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 On Saturday night the Border
Utility sponsored Solway Sharks mat the Blackburn Hawks at
Dumfries Ice Bowl on Northern League duty and started slowly,
all too often possession was given away cheaply as they tried to
break down the determined Blackburn defence. In the twelfth
minute the Sharks were on the attack when Shaun Kippin lost
possession to Meikle who progressed along the left-hand boards
before finding Brunton in free space seven yards from goal. The
Lockerbie native and Hawks captain gave Scott McMeeken in the
Solway goal no chance with what was the first serious shot on
goal from either team. While Solway continues to struggle to get
a hold on the game they did manage to test the Blackburn keeper
with two long range shots from Bari McKenzie and Anthony Payne
before Kevin Conway shot wide when one-on-one with Thirkettle as
the clock wound down to the first interval.
The second session looked like it
might head the same way as the first for the home side as they
found themselves with a five-on-three man disadvantage when Ross
Edgar and Shaun Kippin were both penalised in the twenty-fifth
minute. Kippin added a further ten minute misconduct to his
penalty when he told referee Toby Craig what he though of his
decision. But the Sharks penalty-kill was on fine form as they
restricted the Hawks to two long range efforts in the entire two
minutes. Indiscipline struck Solway again twenty seconds after
returning to full strength when Kevin Conway was penalised for
hooking but once again the Sharks goal emerged unscathed.
Gradually the home side were finding their feet and they finally
got a reward for their efforts in the thirty-seventh minute.
John Downes fired in a shot from the right-hand boards that was
well saved by Thirkettle’s pads but as the puck trickled away
from the netminder Struan Tonnar pounced to prod the rebound
home. As the period ended the Sharks players thought that they
had taken the lead when Bari McKenzie flashed a shot into the
net from the right wing but the referee ruled that the hooter
had sounded before the puck crossed the line.
 The third period began with the
scores level and with both sides eager to pick up both points
and it was the visitors who took the first advantage in the
forty-fifth minute. O’Reilly sent Davies racing up centre-ice
and the Blackburn man took the puck in close before firing low
past McMeeken. Solway immediately went on the offensive but
Blackburn kept things tight and restricted the Sharks mostly to
long range shots which gave Thirkettle little trouble. Just when
the home fans were beginning to wonder if things were ever going
to turn their way Alan Crane picked up possession in his own “D”
and sped up the rink before passing behind the Blackburn goal
and finding the net at the back post with a superb wrap-around
shot. With just under two minutes remaining some good work on
the boards behind the Blackburn goal by Mark Gallagher and Kevin
Conway saw the puck passed back to Bari McKenzie and he made no
mistake from six yards out. But the drama wasn’t over yet as the
Sharks had to play the last fifty-five seconds with four skaters
when McKenzie was penalised for tripping. The Hawks immediately
pulled their netminder when they won possession but Kevin Conway
robbed a Blackburn forward and slipped the puck forward to John
Downes who, with the empty net at his mercy and with the
visitors frantically trying to cover, seemed to take an eternity
before he shot home to put the result beyond doubt.
Scoring statistics for the Sharks
were as follows; Struan Tonnar, Bari McKenzie, Alan Crane and
John Downes all one goal and no assists, Kevin Conway 0+2 and
Mark Gallagher 0+1. Scott McMeeken saved thirty of the
thirty-two shots that he saved (save percentage 93.75%) and was
named the Magnox North man of the match for the Solway Sharks
while Ian Thirkettle received the award for Blackburn.
The views and statistics in
this report are individual and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of the Solway Sharks.
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