WEEKEND
PREVIEW
NIHL
NORTH DIVISION 1 MORALEE CONFERENCE
Saturday
11th February 2017
Blackburn Hawks vs. Solway Sharks
Telford Tigers vs. Billingham Stars
Sunday
12th February 2017
Billingham Stars vs. Whitley Warriors
Whilst last weekend saw
a double defeat for Billingham Stars, Solway Sharks were able to pick up two
points from their clash with the Teessiders whilst Whitley Warriors enjoyed
their own slice of glory as they stole a point from the Dumfries outfit for the
first time this season. Following these mixed results, the Northern Trio will
again aim to give their all as the Sharks head to Blackburn Ice Arena for an
NIHL North Cup encounter on Saturday whilst Billingham Stars will hope for better from
this weekend’s double header as they confront both Telford Tigers and derby rivals
Whitley Warriors.
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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First to ice on
Saturday, Solway Sharks will find themselves on the road once more as the
Dumfries outfit take a break from the Moralee Conference to add to their
present tally in the NIHL North Cup. Having already cemented their place at the
top of the standings to claim the silverware on offer in this competition, the
Sharks currently have an impressive twenty three points from nine games whereas
Steven Duncombe’s Blackburn Hawks sit ten points behind the North Cup champions
and will strive to finish second at best. Having played two cup games against
the Hawks already this season, the Sharks suffered a 5-3 home defeat against
the side in September before recording a 6-2 victory against Blackburn two months later, meaning each have gained a regulation win over the other.
Despite this, a league fixture at the beginning of December turned out very
differently and far less closely contested as Solway stormed to a 9-1 win at
the Dumfries Ice Bowl and this game will surely provide another interesting, if not unexpected, result this weekend with games against these two outfits
unpredictable to say the least. Facing former Shark Richard Bentham, who is the
only player to score for both Solway and Blackburn in the cup competition this
campaign, Martin Grubb’s men will aim to ensure that their former teammate is
on the wrong end of a regulation win whilst the Hawks will equally set out to
punish Finnish defenceman Kim Miettinen who made the switch to Solway from the
Lancashire outfit over the summer. Whilst some fans may consider that there is
little, if anything, to play for in this competition now that the silverware
has been claimed by the Sharks, this game will provide both sides with the
opportunity to ice some of their younger players, with both Solway’s Daniel
Abercrombie and Blackburn’s junior James Royds scoring in the NIHL North Cup this season;
the former with seven goals in seven games, two of which were against the
Hawks, whilst the latter has achieved two from six games, having only just
debuted in Duncombe’s line-up this season. These contests always interesting,
Head Coach Martin Grubb took time to look ahead to this clash: “We go into this cup game looking to keep our
momentum going as we know we have to play the Hawks back to back in the league.
This game gives us a chance to look at our line combinations and use some young
players and some returning players against a tough Hawks’ team. We will be
looking to make sure we have learnt a few lessons from our last few away games
and hopefully play an exciting style of hockey that gets us points.”
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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Also icing on Saturday,
Billingham Stars will make the lengthy trip to Telford Ice Rink to pay the
Tigers one last visit as the Stars look to recover from last weekend’s double
defeat to Solway Sharks and Solihull Barons with a win over the Shropshire
side. So far this season, the Stars have triumphed over Telford in all three
games they have played against each other, recording an 8-4 home victory
mid-October before playing Daniel MacKriel’s men over two consecutive weekends
which resulted in a 9-4 road success on Bonfire Night for the Teessiders
followed by a 5-1 home win. As such, Telford will be out to avenge their triple
defeat to their visitors on Saturday evening, particularly as the club remain
at the foot of the NIHL table and are just one win away from challenging Blackburn
for seventh place, though it should be remembered that the Lancashire outfit
have three games in hand on the Tigers. With such high scoring games unfolding
between these two outfits this season, Stars’ forwards Chris Sykes, Dennis
Boström and Jack Watkins have collectively scored fifteen goals against Telford
to date and will surely be searching for several more when they take on the
struggling side this weekend. Whilst it is clear that MacKriel’s team have
found this campaign a challenging one in comparison to last season, they are
certainly not out of the race to escape relegation as yet; a fact proven by a
recent draw with league leaders Solway Sharks in which the side demonstrated
their fortitude to contend with the Dumfries outfit. With goal threats Adam
Brittle, Karol Jets and Matthew Viney on hand to cause damage to the Stars’
defence on Saturday, the trio having accumulated eighty two points between them
to date, it is evident that the Tigers’ goal scoring prowess is not such a
concern for player-coach MacKriel in comparison to the side’s defensive issues
which have largely been exacerbated by
work commitments and injury woes. Unpredictable to say the least, this meeting
will certainly be one to watch this weekend, with the league too close to call
and recent results evidencing that anything is possible in the closely contested
atmosphere of the Moralee Conference. Having
missed two weekends of ice hockey due to work commitments, Star Chris Sykes
will make his return to the ice on Saturday and shared his views on the
encounter awaiting himself and his team mates: “This weekend is a time to get
back and refocus on the job in hand. We have another double header which begins with Telford who have been putting up some strange results but we know
what they are capable of so we have to be ready from the get-go on Saturday.”
