WEEKEND
PREVIEW
NIHL
NORTH DIVISION 1 (MORALEE)
Saturday 25th November 2017
Whitley
Warriors vs. The Dragons
Solway
Sharks vs. Nottingham
Lions
Sunday
26th November 2017
Telford Tigers vs. Whitley Warriors
Blackburn
Hawks vs. Solway Sharks (National Cup)
Fixture:
Whitley Warriors vs. The Dragons
Date: 25th November 2017
Venue: Whitley Bay Ice Rink
Faceoff: 5:00pm
 |
Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
|
Preparing
to take to the ice in front of a home crowd on Saturday evening for their third
contest against The Dragons, Whitley Warriors will be aiming for no less than a
victory, having lost their last four league games after suffering an overtime loss to
Hull Pirates before conceding defeats to Nottingham Lions, Solihull Barons and
Sheffield Steeldogs. So far, Whitley have already won both at home and on the road to the Welsh outfit this
season, the Warriors first triumphing in an 11-6 victory at Deeside Leisure
Centre in September before winning by six goals to three at Hillheads in
October. As such, David Longstaff’s men will target another win over this weekend’s opposition as
they look to recover from their recent form.
Often achieving in front
of goal against his former club, Warriors’ alternate captain Shaun Kippin has
so far tallied four goals and five assists across these two encounters and
finds himself one of Whitley’s highest points scorers at present with a total of
twenty points from eleven league games. Hoping to replicate his recent
successes against the Deeside outfit, Kippin will join the Warriors in their
quest for victory, although it will be important for the side to avoid
complacency with each fixture proving difficult this season, evidenced just two
weeks ago in their 3-2 loss to the Lions. Facing the Warriors after their
short-benched side conceded twenty goals against Hull Pirates last weekend, The
Dragons will aim to break their twelve-game losing streak on Saturday with a
win over Longstaff’s line-up, meaning Whitley’s Welsh visitors will
certainly pose a threat when they make the trip to Hillheads on Saturday, this game no
doubt proving to be another entertaining clash between two hardworking teams.
Considering this fixture, Dragon Geoff Wigglesworth looked ahead to his team’s latest challenge:
“The Dragons are facing another massive test this
weekend against Whitley. They are great; they are tough, they work hard, play hard and are very
physical. We have to try to match them in every department and just take it
shift for shift. The previous game was close so let’s hope we can cope with
their pressure early on and capitalise on the rush. We will try to win and not
roll over and let all these teams collect points off us. We want to win as much
as any team in the league.”
Fixture:
Solway Sharks vs. Nottingham Lions
Date: 25th November 2017
Venue: Dumfries Ice Bowl
Faceoff: 7:00pm
 |
Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
|
Playing host to Nottingham Lions on Saturday evening, Solway Sharks
will take to the ice against Matt Bradbury’s team for one last time this
season, after triumphing over the side thrice already. Confronted by the Lions’
determined defence on the road mid-September, the Sharks were made to work for
the points as Nottingham forced Solway to battle back from a two-goal deficit,
the Dumfries outfit eventually claiming a 5-3 win on the final buzzer. Just two
weeks after this success, Martin Grubb’s men then accomplished a 6-2 home win
against the Lions in which Czech forward Ondrej Pniok and young forward Cameron
Pywell were both on the scoresheet for the visitors. These results were
followed up by a more recent landslide road victory for Solway as the Sharks
hit nine past netminder Thomas Hovell to dominate at the National Ice Centre, with left winger Steven Moore in fine form as he bagged himself a hat trick and an
assist to prove problematic for the home team. Setting out to avoid a defeat of
this nature, Nottingham will aim for a similar standard as that which they
demonstrated in their first encounter against Solway, the Lions previously
showing resilience and strength in defence to break down the Sharks’ attacking
play. Having recorded victories against both Solihull Barons and Whitley
Warriors this season, Nottingham know that their perseverance will pay off
if they maintain their challenging style of play to sufficiently test their
opposition. Showing that they are capable of competing with some of the best
teams in the league and in need of at least two points to go ahead of
Billingham Stars this weekend, the Lions will be aiming for no less than a win, though they are faced with a tricky double header on the road; the
side set to face The Dragons following their trip to Dumfries. As a result,
both teams will be more than up for this contest as they look to build on their
current league positions at either end of the table to no doubt make for
another interesting watch.
Looking forward to this fixture, Sharks’ Head Coach
Martin Grubb revealed:
“The last home game against the Lions was a tough
game and we only made it a little more comfortable in the third as they tired
so we will need to be ready to battle. We played well in Nottingham a few
weeks’ ago so we need to try and play in a similar way and make sure we can
dominate the puck and play in all three zones. The Lions have a lot of travel
this weekend so we need to jump on them and play at a high tempo as we look for
the two points.”
