|
 On Sunday evening the Solway Sharks, sponsored by Border
Utilities, met the Dundee Texol Stars in their final match of
the regular season and the home side took the match to their opponents
from the opening face-off. Within a minute John Downes fired a
shot over the Dundee crossbar from the blueline, the puck
rebounded into play from the plexi-glass and Bari McKenzie was
unlucky to see his knock-down bounce over the net from the goal
frame. Then with five minutes gone Fraser Goldie fired in a
wicked shot from the left-hand point position that Michie held
well, the Stars immediately broke from defence to set up
Robertson ten yards from goal but his shot was well blocked by
Scott McMeeken. With five minutes left in the period Robbie
Brown fed Corrie Telfer on the right wing and his pass found
Shaun Kippin on the blueline but Michie had his angles covered
and was able to deal easily with the shot.
Despite the best efforts of both sets of forwards the netminders
were to continue to shine for the remainder of the period and
the match reached the first interval scoreless.
 The Sharks again won possession from the opening face-off and
immediately stormed the Dundee net in the opening seconds of the
second session but unfortunately they lost possession in the
Stars “D” to Robertson. The Taysider looked up and saw Haig all
by himself on the Sharks blueline and threaded a pass through
traffic to the Dundee forward who took
possession in close, sent the netminder the wrong way and
slipped the puck into the net. On a Dundee powerplay in the
fifth minute Dolan twice came close to increasing the Stars lead
but Scott McMeeken was alert to make a fine pad save and was
quickly up to block to his right when it looked like a certain
goal. Dundee were again on the attack in the twenty-eighth
minute but Scott McMeeken was able to push a loose puck out to
Corrie Telfer on the right, he slid possession inside to John
Ballentyne as he broke from defence. As the big Sharks
defenseman carried possession towards the Stars blueline he
elected to shoot early and thundered a shot past Michie into the
Dundee net to level the scores. With three and a half minutes to
play in the period McMeeken again knocked a loose puck out to a
defender, Fraser Goldie, and he slipped a quick pass to Corrie
Telfer. The Sharks forwards skated at speed up the rink from
left to right as he left defenders in his wake and as he brought
possession in close to the Dundee goal he sent the keeper the
wrong way and slid the puck into the net. With just twenty-two
seconds left in the session Fraser Goldie and John Downes
combined to send Bari McKenzie racing up the right wing. As the
Solway forward crossed the Dundee blueline he looked up and
fired a powerful slapshot across the netminder and into the roof
of the net to give the Sharks a tree-one second interval lead.
 As the third period progressed the Sharks looked to be
comfortably in command of the match as Dundee struggled to
maintain momentum and only rarely troubled McMeeken in the home
goal. However, Dundee got a break as the clock approached the
fifty minute mark when Gallagher was penalised for interference
to give the visitors a powerplay. Immediately they laid siege to
the Solway goal but found it hard to get a clear shot on goal
until a rebound from the pipes found McCluskey clear in front
of goal and he fired home. The Sharks had a close shave when the
puck rebounded off the crossbar and hit Scott McMeeken on the
back and trickled dangerously close to the goal line before the
keeper could fall backwards onto the puck and stop play. This
led to a minor altercation which saw Fraser Goldie and John
Dolan given matching penalties of two plus two for delay of game
and roughing. But this didn’t seem to hinder the progress of the
now rejuvenated Dundee team as with six and a half minutes
remaining they found the equaliser when Marshall and Philips
combined to allow Haig to score from a narrow angle with a shot
that cannoned into the net from the back of the keepers pads.
Three minutes later the Stars regained the lead when McCluskey
fed Greig on the right, he found Hamilton in clear ice ten yards
from goal and the Stars forward gave the keeper no chance with
his rising shot. The Sharks pressed for an equaliser and in the
last minute they pulled netminder in favour of a sixth skater
but lost they possession and, after Philips and Robertson had
stretched the Sharks defence, Marshall was left with the simple
job of scoring into the empty net to give the Stars a five-three
victory.
Scoring statistics for the Sharks were as follows Corrie
Telfer one goal and one assist, John Ballentyne and Bari
McKenzie 1+0, Fraser Goldie and Scott McMeeken 0+2 and John
Downes 0+1. Scott McMeeken in the Sharks goal saved thirty-four
of the thirty-nine shots that he saved for a save percentage of
87.18%. The Border Utilities man of the match for the Solway
Sharks was awarded to John Downes while netminder Matthew Michie
received the award for the Stars.
The views and statistics in
this report are individual and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of the Solway Sharks.
|
