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 A
decent crowed, swelled by a good travelling support, flowed into
Dumfries Ice Bowl on Sunday night with both sets of supporters
in high hopes of victory in this Scottish Cup, quarter-final,
2nd leg tie after the previous nights four all draw in Paisley.
It was to be the Black Bull of Moffat sponsored
Solway Sharks who started stronger on
the night and with ex Solway man Jamie Thomson serving a two
minute penalty for cross-checking Kevin Conway finished of some
nice play involving Jamie Kerr and Bari McKenzie to put the home
side ahead on the 03:40 mark. With their tails up the Dumfries
side were eager to push home their advantage and within just
twenty-one seconds of the re-start they did so when Mark
Gallagher converted after lead up play from McKenzie and Tim
McKay. The amount of senior officials who turned up at the Ice
Bowl suggests that the authorities expected trouble on the ice.
However, referee N Wilson and his team controlled the game well
and the only flashpoint came on the 08:28 mark when Sharks'
Shaun Kippin and Pirates' Craig Johnston clashed, behind the
Pirates goal. The officials were quick to ensure that the
altercation didn't spread amongst the other players and the
fight, with more cuddling than fighting if truth be told,
quickly petered out. As if to send a message to both sides Mr
Wilson handed both players two-plus-two-plus-ten minute
penalties.
Last
night in Paisley penalties hit the Pirates hard with three of
the four Sharks goals being scored on powerplays tonight it was
just three out of the first four goals that came this way as
first Bari McKenzie and then Mark Gallagher scored to put the
home side well clear. The ever dangerous Kevin Conway assisted
in both goals with Bari McKenzie also claiming a hand on the
second before Conway, assisted by Struan Tonnar, added the
Sharks fifth score with the clock showing 17:13. Perhaps the
Pirates could be excused if they now had their sights on the
first intermission and the chance to regroup, but there was no
way that the now rampant Sharks were going to allow them this
luxury. With thirty-one seconds left in the session the fast
improving Gordon Horne (pictured below left) finished off a move
involving both Tim McKay and Wayne Slater. With many supporters
already headed for refreshments, Mark Gallagher and Chris Gracie
combined well for Bari McKenzie to notch his second and the
Sharks seventh goal with the clock showing just ONE second
remaining in the period. No-one in the crowd could have realised
how important the cushion provided by those two late goals would
become as the match progressed.
During the interval the Paisley side made a
change with Barry Hyslop replacing Daryl Findlay in goal and far
from being disheartened the Pirates began the second period with
renewed vigour and for ten minutes they could easily have
claimed to have had the upper-hand. This was reflected on the
scoreboard when the dangerous Graham McCanley opened their
account ably assisted by Calum Wallace with 31:25 gone in the
session. The Paisley side continued to press and five minutes
later Stuart McCaig added his sides second after good build-up
play from ex-Solway man Gary Carruth and Ryan McNeill. This may
have been the spur needed to goad the Sharks into action as
within a minute Bari McKenzie completed his second hat-trick of
the weekend when he finished a pass from Mark Gallagher with the
clock showing 37:29.
 So
with a six goal lead the Pirates were beaten and all the Sharks
had to do was run down the clock and play out the final period -
you'd think so wouldn't you? Not a chance. If the Paisley
Pirates have proved one thing this weekend it is that they don't
ever give up, fair play to them. Skating hard the Paisley side
took the game to the Sharks as if they were the side with the
lead and they were rewarded twice within the first three minutes
as first Stuart McCaig scored his second of the night after
being put in by Craig Johnston and then Alan McAteer reduced the
deficit to four. At this point the Sharks were reeling somewhat,
but their fighting spirit came through and they started to
battle for every puck. The game remained a hard-fought battle
for the remainder of the period but, despite Paisley
out-shooting Solway, there were no further goals until the game
entered its final two minutes. Chris Conaboy, strangely quiet
for him, set up David Orr and he slid the puck past Scott
McMeeken in the Sharks goal. The deficit was now just three with
112 seconds left to play. Remember now the two late goals in
period one. Could there still be time left for the Pirates? I
said in a recent report that the Fife Flyers are champions
partly because they know how to close-out games in this sort of
situation. Now it was time for us to show that we are learning
these good habits and this time we did. With Paisley pressing,
Kevin Conway picked up the puck in Sharks territory and showed
all his experience to advance towards the Pirates goal and then
hold the puck until support arrived. His pass then set up a nice
interchange between Wayne Slater and Bari McKenzie before the
puck was rolled appetisingly along the blue line for John
Ballentyne, arriving late from defence, to smash a superb shot
into the Pirates' net restoring the Sharks' four goal lead and
effectively ending the game with 01:03 remaining on the clock.
Over the sixty minutes both the Sharks and the
Pirates managed thirty five shots on target with Paisley taking
the final period nineteen to four. Sharks statistics were: Bari
McKenzie three goals and four assists, Mark Gallagher and Kevin
Conway 2+2, Gordon Horne and John Ballentyne 1+0, Tim McKay,
Chris Gracie and Wayne Slater 0+2, and Struan Tonnar 0+1. Sharks
netminder Scott McMeeken saved thirty of the thirty-five shots
that he faced (Save percentage 85.71%). Man of the Match for the Solway Sharks was
presented to
Corrie Telfer by
Scott and Chloe Henderson representing match sponsors Sulwath
Brewery, while ex Solway Shark Gary Carruth received the
honour for the Paisley Pirates.
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.
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