PREVIEW
NIHL
NORTH DIVISION 1 (MORALEE)
Saturday 30th September 2017
Billingham
Stars vs.
Telford Tigers
Solway
Sharks vs. Nottingham Lions
Sunday
1st October 2017
Whitley Warriors vs. The Dragons
Hull Pirates vs. Solway Sharks
Fixture: Billingham Stars vs. Telford Tigers
Date: 30th September 2017
Venue: The Forum
Faceoff: 5:30pm
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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Preparing to play host to Tom Watkins’ Telford Tigers on Saturday,
Billingham Stars will be hoping for far better than their pre-season
performances against the Shropshire outfit, having suffered an 8-1 defeat on
home ice before losing out to six unanswered goals on the road. With
Canadian-born captain Jason Silverthorn, experienced right winger Joe Miller,
forward Rick Plant and defenceman Jonathan Weaver amongst those dominating for
the Tigers to collectively tally eleven goals and fifteen assists over the
course of these games, Billingham will be hoping that they can prove more of a
match for their visitors, having already lost out in two of the three league
games they have played to date, besides notching just a single point in four
NIHL National Cup games.
Whilst the Tigers will find themselves without Weaver on Saturday after
the three-time EIHL champion received an eleven-game ban for an incident in
Telford’s cup game against Swindon Wildcats last Sunday, the Stars will be
missing blue liner Ben Davison who received a two-game suspension after being
ejected for a check to the head against Blackburn Hawks’ Tom Parkinson last
weekend. In spite of these respective absences, the Tigers will hope to claim a
win against the Stars to challenge Blackburn for top spot and to avoid their first
league defeat whereas Billingham will seek a victory to turn
around their disappointing form and to climb away from the lower places of the
league standings. With this the first competitive clash between these two
outfits, the Stars will hope that their pre-season insight into Telford’s
style of play will stand them in good stead. However, failure to win could leave
the Teessiders even further adrift at the foot of the table should Solihull
Barons and The Dragons pick up points at the weekend.
Hoping that his team can bounce back against Telford on Saturday, Stars’ alternate captain Chris Sykes observed:
“It is a one-game weekend against the Telford Tigers
for us, at home. We have had a good week in training, working on a few things
that we can put into play. It will be a very difficult game against the Tigers;
they are a great team but we will do what we need to and hopefully get the two
points.”
Looking forward to an encounter against his former
club, Tigers’ forward Jack Watkins shared his thoughts ahead of this game:
“It should be another interesting weekend for us. We
are coming off the back of a loss to a strong Swindon side so the boys will be
eager to go. Weavs [Weaver] will be a huge miss for us too. Everyone is looking
forward to playing Billingham again after we played them in pre-season. They
seem to have had a couple of close results with strong teams since we last
played so it should be tough! And of course the experience that our new signing
Warren Tait brings to the line-up is vital to us!”
Fixture: Solway Sharks vs. Nottingham Lions
Date: 30th September 2017
Venue: Dumfries Ice Bowl
Faceoff: 7:00pm
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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Set to face Nottingham Lions at the Dumfries Ice Bowl on Saturday,
Solway Sharks will be hoping for a second victory over Matt Bradbury’s side,
after accomplishing a 5-3 road win over the outfit two weeks ago. Their previous encounter far
from an easy one against Nottingham, the Sharks found themselves trailing by three goals to one at the
midpoint of the second period. As such, Solway will seek to avoid such a scenario on
Saturday, knowing that the outcome of this recent clash could have been
very different had they failed to demonstrate their resolve.
