Streatham Redskins forward Steven Fisher is determined to gun for individual scoring accolades following his hat-trick against Bracknell Hornets on Sunday.
Fisher’s trio followed his two goals against the same opponents in September, putting his tally to eight for the season as the Redskins romped to a 10-2 victory in south London and stayed top of the table.
But despite the desire for his own successes, the 28-year-old insists he’ll be playing for his team before himself on the ice.
“Being top scorer is what I aim for every year. I’ve been up there every year for Streatham since I’ve been playing, and I want that for the whole league too,” Fisher said.
“If I come first, or if I come 20th, then I’m not bothered so long as the team wins something.”
HAT-TRICK HERO: Steve Fisher scores one of this three goals against Bracknell Hornets
Fisher doubled his season’s goal-scoring record over the weekend, also netting in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to Invicta Dynamos, and that, coupled with his promising assists tally, has led the forward towards the top of the points table.
Saturday’s defeat was their first in National Ice Hockey League South Division One this season, with Fisher noting the team’s ill-discipline as their downfall.
He said: “We had a disappointing loss on Saturday. We didn’t really gel together as a team, and had too many in the penalty box.
“But on Sunday we just went from strength to strength.
“Saturday was so stop-start. We gave away too many penalties, and seemed to concede just as we got some flow.
“Individual errors and penalties cost us, but we managed to avoid that on Sunday.”
TRIPLE ATTACK: Joe Johnston, Steve Fisher and Chris Wiggins crash the net against Bracknell
Next up for Streatham is a trip to Chelmsford Chieftains, a much-anticipated affair as they look to make amends for their 9-1 defeat to the same opposition in the South East cup earlier in the season, and Fisher is under no illusions to the difficulty of the task.
“We’ve got a tough weekend next week,” he said.
“Chelmsford at home, so that’s pretty much the biggest game of the year, so it’s good to get a good solid win beforehand, but we know we’ve got to work twice as hard this week to stand any chance of getting a result.
“We should be fresh this week, which we weren’t when we played them last time.”
Fisher was joined on the score-sheet on Sunday by Adam Wood and Kamil Kinkor, who both netted twice, while Chris Wiggins, Liam Rasmussen and captain Joe Johnston also fired home.
Streatham started slowly in the first period, with the Hornets containing their hosts for the majority of the first 20 minutes, before Wood tucked in just before the klaxon.
Wood doubled his tally in the second period, while Kinkor poked home as the game opened up in the middle stages, but Greg Chambers and Brandon Miles converted for Bracknell to keep the game as a contest heading into the final 20 minutes.
The Redskins opened up in the final period, however, as Fisher scored three times in the space of nine minutes for his first hat-trick of the season, as the hosts scored six unanswered goals to consign the Hornets to their fifth defeat from six games this season.
UP FOR THE FIGHT: A melee breaks out against Invicta Dynamos on Saturday
The best was still to come for Streatham as captain Johnson skated the full length of the rink to fire home the tenth goal of the game, with Fisher jesting about his skipper’s achievements.
He said: “I think Joe dummied the defence. It looked like he pulled a back muscle on the way through, so I think they just let him off!
“We should have won on Saturday, but confidence is still high that we can win the league.
“On the day we need to keep the team as one, keep the practice high. Confidence is the key.
“Joe, Chris Wiggins and I all clicked in that third period and that’s why we got the points.”
Feature image of Adam Wood celebrating with (left to right) Evander Grinnell, Kamil Kinkor and Dom Hopkins. All images courtesy of Rick Webb, with thanks
