ENL - Whitley Warriors @ Blackburn Hawks 4-5 - Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Whitley Warriors visited the home of the reigning  champions, Blackburn Hawks, for Game 2 of a four game series between the sides and despite losing a nine goal thriller, skated away feeling like they had just won. It would prove to be another great advert for English hockey with the league’s top two sides going toe-to-toe and come the final buzzer were only separated by a single goal.

Whitley started brightly and took the game to their hosts, but Blackburn were looking dangerous as ever, and with barely four minutes on the clock Jordan Bannon hit the cross bar with a hard shot. That should have served as a warning, as sure enough the Hawks got their break-through at 8:45 of the first period. Hawks Captain Chris Arnone, who had a great game, advanced forward from defense, picking out Lee Pollitt, who in turn slotted home much to his captain’s delight. Arnone celebrating wildly in front of the Whitley fans. Blackburn very nearly doubled their lead moments later but Ben Simister, was unable to collect a pass.

A lot of talk had come from Hawks new signing Reece Cairney-Witter over the past couple of weeks, along with some cheap hits dealt out by the big defenseman too. Andre Payette had asked him to drop the gloves a few times in last week’s game but was turned down on each occasion and the same pattern was emerging here. Whitley were growing tired of his antics and so put both Payette and veteran enforcer, Alan Yarrow on the ice for one face-off. Rocket politely reminded Cairney-Witter of his place and clearly wanted to fight him, but once again the former Bradford player refused to oblige. Both received 10 minute misconduct penalties for their troubles.

That should have been the catalyst to fire Whitley into action, but instead gave Blackburn the momentum, as they went in search of a second goal. With the Hawks on the powerplay, Matt Viney fired a powerful shot at Richie Lawson in the Warriors goal, and with a Blackburn player waiting to fire in the rebound, Dan Pye was on hand to support his goalie by clearing the danger. RJ Berra then advanced towards goal, skating past three Whitley players, but fired high and wide.

Blackburn did finally get their second goal at 16:11. Whitley were stretched at the back, with some enterprising play from the Hawks setting up Bannon to tap home into an almost empty net. Whitley then gave up a cheap penalty for having too many men on the ice, and it would prove to be their un-doing. Within a minute the Hawks had increased their lead to three with Richard Bentham finding the net after Aaron Davies picked him out, and moments later it could have been four, when a poor turnover saw Blackburn in again but Lawson made a good save to keep his side in the game. Blackburn were dangerous on the puck, scoring at will, and looking every inch like champions. Whitley were falling apart and the first intermission couldn’t have come at a better time.

Whitley started the second period a much different team and clawed a goal back 77 seconds into it. Callum Watson was credited with the goal, but it was the normally reliable Arnone, who put into his own net after being pressured by DJ Good. With both Arnone and Danny Brittle in the Hawks goal frozen to the spot, neither could do anything about the puck banking in off the Hawks captain and deceiving the goaltender.

Blackburn went looking for an instant response and could have got a three goal lead back within seconds of conceding, but their shot stopped itself on the post close to the goal line without actually crossing it. The Arena thought it was in with music blasting out to celebrate, but the officials were quick to correctly rule it out.

Whitley then stepped it up again with some great moves. First Jamie Tinsley picked out DJ Good from behind the net with a great play and then the latter started Whitley’s move of the game with a series of great interchanging passes between himself, Callum Watson and Dean Holland.

Holland was playing well, despite still trying to re-gain fitness following a long-term injury, but had a scare when caught on the knee mid-ice by Adam Brittle. As the Whitley Forward dropped to the ice in pain, the Blackburn fans decided to unsportingly boo him. Thankfully he was able to continue.

Whitley had worked hard to get some sort of a foot hold in the game but the penalties given away were starting to cost them dear. They did have a chance whilst playing shorthanded, when Callum Queenan got a breakaway, but fired a hard shot over Brittle and the goal. Quick as a flash though, Blackburn made it 4-1 when RJ Berra netted with the man advantage, Arnone getting another assist on the play. That goal looked to be a fatal blow, but once again Whitley went back on the attack. Dean Holland unleashing a fierce drive from the Right Wing which just flew over.

Before the period was over there was time for some more handbags. Chris Butler charged Callum Queenan into the boards with a late hard hit, provoking Shaun Kippin into dropping the gloves with the Hawks defenseman. Both received 2+2 in penalties.

If the first period undoubtedly belonged to the Hawks, and the second was pretty much even, Whitley owned the third with some hard work and quality that restored their pride heading into Game 3 back at Hillheads this weekend. Callum Queenan chased hard and was able to re-direct the puck, for Jamie Tinsley to collect the rebound, but with Brittle scrambling across his crease the Whitley captain’s shot was smothered.

For much of the final period the game seemed well under-control for the Hawks but at 52:44 it suddenly sparked back into life. Player-coach David Longstaff tapped home at the back post to reduce the arrears and increased his goal tally in the series to four over the two games. But 33 seconds later Cairney-Witter deflected Kippin’s shot, inadvertently setting Chris Arnone on a breakaway, and restoring the Hawks three goal lead. That proved to be the match that lit the powder keg for Whitley’s Andre Payette. The Canadian defenseman had finally had enough of Cairney-Witter and the whole pantomime this sub-plot was turning into.

