WEEKEND
PREVIEW
NIHL
NORTH DIVISION 1 MORALEE CONFERENCE
Saturday
4th February 2017
Solway Sharks vs. Billingham Stars
Sunday
5th February 2017
Whitley Warriors vs. Solway Sharks
Billingham Stars vs. Solihull Barons
Following
an eventful weekend in the Moralee Conference which saw Solway Sharks held to the first draw of their 2016-17 campaign and a derby victory for Billingham Stars
over local rivals Whitley Warriors, the Northern Trio return to the ice this weekend
for another jam-packed schedule. Whilst the Dumfries outfit will play host to the Stars before heading off to Hillheads for a meeting with David Longstaff’s Whitley Warriors on Sunday, the Teessiders are set for a clash
with Perry Doyle’s strenuous Solihull Barons.
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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Playing
host to Billingham Stars on Saturday evening for a fourth time in all
competitions this season, Solway Sharks will ready themselves for a
particularly challenging contest against the Teessiders who are the only side
to record a league victory over the Dumfries outfit so far this campaign. Whilst
Martin Grubb’s men were able to win 3-1 against the Stars in their first game
of the season, their most recent league game against Billingham ended in a 3-2
defeat for the side at The Forum; a great achievement for the Stars who battled
to accomplish a hard fought win which brought the Sharks’ faultless form in the Moralee Conference to an end. In
their last league encounter against the Stars, Solway only just outshot their
opposition who were able to take the lead through Swedish import Daniel
Palmebjörk. Pulling two goals back to go ahead in the game, the Sharks then found
themselves on the wrong end of two third period goals from import Dennis Boström. With this their only defeat in the competition, Solway will set out to avenge their
loss against their visitors on Saturday as they aim to counter Billingham’s Swedish
influence with the firepower of forwards Struan Tonnar, Jordan Buesa, Joe
Coulter and Steven Moore besides Finnish defenceman Kim Miettinen, skilled
Slovakian import Juraj Senko and the experienced James Hutchinson to name but a
few. The Stars, on the other hand, will again play without goal scoring forward
Chris Sykes as well as Jack Davies who
announced his decision to quit ice hockey this week due to personal reasons but the side will hope to start with outstanding netminder James Flavell whose exceptional
performance on Sunday allowed the Teessiders to leave Hillheads with maximum
points. Buoyed by this victory over their local rivals, the Stars will head
into their clash against Solway with confidence and little to lose as they
look to narrow the margins between themselves and top spot. Sitting in second place with twenty four points from seventeen
games, Terry Ward’s men are currently nine points behind the league leaders and
will look to edge closer to poll position, though this will be no mean feat
as the Sharks have made for difficult opposition this season and will not give
up the chances of victory easily, meaning the Stars will have to work
incredibly hard once more if they are to record a road win against Solway this
weekend. Speaking to NIHL Northern Trio, Solway’s Head Coach Martin Grubb took
the time to comment ahead of this significant fixture: “We expect that this has
the potential to be the biggest game of our season so far as the top two teams
clash and we need to be ready to play. We know that it’s going to be about
executing our game plan, ensuring we are good at both ends of the ice and we
will need to take our chances. We come into the game on the back of a decent
road trip so it will be about building on that and purely looking at ourselves
to ensure we do whatever we can to take the points.” Also sharing his views, Star Jack Watkins
stated: “Solway away is a rink we have struggled in this season. They are a
well-coached team and come to win every game. It will be a tough game. Our
power play was on form against the Warriors and it’s going to take that again
on Saturday for us to take points from the Sharks. Five on five, they are great
defensively so we need to take advantage of every power play.”