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Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
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Returning
from Shropshire to their home rink on Sunday, Terry Ward’s Billingham Stars
will then prepare to host local rivals Whitley Warriors who make the short trip
to The Forum for their fifth derby game of their 2016-17 campaign. With this
game a combined league and NIHL North Cup fixture, five points are available to
the winning team, should the victor achieve a regulation cup win besides the
bragging rights which are often considered the real prize in such a clash. Whilst
David Longstaff’s men have proved impressive against the Stars on occasions
this season to record a 6-5 road victory in the NIHL North Cup, not to mention a
4-1 combined competition win on home ice following the Christmas break,
Billingham were first to claim the bragging rights this season with a 5-4 cup
win at Hillheads in October before triumphing 3-1 over the Warriors on the road
just two weeks ago. With both forwards Michael Elder and Callum Davies on the
scoresheet for Billingham, Longstaff achieved Whitley’s only goal in a game
which saw enforcer Andre Payette benched with just nineteen seconds played due
to the concession of an early penalty. However, Longstaff will be hoping for a repeat of last weekend’s
performance against Solway Sharks from his enforcer who displayed a great deal
of intensity and control to help his team draw against the league leaders.
Looking to complete a seven point weekend, the Teessiders will go into this game
with a view to triumph over their local rivals for the third time this season
in a bid to further close the growing gap between themselves and Solway Sharks.
Yet, with the Moralee Conference so competitive of late, the Warriors will not concede defeat to the second placed Stars without effort as the Hillheads
outfit strive for two important league points which would provide Longstaff’s
line-up with the opportunity to compete with Solihull Barons for third place. Always
a crucial fixture, this highly anticipated derby game is not one to miss out on
as form will once again be cast aside when the rivalry is resumed on Sunday evening.
Speaking ahead of this clash, player-coach David Longstaff told NIHL Northern
Trio: “On Sunday, we have a difficult game in Billingham but we’ve put in some
very good performances since the turn of the year so we’ll be looking to keep
it up.” Adding to his earlier comments, Sykes shared: “Sunday is another battle
of the North East teams. The boys did well a couple of weekends ago coming away
from the Wigwam with two big points. This time it’s in our barn and we want the
same result. I’m glad to be on the ice with the boys; work’s work and sometimes
it gets in the way but I’m back and ready for battle with the boys this
weekend.”
For
those fans hoping to attend one of these games over the weekend, Solway Sharks
travel to Blackburn Ice Arena where they are set to take on the Hawks in an
NIHL North Cup game from 5:45pm on Saturday. Meanwhile, Billingham Stars will
make the lengthy trip to Telford Ice Rink to face off against Daniel MacKriel’s
Tigers from 5:30pm on Saturday before returning to The Forum on Sunday for a
combined cup and league fixture against local rivals Whitley Warriors at
6:30pm. Can’t
make it to a game? Fear not! Please find NIHL’s radio listings below.
NIHL
Radio Listings
Saturday
11th February
5:45pm
on NIHL Radio 1
Blackburn
Hawks vs. Solway Sharks
Sunday
12th February
5:45pm
on NIHL Radio 1
The
Dragons vs. Telford Tigers
5:45pm
on NIHL Radio 2
Blackburn
Hawks vs. Sutton Sting
6:30pm
on NIHL Radio 3
Billingham
Stars vs. Whitley Warriors
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