I was fortunate enough to be co-commentating on the game alongside seasoned-pro Howard Thornton [a Hawks fan], and what a game to be able to have for your first time.
Blackburn made much of the early running, but it was the Warriors that silenced the home crowd at 5:40 of the opening period. DJ Good set up his Captain Jamie Tinsley, with a goal that came against the run of play. It came as no real surprise when the Hawks tied the game less than three minutes later. The home side had gone close a couple of times, when looking to catch the Warriors on a line-change.
A team is at its most vulnerable during those situations, and it would prove third time lucky for the Hawks when Matt Viney slid the puck underneath Richie Lawson’s body after a good feed from Richard Bentham. Lawson had got down well and thought he had done enough to stop the puck short of the line, but the momentum from the shot was enough to carry it over and even the scores.
At that stage there seemed an inevitability about the Hawks going on to win the game at a canter but the Warriors proved they had far too much resilience to allow that to happen. Just 70 seconds had elapsed from Blackburn’s leveller when the Warriors re-gained the lead. Callum Queenan’s pace saw him break through the Hawks defense, but his initial shot was pushed wide by a smart save from Danny Brittle. The puck then re-cycled it’s way around to David Longstaff who drew Brittle towards him, before expertly laying the puck back for Queenan who was waiting at the back post and had an empty net to tap into.
There was some pantomime at the beginning of the game with both Alan ‘Rocket’ Yarrow and Andre ‘Big Dog’ Payette asking Reece Cairney-Witter if he wanted to go. During the opening period Cairney-Witter looked like he was about to go with Andre as both went to drop the gloves but the Hawk’s enforcer backed out of it in the hope he could sucker Andre into taking a penalty for dropping the gloves. Cairney-Witter has done that on more than one occasion this season and cleverly has got a Warrior or two to fall for his trick. At 13:40 he tried the same thing with Jordan Barnes, but referee Steve Brown had clearly had enough of his antics and was going to give him a misconduct penalty, so Cairney-Witter thought better of it and eventually dropped the gloves. Jordan got the better of the opening exchanges with Reece coming on strong towards the end. All-in-all it was a fair and pretty even fight, but as the pair skated away Jordan jokingly made a belt sign across him [Just like Tie Domi did with Bob Probert in 1992]. Cairney-Witter sportingly acknowledged Jordan as the pair went to the box.
With the pantomime out of the way, both teams could concentrate on playing hockey. Whitley were now in the ascendency and Blackburn looked a team out-classed for the first time in two years. Whitley grabbed their third goal with less than two minutes before the break, when Martin Crammond bagged his fourth of the season following good work from Callum Watson and Andre Payette.
During the first intermission the main talk was about whether, Whitley were that good or had they just caught the Hawks on a rare off night? The Warriors hadn’t seen any on-ice action since the last time these two sides met on December 20, while the Hawks had been regularly picking up wins during that time over Solihull, Sutton and Sheffield Spartans. Would the fact Blackburn were that much sharper and Whitley that much rustier tell as the game wore on? Or would the fact Whitley were more-rested, play to their advantage? In the end it was probably a bit of both. Whitley started so strong due to having the fresher legs, but Blackburn’s revival owed much to the fact they were the sharper and fitter team as the game wore on. Indeed some Hawks fans felt Whitley could have been taking a 5-1 lead with them into the dressing room as the Hawks allowed Whitley several goal-scoring opportunities, while others felt a tied game was more appropriate as the Hawks had missed theirs. Either way that just shows what type of game it had been in the opening twenty minutes, with Whitley taking more of their chances than the Hawks had of their own.
Blackburn came out for the second period re-focussed and pulled a goal back just after the mid-point of the game. Adam Brittle is a very talented player and he show-cased some of that skill during a great individual performance. For the goal, he was able to control the puck while he slalomed his way past much of the Whitley team at center ice before picking out Richard Bentham to make it a one-goal game.
At this stage Blackburn probably felt they should have been heading into the final period with the game tied, but they would only need 2:59 of the third period to do so. Bentham once again was the main architect, as he had a hand in all three of his teams goals up to that point. On this occasion he found Tom King who levelled the scores.
