Lee Valley Lions 3 Bristol Pitbulls 5

Lee Valley Lions saw their wait for a win this season extend to seven matches after losing to Bristol in the National League cup last night.

Having taken one point from a possible eight in Division Two South East, while also losing their first two cup matches so far, Lions saw the visitors arrive in east London with a 21-strong squad.

And the home side fell behind with six minutes played as Giovanni Raffaelli beat James Andrew for Bristol’s first goal of the night.

Pitbulls doubled their advantage in the 10th minute as Chris Moore netted from Zach Dolpin’s pass, but Lions roared back to draw level before the first break.

They were unable to capitalise on a powerplay chance, when Ryan McFarlane was given a tripping penalty, but assistant captain Matthew Hepburn opened Lee Valley’s account with an unassisted goal in the 17th minute and Simon Geldart squared matters after good work fro Oliver Glover and Henry Aiken less than two minutes later.

Things got even better for Lions as Chris Fox fired them in front with another unassisted effort in the 28th minute.

But a bench minor penalty for having too many men on the ice handed Bristol a powerplay chance and they made it count as Raffaelli fired home his second goal of the night to level things up once more.

Lions successfully killed off a delay of game minor against Simon Jones before the end of the middle session, but then saw Hepburn given a high-sticking minor early in the final period.

And it proved to be a turning point as Grant Richardson put Bristol 4-3 up with another powerplay goal, before McFarlane converted a pass from Richard Hargreaves to make it 5-3 with just over six minutes remaining.

A roughing minor against Bristol’s Adrian Smith gave Lions a late powerplay chance, but they could not take it as they were outshot 46-33 over the course of the 60 minutes.

Lions must now wait two weeks for their next match, when they travel to Slough Jets for a league fixture on Saturday October 22 (6.30pm).

The two sides shared six goals when they met at Lee Valley last month.

Scorers, Lions: Simon Geldart 1 Chris Fox 1 Matthew Hepburn 1 Henry Aiken 0+1.

Bristol: Giovanni Raffaelli 2 Ryan McFarlane 1+1 Chris Moore 1+1 Grant Richardson 1 Richard Hargreaves 0+2 Giacomo Raffaelli 0+2 Zach Dolphin 0+1.

Penalty minutes: Lions 6 Bristol 6.

Shots faced: James Andrew (LV) 20-15-11=46-5 Andrew Leckie (B) 15-8-10=33-3.