Netminder Ian Thirkettle was the MVP in the Riverside Raiders’ win away in Blackburn (Photo by Paul Breeze)
Sunday 25th June – Summer Classic Cup: Blackburn Buccaneers 1 – Riverside Raiders 3
The Riverside Raiders moved back to the top of the Summer Classic Cup group table with a 1-3 win away over the Blackburn Buccaneers on Sunday.
The opening phase was very tense and closely fought and it took until the 15th minute for the first breakthrough, with David Geroc firing the Raiders into the lead. 4 minutes later the advantage was doubled by Shawn McBride and the score remained 0-2 at the first period break.
A third goal for the Widnes team from Michael Durbin on 38 minutes edged them further ahead and took the score to 0-3 after two periods.
With 10 minutes left in the game, tempers boiled over and a mass scuffle saw 5 players banished to the penalty box – 3 from the Raiders and 2 from the Buccaneers. In the aftermath of this, Blackburn finally managed to fire in their only goal of the game and that rounded off the scoring for the evening.
The result means that the Raiders have an impressive 5 wins from their 5 games and all attention now turns to their final group game this Saturday 1st July when they take on rink-mates Halton Huskies at Planet Ice Widnes.
The Huskies are in second place in the group table just 1 point behind the Raiders and Saturday’s game will decide who finishes up in top spot.
Both Widnes-based teams have already qualified for the play off phase of the competition as they can’t be overtaken by the other teams in the group but the team with the higher finishing position, theoretically, gets an easier draw in the semi finals.
The previous meeting between the Raiders and the Huskies produced a highly entertaining 3-3 draw and had to be decided by a dramatic penalty shoot out, so both teams will be keyed up for this Saturday’s deciding game.
Face off on Saturday is at 6pm – straight after the Mayhem v Sheffield sledge match - and admission is free, as is parking.