With his helmet and gloves off Payette landed a couple of jabs to Cairney-Witter before the Hawks player wrestled himself to the ice to prevent the beating he was about to receive. With numerous comments that Cairney-Witter has made over the last few weeks about ‘fighting Payette any time, any place’ it just proves he is a bluffer who looks to his coach all the time to see what he should do. He produces so much hot air, he could inflate a Richard Branson balloon across the globe, the lad is an embarrassment to himself, his team and the entire game of hockey and serves no purpose for his team, he can't skate [he even tripped over the puck at one point] and certainly can't fight.

Despite it not being the greatest fight in the world, it did switch the momentum of the game, silencing their crowd and the Hawks players starting to deflate.

At 56:11 Callum Watson made things look very interesting when he stole the puck off Chris Arnone, and swiftly played the puck out to the fast skating DJ Good. The Whitley play-maker then deked Brittle in the Hawks goal, confusing him and brought the game back within Whitley’s reach. Less than two minutes later Jamie Tinsley made it game-on, scoring a great solo goal. The puck looked to be getting away from him at mid-ice, but he was able to re-gather and skated towards goal. The Whitley Captain fired over Brittle, who was like an ant on acid twitching away in his crease as he tried to work out which way Tinsley was going to shoot, to make this a one-goal game.

Whitley pushed for a leveller, in the closing seconds, with David Longstaff finding Callum Watson, but the Whitley sniper couldn’t get his shot away. With 40 seconds remaining the Warriors pulled back-up goalie Mark Turnbull, who had replaced starter Richie Lawson after Blackburn’s fifth goal, but they were unable to find a way past Brittle. The Hawks did have a chance to grab an empty net goal at the end, but a long distance shot came to a standstill at the foot of the post and that was that.

Blackburn just edged this game in the end but were simply scintillating at times, with Whitley unable to live with them and their style of play. Danny Brittle pulled off two world class saves which stopped near-certain goals and, but for those two Hawks power play goals mid-way through the game, there might well have been a different result. Whitley were losing by three goals, on three separate occasions during the game [0-3, 1-4 and 2-5] yet they found a way to get back into it. Blackburn looked shocked towards the end and surely must go down as their toughest and closest win on home ice in years. Whitley may have lost the result but they left Blackburn Arena feeling somehow, like they had just won. Game three of the series faces off on Sunday, before we head into the Christmas break, and I am sure both sets of fans and players can’t wait. Andre is willing to fight Cairney-Witter at the first puck-drop in Game 3, but will the Hawk's defenseman be man enough to face him?

Team Line-Up

Whitley kept the same top line as last weekend with Shaun Kippin at Center. Although Jamie Tinsley did have some shifts back there too, he started the game with DJ Good and Callum Watson, and that trio looked dangerous in the third period. Dean Holland and Kyle Ross took turns on the Left Wing alongside Martin Crammond and Jordan Barnes. The defensive pairings were unchanged although Liam Smedley did get some shifts back there too. Alan Yarrow had a shift to chat too Cairner-Witter, while Jordan Boyle was a healthy scratch with Mark Turnbull backing up Richie Lawson in goal. Turnbull entered the game after Blackburn's fifth goal.

 

25 Longstaff – 11 Kippin – 15 Queenan

27 Tinsley – 9 DJ Good – 6 Watson

14 Holland/13 Ross – 18 Crammond – 17 Barnes

5 Yarrow

 

38 Pye – 19 Maddock

3 Stamp – 24 Harley

7 Payette – 21 Cooper

8 Smedley, 23 Pritchard

 

35 Lawson – 84 Turnbull

 

Opposition View

Blackburn changed their lines from the side that faced-off at Hillheads last week. Lee Pollitt centered the top line between Adam Brittle and RJ Berra. Richard Bentham, who was double-shifting last week centered the second line with Jordan Bannon and Ben Simister. The third line saw Matt Viney with Aaron Davies to his right, while Tom King and James Riddoch took turns on the Left Wing.
Captain Chris Arnone got a lot of ice time and had shifts alongside Chris Butler and pantomime villain Reece Cairney-Witter. Max Drakeley partnered Andy Dunn. The Hawks were short on defensemen with Olli Lomax breaking his wrist when stopping a shot last week, while Finnish import Kim Miettinen was also missing after getting injured in the game the night before against Telford.
Daniel Brittle got the start between the pipes again.

 

26 A. Brittle – 70 Pollitt – 93 Berra
11 Bannon – 91 Bentham – 67 Simister

23 King/28 Riddoch - Viney - 8 Davies 

 

22 Arnone – 3 Butler
44 Drakeley - 13 Dunn

18 Cairney-Witter

 

25 D. Brittle – 31 Ashton

Quotes

Jordan Barnes: 'Despite losing the game, we looked the stronger team at the end. We knew they would come out flying at the start as they had something to prove. If you take out the power play goals they scored it would have been a different game. We also came together in the third period to score a few goals ourselves, which was good but still, its tough to lose a game wen it is that close.'

'The lads definitely have a lot of confidence going into the next game. The Hawks have dominated the league two years running and now they have got a wake up call cause we are giving them a good run. We are a fit, tough team and I believe there is not another team like us in the league. Whenever we win games its not just one or two players that step up, its a whole team effort'

'Blackburn have a few danger men to look out for. You've always got to watch Brittle with his hands, Arnone is their best defenceman and also personally I think Bannon is underrated. He's always around the goal and scores a fair share too.'

'We are a team in transition from being bottom of the standings last season to being top now. We are getting better all the time and still have room to improve. For Blackburn they have peaked and that is as good as they are going to be. We are a tough team and when opposition sides come up against us they  know that.'

'It also helps we have got the best fans in the league too'

Other Results

Saturday, December 12

Telford v Blackburn 1-8

Solway v Sutton