ENL - Whitley Warriors v Sheffield Senators 10-1 - Sunday, February 21, 2016

Hockey From Across The Pond has been taking a much needed vacation, while taking in some NHL games in the States. During my absence the Warriors completed their home league campaign, and rather than try and write a report on a game I didn't watch (like some so called writers will do), my good friend Bobby Dixon very kindly allowed me to use his game reports which he produces for 'Reflection' on Facebook. Bobby has been following the Warriors for more years than he would probably care to remember and can recall the good old days of the Heineken League Era. He rarely misses a game and so has a very accurate take on the action.
The game versus the Senators was always going to be a one sided affair, before the puck had been dropped the Sens had played 25 and lost 25, but they have been putting in some spirited performances of late and these games need to be played in a professional manner, we did rest player coach David Longstaff and number 1 netminder Richie Lawson, which allowed us to give Mark Turnbull, Jordan Boyle, Phil Pritchard and Alan Yarrow some ice time
We didn't get off to the best of starts, with just 48 seconds gone the Sens put their mark on the game with Britton getting the goal, the Sens' defence was looking solid in the opening exchanges and we were finding it tough to break them down and it took until the 10th minute to finally break down their defence. Dan Pye picked up a pass from Liam Smedley just inside the Sens half and skated through the faded blue line and unleashed one hell of a slap shot, it rippled the net before the netminder made his move to tie up the game, Sens heads didn't drop and they were still fighting for every puck and Turnbull was called upon to make some decent saves and it took until the 19th minute for us to finally take the lead when Dan Pye fed in Dean Holland, and his shot slotted past the Sens netminder, Holland was wearing a face-mask in this game after him taking a hit to the face in the previous game down in Sheffield. The period ended 2-1 to the Warriors and a sigh of relief in the stands, the Warriors did deserve to be leading at the break but the Senators put up a great fight of the game in the 1st period.
The 2nd period got underway and with just 12 seconds on the clock Alan Yarrow took his first of 31 minutes in penalties for the game when he was pulled up on a slashing call, at 22:12 on the clock he was released from the penalty box and on 22:25 he got pulled up again on another slashing penalty and when he was released on 24:25 it didn't take long for the Warriors to be in penalty trouble again when at 24:42 Shaun Kippin was called on a charging penalty, these 3 penalties gave plenty of time for our penalty killing unit plenty of ice time and we utilised it to it's full potential scoring 3 short handed goals, the first was scored by Callum Watson when Ben Richards' superb pass put Watto 1 on 1 with the netminder and he calmly deked the puck around the keeper, less than 1 minute later Harry Harley fed in Barnes for an identical situation and we got the identical result with Barnes out deking the keeper to make it 4-1, then Dean Holland grabbed his 2nd on the night with again Joe Stamp passing through the Senators defence to pick out Holland and again slotted it home short handed to make it 5-1, at a time of 31:57 we changed netminders and gave Jordan Boyle some valuable ice time, we were starting to create even more chances to increase the lead further and Watson got 1 on 1 with the keeper again but this time the keeper stood tall to make the save, also Alan Yarrow pulled the puck out of mid air superbly on the halfway line and burst the 2 D-men and was 1 on 1 with the netminder but his shot went wide of the post, we did however extend our lead in the 35th minute when Ben Richards grabbed a goal, assisted by Andre Payette and just over a minute late Jamie Tinsley made it 7-1 assisted by Smedley and Harley.
The 3rd period got underway with the Warriors finding themselves short handed again with it being announced Andre Payette was given a 2 minute interference penalty for a collision on the buzzer at the end of the 2nd, the Sens had ran out of steam with their short bench putting everything they had into the game and the 3rd period was a bit of a coast for the Warriors, but we still kept to our task and were playing some good hockey. 4:16 into the period Holland grabbed his hat-trick with an unassisted strike then in the 47th minute, Yarrow got pulled up on a roughing penalty and also was given a 5+game spearing penalty, which meant we were short handed for a full 7 minutes, but by this time Senators were shattered and probably just wanted the game to end, the tiredness was showing and they iced the puck 3 times during the 7 minute powerplay just to grab a breather, we killed off the 7 minute powerplay and then got goal number 9 when Watson latched on to a Holland pass to score, and with less than a minute remaining Harry Harley got a goal assisted by Jordan Barnes.
Man of the match for the visitors went to the netminder (again) he did make some decent saves and actually if it wasn't for him the scoreline could have been even larger.
Man of the match for the Warriors went to Dan Pye, thoroughly deserved he was superb tonight.
I also thought Dean Holland looked like he was getting back to his best after the horrific Injury sustained pre-season.
I'm not a big fan of these one sided games but you can only beat who is in front of you and we certainly done that, job well done.


Other Results
Saturday, February 20
Solway v Billingham 4-2


Sunday, February 21
Solihull v Telford 7-5
Billingham v Sutton 1-3