Tom Watkins wants Telford to show eye of the Tigers
Telford Tigers head coach Tom Watkins felt his side needed to be more clinical in their 6-4 home defeat against Romford Raiders.
The Tigers fell to back-to-back defeats over the weekend after suffering a penalty shot loss at Bristol Pitbulls on Saturday.
Ten defeats from the opening 14 games leaves Tigers sat at the foot of the National Ice Hockey League National Division table with just seven points.
Watkins was pleased with the opportunities that his side created, but felt they should have taken more of those chances during the game.
Watkins said: “We started the first period very well and showed good pace throughout. We created some opportunities but made some errors that put us on the wrong side of the puck and led us to taking several minor penalties.
“If you analyse the game, the difference between winning and losing was that we got some bad bounces that didn’t help at all and gave Romford an advantage but we also missed a penalty shot and a break away.
“We outshot them by 15 shots but didn’t do a good enough job of taking the goalie’s eyes away on many occasions.”
Tigers made a bright start in Shropshire and opened the scoring in the 10th minute when new arrival David Thomson marked his home debut in scoring style after Eric Henderson’s effort was parried into the danger area by Raiders goal Ethan James.
Raiders responded within the space of a minute as a turnover in the Tigers’ defensive zone proved costly.
Brad Day made a save but was caught out of position for the follow-up, which Andrew Shewfelt ruthlessly backhanded into the open net.
The visitors scored twice in quick succession at the start of the second period to move into the driving seat.
Zachary Yokoyama came back to haunt his former club, just a week after being released by the Tigers, with a low finish past Day.
Then, Shewfelt saw his effort saved by Day but the puck trickled behind him where Shaun Miller slammed home from close-range.
Tigers halved the deficit when Vladimir Luka hammered home from the bottom of the left circle, but Raiders quickly restored their two-goal advantage.
With Louie Newell serving a cross check penalty, Raiders scored a fourth when a shot from Brandon Ayliffe deflected past Day off Jake Price’s skate.
Raiders added a fifth just two minutes into the third period when the puck broke kindly for Tjay Anderson to skate through on goal and convert. Luka wasted a golden opportunity to ignite a comeback when he fired his penalty wide of the target and Raiders inflicted further damage when a shot from Miller beat Day from distance.
Telford added a degree of respectability to the scoreline by pulling two goals back late on.
Harry Ferguson netted with a wrist shot from the left circle and Rhodes Mitchell-King added another with a shot from the slot but it proved too little, too late for a struggling Tigers side.
