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 On Saturday night the Border Utilities sponsored Solway Sharks
entertained the Dundee Texol Stars as first-footers to Dumfries
Ice Bowl in what turned out to be a thrilling Northern League
encounter. Next weekend the Sharks travel down to Blackburn in a
match that could go a long way to cementing their participation
at the play-off weekend at the end of the season. Some seats are
still available to supporters who wish to travel to the game on
the team bus which will leave the Ice Bowl on Saturday at 1:15pm
prompt.
Solway started Saturday evenings match as if they meant business
and with just thirty seconds on the clock Kevin Conway made
early inroads deep into the Dundee defence from the left wing.
New signing Bari McKenzie showed immediately what an asset he
will be to the club as he drew the attention of two Stars
defencemen allowing space for Conway to get away a powerful shot
at goal which Arthur did well to hold cleanly. Seconds later
Mark Gallagher made the visiting netminder work twice as hard as
he fired in a shot that was eventually smothered at the second
attempt. But while the Sharks were to enjoy the greater share of
possession throughout the first period the visitors from Tayside
were never dominated and play swung constantly from end to end
with plenty of goalmouth action to keep both sets of supporters
on the edge of their seats. Midway through the period the Sharks
were enjoying a purple patch as both Mark Gallagher and Struan
Tonnar tested Arthur’s reflexes before some excellent work
behind the Dundee goal from Corrie Telfer and Tim McKay set up
Alan Crane for a slapshot from twelve yards that just cleared
the visitors crossbar.
While Dundee always looked dangerous on the break Solway were
now beginning to exert more and more pressure on the visitors
defence and in desperation the Stars began to make errors. First
Liam Greig received his second penalty in short succession and
he was quickly followed into the penalty box by John Haig and
Kris Petrie, both penalised for hooking. This gave the Sharks a
five on three man advantage and if they could score within
thirty-one seconds they would still have that advantage for the
remainder of the period. Against good sides like Dundee you have
to take these chances if you want to win the match and Bari
McKenzie took just fifteen of those seconds to celebrate his
return to Solway colours with a low, crisp finish from six yards
out. Twelve seconds later an Ian Defty pass found Kevin Conway
free in front of goal and he made no mistake to put the Sharks
ahead by two at the first interval.
 The second period began with Dundee determined to fight their
way back into the match but Solway were themselves adamant that
they would hold their hard-won advantage which resulted in a
continuation of the exciting end to end spectacle the supporters
enjoyed in the first period. As the match closed in on the half
way mark the Stars gained a man advantage when Kevin Conway was
penalised for hooking and the visitors laid siege to the Sharks
goal. Eventually Greig found enough space behind the Solway net
to allow him to look up and spot Dolan homing in on the home
goal and his pass left the Dundee forward a simple tap in.
Solway were quickly back on the attack and a frantic spell of
pressure saw Shaun Kippin, McKenzie (twice), and Mark Gallagher
all test Arthur before Struan Tonnar found himself free in a
good position but Nicholson made an excellent block to save the
day. The clearance looked to be heading towards centre-ice with
Dolan chasing but Anthony Payne made a tremendous diving
interception which fell to McKenzie but Nicholson was on hand
once more to foil the Sharks forward although he did mange to
get a shot on target while sprawled on the ice.
Solway thought they had restored their two goal advantage
shortly after but Arthur just managed to claw the puck back from
the goal-line and, while the goal judge had signalled a goal,
referee Neil Wilson was perfectly placed to rule against the
score. As the game entered the final minute of the period Solway
finally got the reward their attacking play deserved. Ian Defty
and Kevin Conway worked hard to win possession on the boards
behind the Dundee goal and send the puck back out to Anthony
Payne who fired low into the net from just inside the blueline.
 As the match entered the final session it was still anyone’s
game to win or lose and if the Sharks were to emerge victorious
it was important to keep things tight for the opening five
minutes. They did better than that. Four minutes into the period
Corrie Telfer found Struan Tonnar behind the Stars goal, he
bided his time until Tim McKay found free space in front of the
net and when the pinpoint pass came the forwards shot gave the
home side a four-one advantage. Five minutes later Dundee found
themselves a life-line when a Greig shot was saved by Dewar
Anderson’s pads and the rebound fell to McCluskey who shot over
into the top left-hand corner of the net. Minutes later the
visitors could have reduced the deficit sill further but
Nicholson’s goal-bound shot rebounded to safety from the back of
his own player, Carnegie. It wasn’t to be the latter’s day as
with just five minutes to go he had the chance to reduce the
deficit to a single goal when he found himself free in front of
the net. The youngster tried to place his shot high to
Anderson’s left but somehow the Sharks netminder got his glove
up to save the day. While Dundee never stopped trying until the
final hooter sounded they never managed to seriously challenge
the Solway goal again and the home side were able to run the
clock down for an excellent victory.
The fact that the Sharks
out-shot Dundee by forty-seven to twenty nine is an indicator of
the attacking nature of their game-plan against one of the
favourites for end of season honours. Moving Anthony Payne to
the defence has been a revelation in recent weeks and the return
of proven goal-scorer Bari McKenzie, together with the form of
experienced players like Ian Defty and John Downes bodes well
for Solway’s own play-off hopes. Scoring statistics for the
Sharks were as follows: Kevin Conway one goal and one assist,
Bari McKenzie, Anthony Payne and Tim McKay all 1+0, Ian Defty
0+2, Struan Tonnar, Corrie Telfer and John Downes all 0+1. Dewar
Anderson in the Solway goal saved twenty-seven of the
twenty-nine shots that he faced (save percentage 93.10%). Man of
the match for the Sharks was Mark Gallagher while Willie
Nicholson picked up the award for the visitors.
The views and statistics in
this report are individual and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of the Solway Sharks.
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