Ice-hockey: Farn not downhearted as Streatham’s 25-game unbeaten streak ended by the Devils’ work

Streatham player-coach Michael Farn refused to be downhearted after his title-winning side’s 25-game unbeaten streak was ended by the Solent Devils last weekend, writes David Carr.

The league champions uncharacteristically threw away a 3-1 lead on the South Coast, eventually going down 6-5 to the third-placed Devils.

“It was a tough one to take on Saturday and it’s always a different type of challenge with the size of the ice pad down there, but I don’t like to make excuses,” said Farn.

“We were missing a few key players and took a number of junior players down there to supplement the squad, and they did themselves proud with their work-rate and energy.

“It was an end-to-end game and certainly entertaining for the fans who showed up. Credit to Solent – it was a big win for them.

“It marked the end of a lengthy winning streak and that’s something the club can be proud of, along with the trophies we’ve picked up so far.”

Streatham bounced back 24 hours later with an 8-0 win over basement side MK Thunder on the High Road. The RedHawks were again missing a number of key players including top scorer Vanya Antonov, but made light work of a Thunder side missing their captain and two top scorers.

“MK have had some decent results recently, but we got the job done and maintained our 100 per cent home winning record” said Farn. “We’ve got five league games left and I’ve told the lads we want to finish strongly to put ourselves in the best shape possible for the play-offs.”

Streatham will be top seed for the play-off quarter finals that take place on the weekend of April 16-17 and are most likely to face eighth placed Oxford City Stars over two legs unless the Stars manage to climb to seventh.

Streatham face Romford at home in the league this Sunday with a 6:45pm face-off.