Jets beat Vipers to record first points

Jets earned their first points of the season with an away victory against Newcastle Vipers ENL.

The game started at a frantic pace with Ben Lowe going close off the opening face off before Newcastle opened the scoring off the counter attack through Callum Davies netting after 32 seconds.

The Jets reply came just two shifts later, when Adam Elliott tied the game up, on the power play after 1.17 on a feed from his brother Craig Elliott after some hard work down low.

Kingston continued to pile pressure on the Vipers net throughout the first period and were duly rewarded on 10.35 when defenseman Jordan Davies fired home a wrist shot, assisted by Dan Sayer and Richard Haggar. Shots after the first period were 17-6 in favour of the Jets.

The second period continued in a similar way the first, with the Jets dominating for a large proportion of the period. Richard Haggar added Kingston’s third goal after 27 minutes with a wrap around goal assisted by Dan Hackford and Mark Florence.

Ben Milhench extended the Jets lead to three goals, firing past the Vipers netminder with a wrist shot from the hash marks just before the end of the second period (39.18). Just twenty seconds later the Vipers reduced the deficit back to two after a defensive mix-up saw Graeme Robson poke the puck through Jets netminder Tristain Rodgers legs.

Newcastle came out early in the third period looking to catch the Jets on the back foot. However it was the Jets who opened the periods scoring with Dan Sayer ripping home a shot, assisted by Richard Haggar and Mark Florence.

The Vipers persistence finally paid off when Matt Hinkley scored two goals (45.26 & 50.30) setting up an interesting final ten minutes. Coach Andy Daintith called a time out to try and settle his team and help them reorganise.

Any potential nerves were settled four minutes later when Matt Jeffcock scored in front of the net on a Craig Elliott assist from behind the net.

The final four minutes saw chances for both sides however Jets saw out and danger to record their first win of the season.

Captain Ben Milhench on the game, “I thought we were disciplined out there, which helped us win the game following some of the penalty trouble we got into last week. I thought we dominated for large periods of the game and fully deserved the two points. The score didn’t fully reflect how we played as we should of put away a few more of our chances.”

Mark Florence added, “Its good to get our first win under our belts, hopefully we can build on this and add two points the cup tomorrow against Solihull.”

The news image was kindly provided by http://www.vipersmedia.co.uk view the site for more images from the game.