Streatham Redskins captain Joe Johnston thinks discipline will be key if his side are to prolong their recent run of good form.
The Redskins bagged back-to-back wins away to Cardiff and then 6-1 at home to Bracknell to lift themselves into second place in the National Ice Hockey League South 1.
A hat-trick from Callum Best as well as goals from Joe Allen, Steven Fisher and Dom Hopkins were enough to give the Redskins a narrow 6-5 away win at Cardiff on Saturday.
Sunday’s match against Bracknell saw them net six again through Fisher, Hopkins, Jakub Klima, Adam Wood, Sean Scarbrough and man of the match Jack Tarczycki, to ensure they secured a maximum four points from their weekend matches.
“I thought the Bracknell game would be closer because we are two very evenly matched teams,” said Johnston.
“But it shows what we are capable of when we turn it on and play disciplined hockey. That’s what we can do to any team – we don’t fear anyone.”
The weekend wins mean The Redskins are just three points behind their next opponents, league leaders Invicta Dynamos, and Johnston has called on his team to keep their momentum going.
“Invicta have a lot of fire power so there will be a lot of defensive stuff to work on but the key is discipline.
“If we can play fast paced, high-energy hockey like we did tonight and keep it disciplined, we can cause them problems.
“It’s going to be tough, they are top of the league, and they probably have the best squad in the league, but we’ve got a great hockey team and we just need to carry on our form into next week.”
The Redskins captain also praised netminder Will Sanderson’s performance against Bracknell after he was beaten just once – by Danny Hughes in the second period – and made a number of smart saves.
“Will played really well tonight. He’d be the first to admit that if he needed to work on anything it would be consistency but that is what he is capable of, almost completely shutting out a fourth placed team which has some good scorers.”
The Streatham Redskins next game is at home to Invicta Dynamos on Saturday 10th January, push-back 5:30pm.
