|
 Last weekend the
Sharks contested the Scottish Premier Hockey League play-off
semi-final where their opponents were once more the Fife Flyers
in a two-legged contest. The first leg took place at Dumfries
Ice Bowl on Saturday evening and the supporters had hardly taken
their seats when the visitors opened the scoring. With ninety
seconds on the clock Fleming broke out of defence and followed
the right-hand boards around behind the home goal before
threading a pass to the waiting Samuels who slotted home from
close range. The Sharks began to fight their way back into the
match but were lucky to escape in the eighth minute when a Fife
shot deflected onto the goal frame from Struan Tonnar’s skates.
In the thirteenth minute a penalty call on John Downes for
hooking gave the visitors a powerplay and they laid siege to the
Sharks goal. A minute into the powerplay Solway broke out of
defence and although the visitors appeared to have won back
possession Mark Gallagher robbed a defender and slid a pass back
to Bari McKenzie who fired home the Sharks first short-handed
SPHL goal this season.
But better was still
to come as within two minutes the home side had taken the lead.
Two penalties against Fife within twenty seconds of each other
gave the Sharks a long five on three powerplay and as the
Dumfries side played the puck around patiently it found John
Downes on the blueline and the big defender thundered a slapshot
past Daly in the Fife goal. With one opponent back on the ice
and a second still in the penalty box the Sharks immediately
went back onto the offensive and with seconds
left on the powerplay Mark Gallagher again went behind the goal
and laid a pass back out to Bari McKenzie. The Sharks forward,
wearing the number nine shirt instead his usual twenty-two in
respect for former Shark Ian Defty who sadly passed away a week
ago, was never going to miss from four yards out and the
visitors found themselves two behind.
 It’s not often that the Fife Flyers are glad to
hear the hooter sound for an intermission but they were on
Saturday evening. The break gave them the chance to regroup and
to reorganise which is just as well for them because the Sharks
came out for the second session with all guns blazing and their
pressure led to two early powerplays as the visitors fought to
cling on. As the clock approached the midway point in the match
Fife were beginning to exert pressure of their own which led to
three quick penalties against the home side. When Robbie Brown
followed Shaun Kippin into the sin bin the Sharks had to stave
off eighty seconds of a Fife five on three powerplay. Almost
immediately after Kippin rejoined the game Alan Crane joined
Brown in the penalty box when referee Craig harshly adjudged him
to be guilty of dislodging the net in a goalmouth scramble. This
time the two man advantage was too much for Solway to counter
and as Fife pulled the defence out of position Wands picked up
possession on the blueline and drifted towards goal before
firing a wrist-shot into the roof of the net. For the remainder
of the period play swung from end to end as both teams put on a
display of fast, skilful hockey, but as the second break
approached it was Fife who equalised when McAlpine found the net
with a fine solo effort.
The final session followed on where the second
left off and both netminders showed their prowess on numerous
occasions to thwart the efforts of both sets of forwards. In the
forty-fourth minute a penalty on Bari McKenzie for kneeing saw
Fife once more pound the Sharks goal but as the powerplay ended
McKenzie slipped out of the penalty box almost un-noticed and
drifted towards the Flyers blueline. The one person who did
notice the Solway forward was John Ballentyne and he threaded a
pinpoint pass through traffic which left McKenzie one on one
with Daly in the Flyers goal, but the netminder had his angles
covered and made a fine block to deny the Doonhamer his
hat-trick. Dewar
 Anderson then had to be alert at the other end
to make a fine double save from McIntyre and Beattie before
Daly was once
more called into action to parry a John Ballentyne slapshot from
the blueline and a Struan Tonnar effort from a sharp angle on
the rebound. But, try as they might, neither side could break
the deadlock and the final hooter saw the tie finely balanced at
three apiece heading into the following day’s second leg.
Scoring statistics for the Sharks were as
follows: Bari McKenzie two goals and one assist, John Downes
0+1, Mark Gallagher 0+2. Dewar Anderson in the home goal was in
tremendous form to save fifty-five of the fifty-eight shots that
he faced for a save percentage of 94.83%. The Border Utilities
man of the match for the Sharks was Bari McKenzie while Dan
McIntyre picked up that accolade for the Flyers.
The views and statistics in this
report are individual and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the Solway Sharks.
|
