The Warriors unbeaten start to the season is finally over, after losing 4-2 to the Solway Sharks. Not even the surprise return of Dean Holland to the Whitley line-up could help in this cross-border clash.
Dumfries Ice Bowl has been an unlucky hunting ground for the Warriors over the past decade, and Saturday was no exception. The struggling Sharks took control of the game as early as the sixth minute when Struan Tonnar fired home a scruffy goal from the visitors point of view.
Whitley looked bright from the opening face-off with David Longstaff creating panic in the home defense when he charged towards goal. But the game changed quickly at 4:14 when Ben Richards got boarded head first with a late hit, and the officials failed to call a penalty for. Richards was taken to hospital and was diagnosed with a broken collar bone, which will see him out of action for a number of weeks. That forced Whitley to make a number of line changes and didn't help a team still trying to find some chemistry.
Callum Queenan did look lively though, and straight from a face-off took off at full speed, skating almost the length of the ice, circled behind the net, where he dumped the puck for his coach Longstaff to collect and head back the same way. Lobby then picked out captain Jamie Tinsley, whose shot hit the post and flashed wide of the net.
It was a cleverly worked move but Solway then pounced with the opening goal. The Second period saw a better start by the Warriors and at 22:59 DJ Good had a great 1-on-1 chance, but with the Whitley sniper, primed to pull the trigger a Solway defenseman lunged in skates first to block the shot.
Richie Lawson had seemed distracted with the net and asked the officials to check the goal posts were on their moorings correctly, but was soon focused when stopping a Sharks breakaway with a good save from close range.
Solway doubled their lead at 24:37 when the Whitley defense switched off, allowing Marc Fowley to lift the puck over Lawson and into the back of the net. The Whitley Power Play seemed to be mis-firing and only a late blast from Harry Harley as the penalty ticked down seemed to trouble the home goalie.
Whitley showed great character, though, to battle back to tie the scores and a lot of the credit has to go to Lawson who kept his team in the game with some alert play and smart saves. That provided a platform when first Joe Stamp fired home from distance with a hard shot and then a goalie error saw Callum Watson find the net.
As the period came to a close there was a slight scare when Dean Holland was boarded by Stuart Andrews, which would have set up a power play, but Jordan Barnes, upset over the hit [Holland was returning from a serious injury] retaliated and also went for two minutes. 38 seconds into those penalties, Whitley did get another opportunity on the power play when Joe Coulter took a slashing call, setting up a 4-on-3.
The Sharks looked hungry in the final period, clearly sensing blood and Duncan Speirs showed some great stick work as he headed towards goal. He was denied on the occasion but at 47:59 Solway struck the killer blow when import defenseman Juraj Senko scored. It was a goal you could see coming with a dangerous looking home-side turning the play up a notch. Solway added an empty net goal to give the final result a slightly flattering scoreline, but the Sharks were worthy winners.
It hasn’t been the best of seasons so far for the home side, who were expected to challenge Blackburn for the title. For whatever reason it just hasn’t happened for them this year but they are a side that contains plenty of quality players and can beat anyone in this league on the day. At the end of the game you could see what this result meant to the Sharks and went some way to lifting the frustration they clearly were feeling. Ending Whitley’s unbeaten start to the season was a major scalp for Solway.
Andre Payette was forced to sit this game out due to an unfortunate suspension, and his absence was noticeable, with the team really missing his leadership out on the ice. Dan Pye was another big miss at the back, but with Dean Holland warming up the travelling fans were feeling positive. After 11 seasons since his last appearance for the Warriors, veteran enforcer Alan Yarrow also made the line up, although he didn't get any ice time.
The Blue line was stretched with only five skaters available. That saw a lot of pairings during the game.
The forward lines opened up as usual, but with Dean Holland getting a lot of ice time it meant he saw shifts at center on both the second and third lines. Ben Richards' injury was another huge blow and that forced another re-shuffle with the following line up:
25 Longstaff - 27 Tinsley - 15 Queenan
11 Kippin - 9 DJ Good - 6 Watson
18 Crammond - 14 Holland - 17 Barnes/13 Ross
Defense: 19 Maddock, 3 Stamp, 24 Harley, 21 Cooper, 71 Tomlinson
Goalies: 35 Lawson - 84 Turnbull
Opposition View
Solways third line did most of the damage with that combination grabbing the opening two goals. Former Whitley goalie Andrew Jaszczyk appeared between the pipes for the Sharks.
90 Murray - 75 Moore - 29 Cingel
91 Speirs - 8 Bowie 9 - Coulter
51 Tonnar - 34 Fowley - 14 Adams
77 Mitchell - 25 Scott
18 Senko - 6 Kerr
93 Fulton - 23 Andrews
Goalies: 30 Jaszczyk - 31 Hobbins
Quotes
David Longstaff: "Despite Solway’s difficult start to the season, they are still a very good side who are capable of beating anyone. The players they can call upon would easily be able to compete at a higher level, such as the EPL. I still thought we could have just nicked the game tonight but that would have been unfair on the Sharks.’
Stats
* Game Officials: Michael Evans (Referee), David Emmerson & Lawson Glasby (Linesmen).
* Shots on Goal: Jaszczyk [6,12,9] Total shots faced 27 Save 92.59%
Lawson [17,11,17] Total shots faced 45 Save 93.33%
Other Results
Sheffield Spartans v Solihull 3-7
Telford v Sutton 7-4
No comments:
Post a Comment