Dragons Pull Away Late to Beat Southampton 7-4

The London Dragons closed strongly in the third period to secure a 7-4 win over the Southampton Spitfires on 8 December at Planet Ice Basingstoke in Checking 1 South.

This was a tight game for long stretches. Southampton led twice, and the game was still level heading into the final nine minutes before we pulled away with four late goals. Artem Meshcherin scored the game-winning goal. Maxwell Tong was named MVP for the Dragons, while Kristijonas Nekrosevicius took MVP honours for Southampton.

Southampton opened the scoring at 11:13 of the first through Theo Sire, assisted by David Strautnieks. We responded late in the period after Southampton’s Kristijonas Nekrosevicius was called for tripping at 17:12. At 19:34, Maxwell Tong tied the game at 1-1, finishing from Rohan Kingwell and Michael D’Aprix.

The second period stayed close and swung both ways. Southampton went ahead at 24:42 with a shorthanded goal from Charlie Cameron-Reid after Egor Maksimov had taken a boarding penalty. We answered quickly at 27:00 through Nikita Piazenko, assisted by Artem Meshcherin and Aleksandr Zaborskikh, but Southampton restored the lead almost immediately. After Tom Jungbluth was called for holding at 27:51, Theo Sire scored on the power play at 28:02 to make it 3-2. We drew level again at 31:40 when Piazenko scored his second of the night, again from Zaborskikh and Meshcherin.

The rest of the period was disrupted by penalties, with Joshua Hudak called for tripping, Jungbluth assessed a major for boarding, and Tong sent off for high-sticking, but the score remained 3-3 heading into the third.

The game finally broke open in the final period. There were more penalties early, including a misconduct against Kingwell for illegal equipment and two minors against Tong at 42:16, but we found the breakthrough at 51:10 when Zaborskikh gave us our first lead since the opening period, assisted by Patrick Chapman and Meshcherin. Southampton answered less than two minutes later through Sire, who completed his hat trick at 52:56 from Alice Jones to tie it 4-4.

From there, we took over. Just eight seconds later, Meshcherin scored what stood as the game winner, finishing from Piazenko and Jungbluth at 53:04. At 54:05, Piazenko struck again from Zaborskikh and Chapman to make it 6-4. When Maksimov took another interference penalty at 55:34, we converted on the power play, with Zaborskikh scoring at 55:44 from Tong and Chapman to put the result beyond doubt.

The difference was our finish in the final minutes. Southampton stayed in the game and made us work for it, but once we regained the lead, we were clinical. Piazenko finished with a hat trick, Zaborskikh scored twice and added two assists, Meshcherin had a goal and three assists, and Chapman recorded two assists. Tong, our MVP, scored the equaliser late in the first and added an assist on the late power-play goal. For Southampton, Sire scored three of their four goals in a strong individual performance.

The shot count also reflected the overall run of play. We finished with a 50-34 edge in shots and carried the stronger offensive push over the course of the night. Discipline was less tidy, with 25 penalty minutes to Southampton’s 10, but we still found the goals we needed when the game was on the line.

This was not a clean game, but it was an important win. We stayed with it, responded every time Southampton moved in front, and then finished the game properly when the chance came.

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