Telford Tigers complete capital raid

Tigers had opened the season with a defeat in Basingstoke before beating Leeds at home the following day.

The team went into the game without captain Jason Silverthorn through injury but were able to replace him with James Smith.

Tigers had fell behind in both previous games and started slowly again. Despite Telford having an early power play, it would be the Raiders who opened the scoring whilst shorthanded through Brandon Ayliffe.

The lead lasted only a minute as Tigers responded whilst still on the power play. Jonathan Weaver blasted a slap shot past London net minder Michael Gray. London’s tactics appeared to be to make it a physical game. Tigers’ Thomas McKinnon and Callum Wells dropped the gloves early on with both receiving fighting penalties.

Raiders regained the lead in the fourth minute with a goal from Jack Stone. Just 30 seconds later, Ayliffe added a third goal and Tigers were reeling. Slowly the team got themselves back into the game with a goal late in the period. Ricky Plant sent up Dominik Florian to fire home and reduce Tigers’ deficit to 3-2.

The second period would belong to the Tigers but early on Florian was called for a check from behind, resulting in a 10 minute misconduct penalty.

London’s Mason Webster took exception to the hit and went after Florian but Danny Rose intervened. The result was both teams lost players for 4 minutes. The edge to the game remained when, shortly after, Tigers’ Dan Mitchell was called for fighting.

Penalties continued for both teams - McKinnon was given a further roughing penalty and former Tigers’ player Blaho Novak, was given two separate penalties giving Tigers a power play. Tigers drew level with another goal from Weaver after Scott McKenzie found him unmarked in front of goal, Weaver hammering home his second of the game.

Both teams contributed to a scrappy period with further penalties. As the period entered the final 5 minutes, Tigers took control of the game. Joe Aston scored from Danny Rose’s pass which was closely followed by Andy McKinney scoring Tigers’ 5th goal to end the period 5-3 ahead.

The third period saw London pushing hard to get back into the game but Tigers defended well and limited the chances for the Raiders. With 3 minutes left of the game, London pulled Gray from the net to give themselves an extra attacker.

Tigers secured the game with an empty net goal from Jack Watkins. As the game reached a conclusion, there was still time for Scott McKenzie to add a seventh goal for Tigers.