A BLAIR DUBYK treble was not enough for battling Lee Valley as they beaten 7-5 by Cardiff Devils.

With the teams almost level-pegging in the league table, Lee Valley Lions were almost certain of a closely-fought contest when they hosted Cardiff ENIHL Devils on Saturday.

What the home team didn’t perhaps anticipate was going one goal down less than three minutes into the game. Lions pulled back at 12 minutes, 24 seconds with an unassisted goal from Blair Dubyk but the Devils took advantage of Lee Valley’s clumsy approach and went 3-1 ahead.

Dubyk managed to slip the puck past netminder Luke Takei at 19.49 but the period overall was lacklustre.

The second period started well for Lee Valley when Shane Bojenko took the puck the length of the ice and held his nerve to equalise at 22.35.

Penalties against Cardiff then gave Lee Valley the perfect opportunity to pull ahead of their opposition, but the team failed to organise an efficient attack and instead collapsed, suffering the humiliation of not one, but two short-handed goals within the space of just four seconds. A further goal from Josh Haslem at 38.08 increased the visitors’ lead to 6-3 and it looked as if the Lions were going down without a fight. However, the final minute soon brought Lee Valley back into the game, when James Scott-Joseph scored and Blair Dubyk celebrated his hat-trick just seconds later.

The Lions were desperate to secure points but their performance in the final period needed to step up a gear and this didn’t happen.

Netminder Ruth Cattell was rested in favour of George Alley but Ben Brown put away Cardiff’s decisive 7th goal at 45.53 and the Lions had no answer.

Alley was pulled in favour of an extra skater for the last minute of the game but the Devils’ defence were unperturbed and the final score was 7-5 to the visitors.

Lee Valley Lions travel to Kent where they face Invicta Mustangs before hosting Bristol Pitbulls on Saturday, February, 26 face-off 5.15pm.