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The Border
Utility sponsored Solway Sharks travelled to Kirkcaldy last
Saturday night to conclude their season with a Scottish Cup
Final appearance against the Dundee Texol Stars. Unfortunately
it was not to be a joyful end to their campaign as they lost
seven-four in what turned out to be an end to end thriller which
featured a number contentious refereeing calls which did not
favour the Dumfries side.
The first real
chance of the match came in the second minute when Greig broke
up the right wing and cut inside before letting fly with a
wrist-shot which forced Dewar Anderson into a fine pad save low
to his left. Almost immediately Robbie Brown broke up the Sharks
right wing but as the Solway youngster tried to find support in
the middle Marshall came to the Stars rescue with a timely
interception in front of his own goal. This set the scene for
the remainder of the period as play swung from end to end with
Dundee having a slightly greater share of the possession and
both teams swapping minor penalties as the pressure grew on the
respected defences. The first real contentious decision came in
the seventeenth minute when a Stars defender dwelt a little too
long before making his clearance. Shaun Kippin was onto the
Dundee player like a shot with a clean fore-check but as the
puck slid towards a Sharks forward with a clear run in on goal
the referee, Mr Allsopp, blew to penalise Kippin for charging.
On this, the fifth powerplay of the period, it was once more the
defence who were to come out on top and the game headed into the
first intermission with no score on the board but plenty for the
supporters to talk about.
The second period
began where the first had ended as both sides showed their
intention to attack whenever the opportunity arose and it was to
be on a powerplay that the deadlock was finally broken. On the
twenty-four minute mark Alan Crane was called for tripping to
give the Stars the man advantage and as Dundee passed the puck
around looking for an opening Dolan and McCluskey combined to
find Greig in front of goal and his shot found the back of the
Sharks net. Solway immediately went back on the offensive and
they got their reward two and a half minutes later when a Jamie
Kerr shot was fumbled by Arthur in the Stars goal and Ross
McMeeken found himself in the right place at the right time to
prod home his first goal of the season from short range. Off
setting penalties as the game approached the mid-way point saw
the teams four-on-four and Dolan found Marshall to the left of
the Sharks goal, he drifted across the net before lifting his
shot beyond the diving Anderson to restore Dundee’s lead.
At this point the
Taysiders were in full flow and a cross-checking call on John
Ballentyne led to another powerplay during which Marshall, who
was controlling much of Dundee’s best moves from deep, found
Dolan and the score was three-one. Three minutes from the second
break the Sharks got a powerplay of their own when Nicholson was
penalised for high sticks and as the pressure mounted on the
Stars goal Arthur, the Dundee netminder, clearly tripped a
Sharks forward in front of his net. Somehow the referee missed
the incident which would have given Solway a two man advantage
but he did manage to see and call an interference penalty on
Mark Gallagher as the Stars broke free from defence. This once
more left the teams at even strength on the ice and yet again it
was to be Marshall who provided the telling pass which gave Haig
the opportunity to score the fifth goal for his side. The
deficit could have been reduced in the dying seconds of the
period but Arthur made amends for his earlier blunder when he
pushed a shot from point-blank range up onto his crossbar.
If Solway were to
make a fight of things in the final period then they had to keep
things tight at the back and score early and two and a half
minutes into the session they got their chance. John Downes and
Bari McKenzie combined so send Fraser Goldie up the right wing
and as he crossed the blueline he decided to let fly with a
thunderbolt which flashed past a startled Arthur before the
netminder had time to react. But Dundee are a hard team to pin
down and within four minutes Marshall had once more set up Dolan
for another strike and Haig added a sixth goal to the tally with
an excellent solo effort. With the match seemingly won Dundee
then became the victims of two rather soft penalty calls from
referee Allsopp. First Carnegie was harshly called for hooking
and on the resultant powerplay Mark Gallagher and Bari McKenzie
combined behind the Stars goal before setting up Struan Tonnar
to score from close range. Two minutes later an equally soft
interference call on Greig gave the Sharks another man advantage
and this time Corrie Telfer collected possession deep in his own
half before skating past three Dundee defenders and lifting his
shot over the netminder to score a superb solo goal.
Now just two
goals behind Solway were on a roll and with just three minutes
left to play they almost set up a grandstand finish. In a
goal-mouth scramble Arthur managed to block a goal-bound shot
from close range but the puck spun from his grasp and slid
towards the net. Somehow, to the despair of the Sharks faithful,
the netminder managed to bend himself double and claw the puck
back from the goal line at the very last second. As fate would
have it, Dundee then broke from defence and Latto fed possession
back for Nicholson to shoot home the Stars seventh goal which
conclusively ended Solway’s spirited comeback.
While the Sharks
lost this cup final they can certainly take heart from their
display on the night and, had certain decisions, and the luck of
the bounce, gone their way then they could have walked away with
winners medals. Watching from the stands the Sharks new Youth
Development Officer and Senior Coach must have been impressed
with the never-say-die attitude of his new charges and heartened
by the fact that three of the four goals were scored by juniors
playing up to senior level. Scoring statistics for the Sharks on
the night were as follows Ross McMeeken, Fraser Goldie, Struan
Tonnar and Corrie Telfer all one goal and no assists, Bari
McKenzie 0+2, Jamie Kerr, Mark Gallagher and John Downes all
0+1. Dewar Anderson saved forty of the forty-seven shots that he
faced for a save percentage of 85.11% and was voted Man of the
Match for the Sharks while the Dundee Texol Stars netminder,
Craig Arthur, was awarded that honour for the opposition.
The views and statistics in
this report are individual and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of the Solway Sharks.
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