The Newcastle Predators recorded an impressive win over reigning champions Grimsby Ice Bears last night, to give their title aspirations a major boost. The Ice Bears have skated off with the Northern Rec Cup on each of the last two seasons, but arrived on Tyneside with a much depleted squad. Just eight skaters took to the ice [5 forwards and 3 defensemen] but nothing should be taken away from the Predators who were far from at full strength themselves. Jamie Penaluna was one of five regulars missing as he serves a suspension from last week’s game against the Hull City Knights.
Despite having a small roster, Grimsby still looked a formidable side and limited the Predators to just two goals midway through the opening period. Predators coach Stu Davis opened the scoring at 8:19 and that lead was then doubled just over two minutes later when Ian Russell found the net. In-between those two goals though saw the first of several unsavoury hits by the visiting Ice Bears, when Dan Smith was assessed a 2+10 misconduct penalty for a check to the head. At that stage the game was threatening to boil over and you sensed it wouldn’t be long before the gloves would be dropped.
To Grimsby’s credit though, they seemed to weather that early storm and settled down into a solid side, even forcing the Predators into taking 12 PIMs over a 15 minute period. They even got a goal back just after the halfway mark when Lyle Mitchell finished off a move that involved both Jordan Braithwaite and Dave Cerrino. But with the Predators restoring their two goal advantage at 35:03 thanks to Anthony Charters, just seconds later we had the major flashpoint of the game. Braithwaite appeared to knee one of the Predators in the back which drew an automatic 5 plus game misconduct, but the skirmish also took Lee Gill and Graeme Nelson with him. Quite how such a dangerous act could result in the Predators having to kill a five minute penalty is anyone’s guess. It wouldn’t be long though, before we had the next talking point.
Josh Kershaw who had been working his ticket for much of the game got himself sent off, when he decided to line up and slam a Predators player into the plexi, with both skates leaving the ice during the process. That brought about the expected reaction from both sides with a line brawl breaking out. One of the Grimsby players involved was the extremely rotund Dave Cerrino, who looked very similar in stature to former Billingham Bombers player Gary Dowd, and was equally as dirty as the Henry XIII lookalike from Teesside too.
Kershaw, who earned himself the nickname ‘Goldie Locks’ was sporting a dreadful blonde mullet which was covered by a bandana under his helmet. As he made his way to the visitors dressing room he had the look of a defeated WWE tag team wrestler. Perhaps he was the missing brother from the New Age Outlaws? Although Goldie Locks would have had his work cut out trying to replace Road Dogg or Billy Gunn.
It was at that point the game looked like it might boil over, but coach Stu Davis, told his team to be calm, and was heard telling them ‘don’t win the fights, win the game.’ It was a clever move too. Grimsby were down to just 6 skaters and 2 goalies and seemed intent on turning the contest into a fight and getting the Predators off their game. If there had been a further line brawl, it would have also meant a bench clearance for the Ice Bears as they were running out of players. At one stage of the game it looked like penalty trouble might have been the Predators undoing as it was playing into the Ice Bears hands but the Tynesider’s stuck to their task and rattled in a further three goals to seal the win. Davis got his second goal of the night while there were also strikes for Curt Elgie and Mark Bone.
With three Northern Rec Cup games now completed, the Predators are back on track and are looking good with two wins [Kingston City Knights 8-3 at home and this win over Grimsby] and just a single defeat which came against the Ice Bears at Grimsby. There is still a long way to go in this campaign but having already claimed the Ice Bears scalp in a game they lost last season, it should give the Tyneside-based side plenty of confidence.
A day earlier, the Predators took on local rivals the Tyneside Jesters, running out 12-5 winners in a hastily arranged friendly. They are next in action this coming Sunday [face off 12:15pm] when they take on the Newcastle Coyotes in a Northern Rec Cup clash.
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