Fixture:
Blackburn Hawks vs. Solway Sharks
Date: 26th November 2017
Venue: Blackburn Ice Arena
Faceoff: 5:45pm
 |
Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
|
Following
their home game against Nottingham Lions, Solway Sharks will then hit the road
to face Blackburn Hawks in their latest cup fixture as the two now go
head-to-head to fight for the top spot. With this game one of the two cup
fixtures remaining between the sides, Sunday’s game will be hugely important
for both outfits, particularly as Martin Grubb’s men sit in first place with
ten points from six games whilst Steven Duncombe’s team peer over the Sharks’
shoulder with six points having played the same amount of fixtures. This means that Solway can
clinch top spot should they defeat the Hawks on the road this weekend but failure
to do so would instead cause the winner of Group A to be decided in one last
cup game between these rivals next Saturday, though both have now qualified for the next stage of the competition. So far, both
teams have one win over the other, the Sharks first claiming maximum points on home ice in
the opening game of their season before losing out to Blackburn in a 4-2 road
defeat early last month. Doing particularly well for the Dumfries outfit in
their opening cup game against Blackburn were forward Iain Bowie, whose
excellent form at the start of the season saw him achieve four goals and two
assists, and alternate captain Ross Murray who accomplished a goal and four assists alongside his line mate whilst Hawks Aaron
Davies and Jozef Ištocy scored in both fixtures. With the rivals hoping for more of
the same having so far contended to a high standard in the cup contest to be
in with a chance of top spot, neither will want to fall at the final hurdle to make this game another incredibly competitive one.
Kindly adding to his earlier comments, Head Coach
Martin Grubb observed:
“Blackburn
is always a difficult place to play and they are playing really well this
season. We lost the last time we played there and I wasn’t too happy with our
performance so we need to improve on that and play for sixty minutes. Both
teams have qualified for the next stage of the cup so it’s top spot up for
grabs and I’m sure both teams will want to grab it so it will be a tight game.”
Speaking ahead of this clash, Blackburn’s experienced
forward Aaron Davies shared his views ahead of the Hawks’ encounter
with Solway:
“The
game is going to be tough. Solway are a well-drilled team. You cannot
underestimate a ‘Grubby’ team. They have a good core set of players which turn up to play week in, week out. Our
form the last few games hasn’t been Hawks’ hockey but we can’t dwell on our past
performances. We need to go into the game, play our game, and we know that we
have the players. Duncs [player-coach Steven Duncombe] knows what it takes for
us to get back to winning ways and this cup game is a good start for us. Traps
[netminder Niks Trapans] and Stu [Ashton] have been playing amazing for us in
goal. Lewis [Baldwin] and a few others are always consistent so we just need to
go into this game, not worry about past performances and play how Duncs sets us
up and be sure we can get the win needed. ”
Fixture:
Telford Tigers vs. Whitley Warriors
Date: 26th November 2017
Venue: Telford Ice Rink
Faceoff: 6:00pm
 |
Photo
Credit: IceHockeyMedia - Colin Lawson
|
Having hosted Telford Tigers at Hillheads over a month ago, Whitley
Warriors will make the lengthy trip to Shropshire on Sunday to take on Tom
Watkins’ well-drilled outfit in what will be another extremely difficult game
for David Longstaff’s men. Playing with a strong squad in front of a home crowd
against the former EPL outfit last month, Whitley shocked Telford with their
intensity to take a two-goal lead courtesy of returnee Ryan Sample before
finding themselves punished on the penalty kill to eventually lose out by six
goals to three. Consequently, maintaining discipline will be essential for the
visitors this weekend as the Warriors know that any power play gained by the
Tigers will certainly be converted at the earliest opportunity; Telford claimed three power play goals against Whitley through forward Adam Taylor and player-coach Tom Watkins. Striving
for maximum points this weekend, Telford will continue to set their sights on
top spot following their recent displacement to Sheffield Steeldogs who now sit
three points ahead of Watkins’ men after last weekend’s 5-2 success against the
Warriors. Whitley, meanwhile, will equally be hopeful that they can contend
with their opposition as they look to better their league position to move away
from seventh place besides improving on their recent form, having lost out in
their last four league games. Whilst the Warriors will aim to give this game
their all to avoid losing out on the points, the outfit are more than aware of
the challenges this game poses and will therefore be realistic in their
objective to put in a good performance on the night.
Speaking ahead of this fixture,
player-coach David Longstaff shared:
“Our main game this weekend is Saturday against The
Dragons, a must-win game for us because we’ll be travelling to Telford minus
eight players so it’s going to be very difficult for us to get anything from
the Sunday game.”
Looking forward to this encounter,
Telford Tigers’ experienced forward Scott McKenzie took time to consider
his recent move to the club:
“Being back in Telford is great. It’s been like coming
home to an extent. I am so comfortable in the environment and know how
professional the club is. From going from player-coach to just a player has
certainly given me a bit of a boost. Instead of thinking about twenty guys, I
can purely focus on myself so that has certainly taken a lot of pressure off
me. Whitley will be tough on Sunday. They are a team that work very hard and
have some dangerous players so we will need to work just as hard and make sure we
are switched on from the start.”
For those fans who
wish to contribute to Ross Murray’s fundraising campaign, please follow the
link: https://mobro.co/rossmurray90.
No comments:
Post a Comment