Once again most inside the building probably would have feared for Whitley at this stage, but they were battling hard and in Richie Lawson [quite possibly the best goalie in the league right now] had someone who was pulling off saves he had no right to. As the period wore on it appeared as though a draw would have been the most likely out-come and probably the fairest result, so long as Whitley didn’t have to face any powerplays. With just under four minutes of the game remaining, and 6 seconds left on a Adam Reynold’s penalty, Richie Lawson made a great double save, kicking out the first shot that came his way before grabbing the follow up out of mid-air, at full-stretch, preventing the puck from going top shelf. However his hard work was un-done as right from the face off Rjay Berra caught the Warriors asleep and fired straight in to win the game for the Hawks and complete what was a hard-worked victory.
Teams News
Adam Reynolds made his seasonal debut after announcing his return to the team. The tall Winger had opted to take some time away from the game after a serious ankle injury had taken longer to recover than he had hoped. Having Reynolds allowed Lobby to ice four lines for only the second time this season. Reynolds started the game on the Fourth line with Kyle Ross and Liam Smedley but as the game wore on Lobby mixed his lines up, and Reynolds seemed to find a good fit with Martin Crammond on the Third Line. Young Smedley started the game at forward but soon switched back to the blue line, partnering Andre Payette on the Third Pairing.
25 Longstaff - 11 Kippin - 15 Queenan
27 Tinsley - 9 DJ Good - 14 Holland
17 Barnes - 18 Crammond - 6 Watson
4 Reynolds - 13 Ross - 8 Smedley
22 Yarrow
38 Pye - 19 Maddock
24 Harley - 3 Stamp
7 Payette - 21 Cooper
23 Pritchard
35 Lawson – 84 Turnbull
Opposition View
Blackburn named a strong line up too, with Four forwards lines also available to them. Adam Brittle, Lee Pollitt and Rjay Berra were once again the top line with Jordan Bannon, Richard Bentham and Ben Simister on the second. Bentham had a great game and probably should have been his side’s MVP, given the fact he had three points from the game. The Hawks Third line has caused the Warriors no end of problems this season and once again Tom King and Matt Viney were amongst the goals. Aaron Davies who is the third member of that trio had bagged some important goals himself over the first two encounters between the sides. David Meikle saw some action towards the end of the game, but Daniel MacKriel and James Riddoch didn’t leave the bench. Chris Arnone spent much of the game partnering Chris Butler, while Finnish Defenseman Kim Miettinen lined up with Max Drakeley. Reece Cairney-Witter saw some decent ice time too while Andy Dunn was also named.
26 A.Brittle - 70 Pollitt - 96 Berra
11 Bannon - 91 Bentham - 67 Simister
23 King - 5 Viney - 8 Dvaies
15 Meikle - 19 MacKriel - 28 Riddoch
22 Arnone - 3 Butler
47 Miettinen - 44 Drakeley
18 Cairney-Witter - 13 Dunn
25 D.Brittle – 31 Ashton
Notes
* Whitley can probably count themselves unlucky not to have hung-on for at least a point, but it’s not often they have had to contend with teams as clinical as the Hawks. The four game series between both sides has had a little bit of everything, with the quality of the hockey getting better all the time as each team pushes the other on to perform even greater.
* Come season’s end the record books will say Whitley won once, Blackburn won twice with the other game tied, however the biggest statistic should be the fact both teams scored the same number of goals during those games, proving there really was nothing separating them.
* With this victory Blackburn have all but guaranteed themselves the league championship, they hold a Nine point lead now over the Warriors, and despite having a game in hand, Whitley would need to rely on the Hawks slipping up four times over their remaining twelve games, something which isn’t remotely possible.
* The league title may have gone but that means Whitley just need to concentrate now on finishing their season second in the table, an achievement that most probably didn’t even think was possible at the start of the campaign. Such has been the influence David Longstaff has had on the team, a runners-up spot is more that possible.
* The next time these two sides can meet would be at the playoff weekend in Sheffield, and what an exciting prospect that would be.
Other Results
Sunday, December 27
Solihull v Blackburn 2-5
Saturday, January 2
Sutton v Solihull 3-4
Sunday, January 3
Blackburn v Sutton 13-1
Billingham v Solihull 5-3
Telford v Sheffield Spartans 3-3
Saturday, January 9
Sheffield Spartans v Blackburn 2-15
Telford v Sutton 4-2
Solway v Sheffield Senators - Postponed
Sunday, January 10
Sutton v Telford 4-2
Solihull v Billingham 4-6
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