|
The Solway Sharks, sponsored by the Black Bull of Moffat,
ended the 06/07 campaign on a high by defeating the Fife Flyers
3-2in the second leg of the Scottish National League play-off
finals at Murrayfield Ice Rink on Sunday night. The victory
means that the Sharks have beaten every team that they have
faced in a successful season while handing the Flyers only their
third loss in two years. Unfortunately for the Dumfries side the
Flyers took the trophy 7-5 on aggregate following their 5-2 win
at the Ice Bowl in the first leg.
Trailing by three goals, the Sharks entered the finale
knowing there was a mountain to climb against a team that had a
100% record until only a few weeks ago. Despite this Solway put
in a superb performance and had the Kirkcaldy-based Flyers on
the ropes for most of the contest.
Following a scoreless first period, in which Solway had the
better scoring opportunities, Steven King found the back of the
net assisted by Todd Dutiaume to open the scoring at the
twenty-nine minute mark and put Fife ahead by four goals with
only thirty minutes to play. At this point it looked as though
there was no way back for Solway as the Flyers faithful
celebrated what they envisioned to be the trophy clinching
marker. However, minutes later the mood in the arena changed as
the Sharks hammered home three tallies in the space of one
minute and thirty-eight seconds to stun the Fife team and their
fans as the small but boisterous visiting support erupted with
optimism. Kevin Conway started the comeback on the powerplay
with Mark Gallagher and Bari McKenzie providing the assists. Tim
McKay kept the growing Sharks’ confidence afloat less than a
minute later as Alan Crane and Scott McMeeken started the move.
And within moments Conway brought the Sharks to within a tying
goal after a passing move McKenzie and Chris Gracie. Solway took
the play to the Flyers for the remainder of the period but could
not beat Flyers’ goalie Blair Daly a fourth time.
The final period saw Andy Samuel fire one back for Fife as
the Sharks tried in vain to send the tie to overtime. In the
dying minutes keeper McMeeken was taken off in favour of an
extra attacker and although they kept the pressure in the
offensive zone Solway were unable to capitalise but did hang on
for the victory. The Sharks out-shot Fife on the evening
forty-two-twenty-two.
After the final, Sharks’ coach Kevin Doherty said: “We kind
of shot ourselves in the foot on Saturday by giving them too
many good chances while not executing fully in their zone but in
all the lads saved their best performances of the season for the
play-offs. They can hold their heads up high after a very
positive year and the victory against Fife can only spur the
squad on to bigger and better things in the future. We hope to
keep this team together while discussions have already started
to add some experienced players to give support to our
youngsters. Also our junior programme continues to move forward
and the hope is to have some quality to add from there in the
near future too.”
Sharks statistics were as follows: Kevin Conway
two goals and no assists, Tim McKay 1+0, Bari McKenzie 0+2, Mark
Gallagher, Alan Crane, Scott McMeeken and Chris Gracie all 0+1.
Sharks netminder Scott McMeeken saved thirty of the thirty-two
shots that he faced for a save percentage of 93.75%
View more
from Sunday nights on the
match photographs
page.
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 |
