Lee Valley Lions suffered another heavy defeat in Wilkinson 2 South, this time going down 15-4 at home to league leaders Slough Jets.

Tom Hnilica grabbed a brace and there were also goals for Joe Miller and Joe Berry as Slough ran riot.

The Lions were missing around half of their roster for this game, leaving them with just 12 skaters, while the Jets were able to ice a full roster of 20.

It got tougher for the hosts early on as well, as Gus Zimmerman was helped off the ice after sustaining an ankle injury following a collision with a Slough player.

The Lions did well to hold off the pressure of the Jets, who were unbeaten in 21 games coming into this one, but they eventually cracked and goals from Luke Smital and Adam Rosbottom had them up by two.

Joe Miller fought back and halved the deficit at the end of the first period, but Dan Rose and Bradley Hildreth extended the lead further at the game’s midway point.

Towards the end of the second period, four more Slough goals went in to effectively end the game, Rose completing his hat-trick with two, Rosbottom adding his second and player-coach Lukas Smital getting in on the act.

Tom Hnilica scored his 17th of the season for the Lions either side of the Jets’ sixth and seventh of the evening, leaving the score at 8-2 going into the final period.

Unfortunately, as the Lions began to tire, Slough took advantage and added a further seven goals to their tally, with Rosbottom adding two more, Lukas Smital completing his brace along with Ryan Handisides, and singles for Juha Lindgren and Tom Fisher.

There was something to cheer about at the end for the Lions though, as Berry scored on his return from injury and Hnilica grabbed his 18th of the season with just five seconds to go.

Defeat sees the Lions stay at the bottom of the table, seven points behind Swindon Wildcats 2 before their next game, a visit to Guildford Phoenix this Sunday, with faceoff at 6.15pm.