Lee Valley Lions 3 Peterborough Islanders 8

Lee Valley Lions ended up well beaten in their National League Division Two Cup clash with the Islanders last night.

George Alley’s side returned to action after a two-week break, having lost 5-3 to Haringey in a league derby, without Joe Weare, Ben Gillingham and James Gosling.

And they came flying out of the blocks as James Hepburn opened the scoring inside four minutes, with assists to Ben Duffy and goalie James Andrew.

Conor Pollard got Peterborough back on level terms midway through the first period, assisted by new signing James Pentecost, who was making his debut after joining from London Raiders.

But Lions regained the lead in the 15th minute as Hepburn claimed his second goal of the night following good work by Simon Geldart and brother Matt Hepburn and it was 3-1 just 35 seconds later as Chris Fox netted a shorthanded goal from captain Nick Alley’s pass.

The visitors replied during a spell of 5-on-3 to cut Lee Valley’s lead to a single goal at the first break, after the hosts had been outshot 23-7 in the opening period, and it was all square early in the middle frame as Pollard pounced to claim his second goal of the night.

The game remained deadlocked until the 35th minute, when Bradley Moore put Peterborough ahead for the first time on the night with a shorthanded goal, and it was 5-3 within 90 seconds of the start of the final period when Deivid Cetvertak beat Andrew.

Cetvertak turned provider as Shaun Yardley netted a sixth goal for Islanders soon after and the experienced British forward claimed his side’s second shorthanded goal of the game in the 54th minute, before Moore completed the tally with a powerplay effort with three and a half minutes left.

Fox took the man of the match award for Lions, who were outshot 60-29 overall, and Pollard claimed the prize for Peterborough.

Lions face another two-week break before they travel to Invicta Mustangs for a league match on December 10 in their final outing of 2016.