NIHL Weekend Preview

WEEKEND

PREVIEW

NIHL NORTH DIVISION 1 MORALEE CONFERENCE

Saturday 26th March 2016

Solway Sharks vs. Sutton Sting

Sunday 27th March 2016

Sheffield Senators vs. Whitley Warriors

Billingham Stars vs. Blackburn Hawks

With Blackburn Hawks crowned title winners of the Moralee Conference, and Solway Sharks defeating Telford Tigers 7-1 to claim that final, much-sought playoff place, just one week has made a great difference to NIHL North Division One. All three teams will take the ice this weekend for the final league games of their campaign; Solway are set to encounter Sutton Sting in a second consecutive double points game at the Dumfries Ice Bowl, Whitley Warriors will make the trip to Ice Sheffield to take on Andrew Chapman’s Sheffield Senators and Billingham Stars prepare for a challenging clash as Daniel MacKriel’s Hawks pay a visit to The Forum on Sunday.

Photo Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson

The pressure of securing a playoff place now lifted, Martin Grubb’s Sharks will be the first of our Northern Trio to take to the ice this weekend as the side look to bounce back from Sunday’s disappointing road trip against Blackburn Hawks with another home victory, Solway having won their last five home games since triumphing over Billingham Stars back in February. Dragging their way from eighth place, the Sharks’ progress may have been slower than expected this season but the determination of the team has been undoubtedly unshakable. When interviewed by NIHL Northern Trio in January, alternate captain Ross Murray made it clear that Solway’s aim was: “to get to the playoffs and win them,” adding, “It’s going to be hard work but that’s where we should be.” And it would seem that this hard work has paid off, the Dumfries outfit pulling together in a great performance against the Tigers last Saturday, with a hat trick from captain Struan Tonnar and goals from Murray, Duncan Speirs, Iain Bowie and Slovakian import Juraj Senko all contributing to the team’s attainment of a playoff spot.

In November, Solway Sharks triumphed in a 4-2 victory over the Sting but more recently took an equal share of the points as Grubb’s men were held to a 3-3 draw at Ice Sheffield. With Solway’s fixture against the South Yorkshire team cancelled in December, a final decision was made to play for double points, meaning Solway’s home game against the Sting on Saturday will be Sutton’s first and only visit to Dumfries this season. The stakes of this game increased, both teams will be looking to further their current points tally whilst the Sharks will also hope to finish their campaign on a high with one last league win in front of a home crowd. With Sutton always a force to be reckoned with, this game will certainly be a challenging one for the Sharks, particularly as the presence of spectacular shot stopper Dmitri Zimozdra makes scoring an incredibly difficult task for the opposition, the netminder continuing with his fabulous displays on a weekly basis to earn the admiration of the majority.

Photo Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson

Looking forward to this clash against Sutton Sting, Sharks’ Head Coach Martin Grubb noted: “Saturday sees us play our last league game of the season for double points against Sutton Sting and we are looking to sign off our league campaign with a win. We have had some close games with Sutton this season so we know it will be another tough game, and both teams like to play attacking hockey so I see it being a good game. We come into this game with confidence after making the playoffs at home last Saturday and we need to try and replicate that performance and play with the same energy, speed and skill, as we created lots of chances and managed the puck well. We talked about our unacceptable performance last Sunday and we are all determined to show that it was just a bad night for us and we can learn from that game. We know we need to go into the playoffs in good form and we can’t stop playing just because we have qualified so we’ll be looking to close our league season with a performance our supporters can be proud of. We will be using some of our younger players as more senior players rest some injuries and I am excited to see how they fit in as we have been working hard to develop them all season and Sutton are a good test to see how these kids do. Hopefully they will do well and the experienced players look after them and we get the win we want to end our league season.”

Photo Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson

The NIHL action will then resume on Sunday as Whitley Warriors make the trip to Ice Sheffield for one last contest against Sheffield Senators who are undoubtedly relegated, having failed to take a single point from twenty nine games to date. Whilst the Senators have little left to play for other than the points, Whitley will aim for victory against the ninth placed side to regain some momentum lost in recent defeats to Solihull Barons and Billingham Stars. With eight players missing from the Warriors’ bench last weekend, there will again be several absentees on Sunday for the side but enforcer Andre Payette could make his return, having served a three game ban for an accumulation of penalty minutes.  

