Ice hockey: Raiders aiming to build on mixed start

Raiders travel to take on Telford Tigers on Saturday, before welcoming Swindon Wildcats to the Sapphire Ice & Leisure Centre in Romford on Sunday (5.15pm).

And Sean Easton’s men head into those fixtures after losing their opening fixture of the season at MK Lightning, before beating new boys Solway Sharks back on home ice the following night.

“We know Telford will be organised as always and we’ll be working on our approach this week, along with Swindon who we will have to be ready for,” said Sylvester.

“We want to ensure our rink is a hard place to come and play and we’ll make it hard for them, for sure.”

Having won three and drawn the other of their pre-season matches, Raiders were 2-0 down inside seven minutes at Milton Keynes, after Zack Milton and Elliott Dewey picked up early penalties and the hosts converted on both powerplays.

Sylvester combined with Milton to set up Adam Laishram for a reply, but a cross-checking call against Nick Leyer led to a third MK powerplay goal before the first break.

Harry Gulliver then netted against his old teammates, with Raiders conceding twice more in the middle session.

The final period remained scoreless as Raiders went down 6-1, having been outshot 48-22, with Sylvester adding: “It was a mixed weekend, we went into MK with high hopes but we need to be more disciplined if we want to come away from there with any kind of result in the future.”

Raiders opened the scoring against Solway with a powerplay goal of their own through Brandon Ayliffe on Sunday.

And Sylvester doubled their advantage early in the second period, before Blaho Novak made it 3-0 as Raiders enjoyed another man advantage.

The visitors hit back in the third period, but Sylvester restored the three-goal cushion with his second before a last-gasp consolation.

“Sunday was a good turnaround,” said Sylvester.

“It was fairly unknown how they would play and what the game was going to be like. 

“I think we controlled large parts of the game and [goalie] Ethan [James] stood on his head when we needed him.”

A three-point haul over the course of the two matches left Sylvester with 143 goals and 130 assists in 267 appearances in a gold and blue jersey.

And he now needs only five more points to leapfrog Frankie Harvey (120+157) and Dave Whistle (125+152) and claim a place in the club’s all-time top 10 list.

“It was good to get going and start scoring straight away,” he said. 

“I think there is a lot to come from us as a team and hopefully we can extract our full potential moving forward.”

MATCH DETAILS

Saturday, MK Lightning 6 Raiders 1
Lightning: Tim Wallace 2+1, Caly Robertson 2, Robert Herrman 1+2, Harry Gulliver 1+1, Dillon Lawrence 0+1, Lewis Christie 0+1.
Raiders: Adam Laishram 1, Jake Sylvester 0+1, Zack Milton 0+1.
First period
1-0 Herrman (Wallace) PP 4.53; 2-0 Robertson (Lawrence) PP 6.22; 2-1 Laishram (Sylvester, Milton) 10.45; 3-1 Wallace (Gulliver, Herrman) PP 14.15.
Penalties: Milton (R) hook 4.03; Dewey (R) hook 5.38; Wallace (MK) board 11.10; Leyer (R) cross 13.14; Solder (MK) hold 15.37.
Second period
4-1 Gulliver (Herrman) 24.16; 5-1 Robertson 34.41; 6-1 Wallace (Christie) 39.30.
Penalties: Power (R) cross 22.07; Martelly (MK) trip 24.35; Relf (R) trip 26.43; Novak (R) trip 38.41.
Third period
Penalties: Leyer (R) board 41.49; Laishram (R) hook 57.17; Leyer (R) slash 59.09; Leyer (R) misc (10 mins) 59.09; Laishram (R) rough/slash (2+2) 59.54; Rutkis (MK) rough 59.54.
Shots on goal: Jordan Hedley (MK) 10-8-4=22-1; Brad Windebank (R) 16-15-17=48-6.

Sunday, Raiders 4 Solway 2
Raiders: Jake Sylvester 2, Brandon Ayliffe 1, Blaho Novak 1, Adam Laishram 0+3, Nick Leyer 0+2, George Norcliffe 0+1, Zack Milton 0+1. 
Sharks: Kell Beattie 1, Nolan Gardiner 1, Craig Peacock 0+2, John Dunbar 0+1.
First period
1-0 Ayliffe (Leyer, Laishram) PP 13.18.
Penalties: Hill (R) hold 2.34; McGill (S) cross 12.56; Murray (S) slash 19.43.
Second period
2-0 Sylvester (Norcliffe, Milton) 21.47; 3-0 Novak (Leyer, Laishram) PP 34.54.
Penalties: McKenzie (S) hook 33.34; Novak (R) hold 35.36.
Third period
3-1 Beattie (Peacock) 45.58; 4-1 Sylvester (Laishram) 50.39; 4-2 Gardiner (Dunbar, Peacock) 59.58.
Penalties: Ranson (R) hook 43.01; Sylvester (R) intrf 46.47.
Shots on goal: Ethan James (R, 59.49) 11-10-15=36-2; Calum Hepburn (S, 59.48) 11-13-9=33-4.