In their last outing against Martin Grubb’s men, former Lions’ alternate captain
Warren Tait, Czech import Ondrej Pniok and forward Cameron Pywell were able to
get on the scoresheet for their team so Bradbury will no doubt hope that
Nottingham will once again appear a threat in front of goal as the side search
for their first points of the season to progress from tenth place, where they
remain at present, having recorded four defeats to date. The Sharks, meanwhile,
will aim to bounce back from last weekend’s loss to Telford Tigers which was
the first defeat of their campaign, as they look to not only progress from fourth
place but to also recover their momentum ahead of a road trip to Hull on
Sunday. With Iain Bowie still currently top of the NIHL points scoring charts with fourteen points alongside Hawk Kieran Brown, Solway will hope
that their in-form forward can once again cause trouble against Nottingham,
having delivered the Sharks’ third goal in their recent encounter against the
Lions, whilst consistent forwards Connor Henderson, Ross Murray and Steven Moore
will aim to be amongst those causing problems for their visitors when they take
to the ice on Saturday.
Preparing for this fixture, Sharks’ Head Coach
Martin Grubb affirmed the challenge awaiting his team:
“This will be another tough game as I was really
impressed with Nottingham a few weeks ago. They are well-organised, play with
lots of energy and will cause any team in this league trouble. We need to build
on a decent start to the season and we want to bounce back from last weekend’s
loss in Telford so we will be ready to play.”
Also sharing his thoughts with NIHL Northern Trio,
Lions’ captain Elliot Perrin revealed:
“This weekend is going to be extremely hard for us.
It’s our first double header week since the end of the season. We have a lot of
travelling on Saturday but, that being said, we are in a better mind set to
face Solway. I know it’s going to be a tough game; every game is. They have a
lot of speed and use it well. We know what they play like and we know what we
need to do to win. Although the season has started off without a win, we can
take positives from the games we have played. We’ve played the top teams in the
league so far and I believe we’ve given them a run for the points. We need to
focus on our game and need to be able to finish games off when we’re in the driving
seat.”
Fixture:
Whitley Warriors vs. The Dragons
Date: 1st October 2017
Venue: Whitley Bay Ice Rink
Faceoff: 5:00pm
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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After facing Scott McKenzie’s Dragons in Deeside just two weeks ago, Whitley
Warriors will ready themselves for a second clash against the Welsh outfit who aim to make amends for their 11-6 home
defeat with a road win against David Longstaff’s men on Sunday. In this clash, former Dragon Shaun Kippin was able to demonstrate his offensive prowess, accomplishing four goals and three assists. Also standing out for the Warriors in this contest were captain Dean
Holland, forward Ben Richards and Canadian import Philip Edgar, all of whom
achieved a minimum of two goals each, whilst player-coach Longstaff delivered a goal and five
assists to ensure his team picked up the points after heading in at the break
with a two-goal deficit. Looking to avoid this situation at the weekend,
Longstaff will hope that his team do not fall behind and instead claim two points comfortably, but this will be highly unlikely as McKenzie continues to demand more of his
team who currently sit in eighth place after recording a lone 4-3 victory against
Solihull Barons almost three weeks ago.
Currently, The Dragons’ top points scorers are player-coach Scott McKenzie
who has three goals and six assists to his name whilst captain James Parsons
and forwards Shaun Dippnall and Geoff Wigglesworth have collectively
tallied sixteen points as they look to get their team back on track. Though
this encounter will not be an easy one for The Dragons, they will expect to contend
with the Warriors and improve on their recent performances to be in with a
chance of claiming two points to climb away from the lower positions of the
league table. By comparison, Whitley sit in fifth place with five points from
four games, having lost out on the road to defending champions Solway Sharks,
snatched a point in overtime against Blackburn Hawks and recorded a 4-1 home
win besides triumphing over the Dragons a fortnight ago. As such, both teams will head out onto
the ice with their usual determination and fortitude which will certainly make
for another interesting contest as the sides fight for the points once again.
Looking ahead to Whitley’s next home fixture,
player-coach David Longstaff shared:
“The Dragons played really well for half of the game
when we played them a couple of weeks ago and they played very well in Whitley
Bay last season so it’ll be a very close game.”
