Despite the lopsided 8-0 on the scoreboard we walked away from the game happy to have played and knowing we played better than our last affair, suffered far less bruises, and that the only thing stopping us from a close match with Slough is some work on our breakout and some off – ice fitness training. Slough better watch their back come playoffs!
Catherine Scandrett (MVP)
When you only find out the date of the first game of the season 5 days before playing it, you don’t expect to do well. This was not helped by a very short bench and players who'd only trained together once or twice, scraping a point out of the game seems nigh on impossible.
Even so, we rocked up at Guildford Spectrum to see if we could make the Lightning earn their points. The first 2 periods were fairly even. Both teams had chances, Guildford were the more accurate team, but neither managed to get on the score sheet. When Mima and Catherine got penalties for hooking and crosschecking, the team pulled together and defended really well to stop Guildford capitalising. When a Guildford player was given a penalty for interference we kept the puck in the zone and made the most of our player advantage. But we didn’t have the accuracy and still failed to score.
By the third period everyone on the ice, storm and lightning alike, was knackered. We decided on defence instead of offence to try and minimise the damage. Lightning outshot us 28-1! Helped by another 2 minutes of 1 player advantage after Rachel was done for roughing (technically a punch to the head… things were getting a bit tense!). With 13 seconds left on the clock, it seemed that all the hard work would be in vein. A shot from behind the blue line looped over the goalies (my) glove and dropped into the goal off the cross bar. Luckily for us, the referee and linesmen we're awake and spotted the offside Guildford players, declaring the goal null and void! When the final whistle went there was relief all round on the Streatham bench. We had our first point of the season! It was hard fought, but well deserved. Well done ladies… next time we'll 'ave em!
Ruth Cattell (MVP)
Following what can only be described as an epic journey to Newcastle, the team arrived at the rink and immediately discovered both a lack of rubber on the floor and a lack of free changing rooms. The game began fairly slowly, and it was Newcastle who drew first blood. But with some strong play from the forwards and some tight positional work from the D Streatham were able to claw back a couple of goals and by the start of the third period were in the lead.
The game was tough and physical in places with Hannah Carnegy being twice flattened and Zuzana Dobrovolna getting mercilessly picked on by Newcastle's defense. In a moment of pure genius, the referee called Katka Paulova for diving, but the penalty kill remained undefeated.
In the third period Streatham Storm consolidated their lead, 4-2 and left the rink extolling the virtues of a full bench and playing your position. This was without a doubt the prettiest game of hockey the team has played this season and gives us high hopes for the remaining games.
Georgia Gale Grant (MVP)