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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Following
this encounter, Solway Sharks will then travel to Whitley Bay Ice Rink to take
on David Longstaff’s Warriors who will be searching for a victory, having lost
out in the Tyne Tees derby last weekend. Playing combined cup and league
fixtures against Solway Sharks this season due to restricted ice time, Whitley
Warriors have only hosted the Dumfries outfit once so far this season, finding
themselves on the wrong end of a 9-2 home defeat in their first game of their
2016-17 campaign. With captain Dean Holland and long-serving forward DJ Good
the only players to get on the scoresheet for the Warriors in this game,
Longstaff’s line-up have since improved their performances in their most recent
encounters with Solway, though they have yet to take a single
point from the league leaders this season. Whilst Whitley will set out to
record their first victory against the Sharks in front of a home crowd on
Sunday, Martin Grubb’s men will be hoping that they are in a position to
complete a four point weekend against the Warriors but this feat will, of
course, depend on the side’s result against Billingham Stars on Saturday
evening. Triumphing over Whitley in the three league games they have played to
date, two of which were combined cup and league fixtures, the Sharks achieved a
6-3 victory over the Warriors at the end of October before accomplishing a 5-3
league win at the Ice Bowl last month. Dominating in both competitions, Solway
appear unstoppable at present and this was evidenced by a recent cup win
against the Warriors in which they triumphed by six goals to three to take
maximum points from their regulation win. As games between these two clubs are often
feisty affairs, the two sides have collectively racked up one hundred penalty
minutes in all competitions, with Warrior Jordan Barnes and Shark Ross Murray
dropping the gloves twice in one game already this season whilst the former
also clashed with Solway’s defencemen Stuart Andrews and Darren Stattersfield
in their most recent game against Grubb’s men. As a result, this game is sure
to be an entertaining one, particularly as the Warriors require two points to ensure
that they stay ahead of their competition in the coming weeks. Just three
points ahead of The Dragons, Whitley will be hoping to extend the gap between
fourth and fifth now that the race for the highest possible league position is
so tight. Whilst a victory against the Sharks will be an excellent achievement,
Warriors’ player-coach David Longstaff recognises the difficulty associated
with this fixture: “It will be a very tough game as Solway have only lost one
game all year and we’ll be missing three or four senior players. If we can
create as many chances as last Sunday, we can hopefully score a few and we’ll
need to be solid defensively as there is no chance we can limit Solway’s
offensive chances like we did with Billingham.” Meanwhile, Sharks’ Head Coach
Martin Grubb added: “Whitley is a difficult place to go to and the Warriors are
a good team who will want to get back to winning after losing the derby last
week. They are fighting for a playoff spot so we know we need to match their
competitiveness and intensity levels and ensure we stick to what makes us
successful to have a chance to win and we will be ready to try and do that.”
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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Also
playing on Sunday, Billingham Stars will prepare to face Solihull Barons for
the second time this season, having first encountered the team in their 2016-17
campaign just three weeks ago; the Teessiders suffering a 7-5 defeat on the
road. Taking the lead in this clash before quickly adding a second, the Stars
were able to make an excellent start to this game but, with the Barons pulling
a goal back before the break, it was the home team who went on to shine as the side
stunned Billingham with another three goals before the visitors could find
themselves on the scoresheet once again. Unwilling to give up on the contest,
the Stars found the back of the net just before the break and
punctuated Solihull’s successful offensive work with goals of their own but,
despite their best efforts, the points remained out of Billingham’s reach to
see Terry Ward’s men endure a crushing defeat. Bouncing back in recent games
against Sutton Sting and local rivals Whitley Warriors, the Stars can take a
great deal of momentum into this game which will be further enhanced should
they triumph over Solway Sharks on Saturday. This game could certainly prove to
be a challenge however, as the Barons remain strong across all areas of the
ice, balancing skill with grit, youth with experience and consistency with
flair. Situated in third place in the Moralee Conference at present, Solihull
are just six points off second place but just one point ahead of Whitley
Warriors having played the same amount of games as the Hillheads outfit. In
consequence, Perry Doyle’s well-drilled team will aim for no less than maximum
points from this road trip but will equally be aware of the Stars’ desire to
keep them at bay with the risk that Billingham could be displaced from their current
league position should Solihull perform far better than they have in recent
weeks. Looking forward to this encounter, Watkins
added: “Sunday against Solihull will be another tough game for us. We haven’t
beaten them yet this season and they are slowly catching us up on points. It’s
a must win for us against the Barons this weekend.”
For
those fans hoping to attend one of these games over the weekend, Solway Sharks
host Billingham Stars from 7:00pm at the Dumfries Ice Bowl on Saturday before
travelling to Hillheads for a 5:00pm faceoff against Whitley Warriors on
Sunday. Meanwhile, Billingham will return to The Forum on Sunday to take on the
third-placed Solihull Barons from 6:30pm. Can’t make it to a game? Fear not! Please find NIHL’s radio listings
below.
NIHL
Radio Listings
Saturday
4th February
12:15pm
on NIHL Radio 1
Sutton
Sting vs. Solihull Barons
Sunday
5th February
4:15pm
on NIHL Radio 1
Sutton
Sting vs. Blackburn Hawks
5:00pm
on NIHL Radio 2
Whitley
Warriors vs. Solway Sharks
6:30pm
on NIHL Radio 3
Billingham
Stars vs. Solihull Barons
For more photos from IceHockeyMedia, please visit: http://www.icehockeymedia.co.uk/.
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