Also taking the time reflect on The Dragons’ form
this season and their upcoming road trip to Hillheads, player-coach Scott
McKenzie observed:
“It’s been a tough couple of weeks for us Dragons. Three losses in a row and we just haven’t competed well at all. Since we were 6-4 ahead against Whitley at home, we just haven’t played the way we can and it’s really disappointing. To lose the 3rd period 7-0 was horrific and our performance against the Hawks last week was very similar but I do feel like we have turned a corner a little bit last Sunday when we played Hull Pirates. I felt like I needed to be a little firmer with the players and demand a bit more. This seems to have worked and hopefully we will see the fruits of our labour this weekend. I think Whitley are a similar team to us. They have some really good players but pride themselves on their work ethic. Sunday should be a good battle and hopefully we can come out on top on this occasion.”
“It’s been a tough couple of weeks for us Dragons. Three losses in a row and we just haven’t competed well at all. Since we were 6-4 ahead against Whitley at home, we just haven’t played the way we can and it’s really disappointing. To lose the 3rd period 7-0 was horrific and our performance against the Hawks last week was very similar but I do feel like we have turned a corner a little bit last Sunday when we played Hull Pirates. I felt like I needed to be a little firmer with the players and demand a bit more. This seems to have worked and hopefully we will see the fruits of our labour this weekend. I think Whitley are a similar team to us. They have some really good players but pride themselves on their work ethic. Sunday should be a good battle and hopefully we can come out on top on this occasion.”
Fixture:
Hull Pirates vs. Solway Sharks
Date: 1st October 2017
Venue: Hull Arena
Faceoff: 5:30pm
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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Heading to Hull for the second game of their double header, Solway
Sharks will be looking to secure a four-point weekend with a win over the
former EPL outfit on Sunday, particularly as the Pirates have already lost out
in two of the four league games they have played to date; losing out at home by
seven goals to six against Solihull Barons in overtime before suffering a 6-3
defeat to Blackburn Hawks on the road almost three weeks ago. Whilst these
results clearly show that long-established NIHL teams can compete against the
Pirates, Jason Hewitt’s team were able to pick up points against Nottingham
Lions and The Dragons with respective victories of 5-3 and 9-3. Boasting a strong
roster of mostly former EPL players, Hull were further strengthened by the
signing of Bobby Chamberlain this week after the right winger joined the
Pirates from Invicta Dynamos. Having played two consecutive seasons with Milton
Keynes Lightning prior to his 2017-18 campaign, Chamberlain racked up sixty
nine points over the course of two seasons and was certainly no stranger to the
sin bin in his time with the club, notching a total of two hundred and five
penalty minutes.
Hoping they can work together to combat Hull’s creative play, Solway
will aim to work hard against the Pirates, as they did against Telford Tigers
last weekend, to keep the score line close and ultimately present themselves
with a fighting chance of victory. With neither side having faced each other
yet, the Sharks will head into the unknown against the Pirates, though they
will be aware of the difficult contest awaiting them now that NIHL North
appears entirely unpredictable given results across Division One in recent
weeks.
Taking time to consider Sunday’s opposition, Solway’s
Head Coach Martin Grubb shared:
“Hull are a good team with good depth in their
line-up and that is now even better with them bringing Bobby Chamberlain back so we
will need to be ready for them. They have a good mix of youth and experience so
we will need to be focused and execute at both ends of the ice. It will be an
emotional game for them as they pay tribute to Ricky Barker and we will
hopefully play our part in a fitting game of hockey.”
Ahead of this clash, Hull Pirates’ experienced
defenceman Chris Wilcox revealed his thoughts on the season so far and his
expectations of the game:
“We head into the weekend looking forward to meeting
last year’s champions. We have had a few up and down results in the past few
weeks but the team looks to be gelling together nicely now and we are playing
some nice hockey. Solway will bring an experienced side who will give us a good
test and we are looking forward to it. ”
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