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On
Sunday evening the Black Bull of Moffat sponsored Solway Sharks were
up against it as they travelled to Billingham to take on the Bombers
in a four point contest. The home team rarely get beaten on their
own ice although the Sharks only lost narrowly to the reigning ENL
North champions last season in the same fixture.
The opening
period of Sunday night fixtures has been the weakest part of the
Sharks' season to date but all ill feelings of this were quickly put
to one side as Chris Gracie fired the Sharks into the lead after
just seven seconds with a blistering slapshot from the neutral zone
that set the tone for the rest of the game. Sharks added four more
before the end of the first period to take a controlling five-nil
lead into the dressing room between the first and second frames.
Mark Gallagher with two, Cammy Currie and Kevin Conway were the goal
scorers.
 The
Second period went mostly the same way as the first as Wayne Slater
and Mark Gallagher (pictured right), with his hat-trick goal, scored
two quick short-handed goals less than a minute apart. This
basically ended all hopes for the home fans although the Bombers did
strike back with two powerplay goals of their own before Solway
extended the lead to ten-two at the end of forty minutes. Bari
McKenzie scored two goals and Tim McKay added the other for the
Sharks while Stuart Gibbon followed by Scott Ward replied for
Billingham.
The final period
was an anti-climax as the result was in no doubt and the Sharks once
again won the session by three goals to one. Sharks scored through
Cammy Currie, Euan Edgar and a hat-trick goal from Bari McKenzie
while a lone, man-advantage goal from James Moutrey was all the
Bombers could muster. In the final seconds Sharks' Matt Seddon
convincingly won a battle with Bombers' Scott Ward and both players
received Match penalties for their part in the fisticuffs.
Sharks coach,
Kevin Doherty, had this to say following the weekends' games: "We
had two good results and the boys can enjoy being in first place but
we still have a lot of work to do. Our defensive play is a bit
suspect and we need all of our players focusing on doing their best
in that department if we are to continue to improve. We will score
goals on most nights so we need to work on stopping them especially
against the best teams we face."
Sharks
statistics against Billingham were: Mark Gallagher three goals and
four assists, Bari McKenzie 3+2, Cammy Currie 2+0, Kevin Conway1+4, Chris Gracie
and Tim McKay 1+2, Euan Edgar 1+1, Wayne Slater 1+0, Corrie Telfer 0+2, John
Ballentyne, Alan Crane, Neal Haworth and Matt Seddon all 0+1. Sharks
netminder Scott McMeeken saved twenty-one of the twenty three shots
that he faced in the first two periods, save percentage of 91.30%, before being replaced by
Chris McKay for the final session. Chris saved ten of the eleven
shots that he faced a save percentage of 90.91%. Man-of-the-match for the Solway Sharks was Bari
McKenzie.
The views and statistics in
this report are individual and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of the Solway Sharks.
Report courtesy of the Dumfries &
Galloway Standard |