The previous fixture between these two teams ended in a 10-1 home win for the Hillheads outfit but, on away ice, the Warriors found it more difficult to triumph over Andrew Chapman’s team; holding onto an early one goal lead for most of the game and only scoring again after the Senators equalised on 43:25 to eventually take the two points with a 6-1 win. Whilst the Senators have several goal scorers in the team, the side have found it difficult to compete this season. A standout player for the foot-of-the-table side has been powerful forward Paul Lofthouse, the enforcer-type player clashing with Solihull Barons’ Perry Doyle and David Rogers, Telford Tigers’ Joshua Hustwick and Solway Sharks’ Michael Corbett to name but a few. Using his strength to hinder Whitley’s offensive opportunities when the Senators last faced off against Longstaff’s line-up, Lofthouse is likely to play a vital role once again as the Senators look to avoid their first pointless season.

Photo Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson

Meanwhile, much credit should also be given to the Warriors this season who have risen from their second-bottom finish last season to claim second place in the Moralee Conference this campaign. Youngsters Callum Queenan, Ben Richards, Kyle Hindmarsh-Ross, Liam Smedley and Craig Johnson have all impressed, collectively accumulating fifty one points to date to earn regular ice time. Though Queenan missed out on the Tyne-Tees derby last weekend through injury along with Richards, it is hoped that they will ice for the playoffs, so influential have the Warriors’ young prospects been this season. The presence of Kyle Hindmarsh-Ross on the ice has become increasingly notable of late, the audacious forward voted man of the match against Sutton Sting in February before claiming the award in a road victory over Sheffield Spartans on the following Sunday. Playing thirty games this season, Hindmarsh-Ross remains to be influential alongside fellow juniors Smedley and Johnson who have taken to the blue line to feature greatly in Longstaff’s plans this season, and it is expected that the trio will again excel in their last league game of Warriors’ 2015-16 campaign.

Sharing his views ahead of Whitley Warriors’ last fixture of the season, David Longstaff told NIHL Northern Trio: “It’s a game where we’ll be missing players again but I would hope we’ll have enough to beat the bottom-placed team. I’ll not be dressing so we can try and work out the players we’ll be selecting for the playoff weekend.”

Photo Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson

Last to ice on Sunday will be Billingham Stars who invite Daniel MacKriel’s title winning Blackburn Hawks to The Forum for what will be their last home game of the season before the Teesiders encounter the side again in a NIHL North Cup game to be played on the first weekend of April. Though playoff qualification is now out of reach, the Stars go into this game on the back of a derby day win and will look to add to this by taking two points from the league leaders whom have yet to be beaten by Billingham this campaign. 

Whilst Blackburn Hawks’ Adam Brittle and Richard Bentham lead the way as the NIHL’s top point scorers, Billingham Stars’ Swedish import Dennis Boström could become this season’s top goal scorer should he score against the Lancashire outfit on Sunday. So far, the forward has achieved thirty three goals to match that of Solihull’s Thomas Soar but, as the Barons’ have one more fixture than Billingham to play this weekend, Boström will have to work extremely hard against the Hawks in order to achieve this feat. The pressure now removed from both teams, this clash will be an interesting one as the two go head-to-head having played each other on Teesside on the opening day of the season. Registering a 4-0 loss to the Hawks back in September, Terry Ward’s men will look to turn the tables on Blackburn as the Stars aim to avoid a painful landslide defeat such as the one suffered at Blackburn Ice Arena mid-January.

Photo Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson

Speaking to NIHL Northern Trio, Billingham’s Chris Sykes shared his thoughts ahead of this contest: “Last game of the season, just how we started it against the Hawks on home ice. We hope we can continue our league form and finish the season with a nice home win against the Hawks. We have three games left but the other two are in the cup, and me and the boys would like three wins starting off this Sunday. It will be nice to get a win in front of the awesome Billingham fans to end the season!”

For any fans hoping to make these games, Solway Sharks are set to face off against Sutton Sting from 7:00pm at the Dumfries Ice Bowl on Saturday whilst, on Sunday, Whitley Warriors will make the trip to Ice Sheffield for a 4:30pm clash against Sheffield Senators and Billingham Stars will line up against the Blackburn Hawks for a 4:30pm start at The Forum.

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