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Streatham’s hopes of a grand slam in NIHL hockey came to an end on Saturday afternoon after they fell 4-2 to the Solent Devils in the South 1 play offs at Alexandra Palace, writes Christopher Beal.
Form favoured Streatham heading into the game having taken the win in every encounter between the two sides this season.
Early on Streatham’s usually rock-solid defence was caught out by a turnover in their zone which allowed a waiting Cain Russell to fire into the roof of the net over Danny Milton with two minutes gone.
Streatham threw everything they could at the Devils’ net to try and pull one back, but Aaron Taylor stopped everything.
Less than one minute into the second period Liam Coleman set up Russell for his second.
Streatham got back into the game 13 minutes later netting on a powerplay. Ryan Sutton was called for hooking. Ben Ealey-Newman scored off the set-up by Jordan Gregory and Ryan Watt.
Solent instantly answered straight off the face off with Steve Osman making it 3-1.
Streatham scored in the 43rd minute. Head coach Ben Paynter and Josh Martin caused chaos on a charge forward and JJ Pitchley collected and fired a rebound past Taylor.
A late elbowing penalty against Pitchley with just three minutes on the clock saw the RedHawks kill a penalty before having to roll the dice with one minute left, pulling goalie Danny Milton for an extra attacker. The gamble backfired as Streatham lost possession to set up Liam Coleman to finish into the empty net.
Streatham will face Billingham Stars in the National Championship final in Coventry on April 28.
PICTURE: MEL O’BRIEN