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 The roles were
reversed on Sunday night with the Sharks claiming home advantage
but the opening period took a similar shape to the day before
when the Pirates took the lead on the ten minute mark. Stuart
Miller passed out of defence to Linton who progressed up the
left wing before spotting Brian Miller coming in unmarked from
the right and he gave Dewar Anderson no chance with his shot. In
the fourteenth minute McCaig found McCamley on the right and he
beat two Sharks defenders before firing a powerful shot beyond
the home keeper from the blueline. Two minute later sloppy
defending gave Paisley possession in the Sharks defensive zone
and Brian Miller combined with Linton to set up Conaboy close to
the blueline for the Pirates third goal. While the Sharks tried
their best to break down the visitors defence they lacked the
guile that experienced players like Kevin Conway brought to the
team and all their efforts came to nothing as the hooter sounded
for the first break.
If the home support
thought that things could only get better in the second period
then for a time it looked like they might just be right. Ninety
seconds from the restart the puck fell to Conaboy and although
his shot was well saved by Scott McMeeken, who had replaced
Dewar Anderson during intermission, Wilson was on hand to lift
the loose puck into the net from three yards. Straight from the
restart Corrie Telfer fired in a shot the Downie was alert to
parry but Telfer was first to react to the rebound and the
Sharks were on the scoreboard. Six minutes into the period
Simpson spotted McCaig alone in acres of space and his alert
pass gave the Paisley forward plenty of time to bring the puck
in close and pick his spot. After the previous goal it took the
Sharks eleven seconds to respond, this time it took them only
nine. Mark Gallagher won possession from the face-off, Bari
McKenzie slipped it forward to Chris Gracie and from close to
centre-ice he fired an unstoppable shot past the stunned
netminder. This seemed to propel Solway into their best and most
effective period of play as they stretched the Pirates defence
several times before they finally got the breakthrough they
deserved with two and a half minutes left in the period. Chris
Gracie was alert to spot Struan Tonnar breaking from defence and
his pass found the Solway youngster at the Pirates blueline
where a neat spin move took him around a defender giving him the
opportunity to lift his shot over the diving netminder. The
Sharks were on a roll now and another goal before the second
interval would really set up a thrilling finale but a broken
plexi-glass holding led to the referee calling an early halt to
proceedings and taking the players off the ice while repairs
were made.
 The resulting
intermission and ice cut meant that all the momentum that Solway
had built up was lost as Paisley took the opportunity to regroup
and reorganise. As the match restarted with the remaining two
minutes of the second period the Pirates went on the offensive
and McCaig fed McCamley on the right wing. The Paisley captain
took play around behind the Sharks goal before pulling his shot
back into the net despite one Solway defender having a clear
opportunity to check him on the boards before he got that far. A
minute later the Pirates were ahead by four once more as
McMeeken could only block a powerful drive from Conaboy and
Fowley was on hand to smash the puck home from close range. With
play continuing immediately after the end of the second period
there was no time for the Sharks to regroup and most of the home
players were still looking shell-shocked when McCamley added his
hat-trick goal after being set up by Wilson three minutes into
the final session. The home side did manage to halt the slide
and put together a couple of nice attacking moves most notably
from Tonnar and Gallagher but the match was already lost by the
time Stuart Miller completed the scoring for the visitors a
minute from time.
Scoring statistics for
the Sharks were as follows Chris Gracie one goal and one assist,
Corrie Telfer and Struan Tonnar both 1+0, Bari McKenzie and Mark
Gallagher both 0+1. Dewar Anderson started in the Solway goal
and saved six out of the nine shots that he faced (save
percentage 66.67%) before he was replaced at the first interval
by Scott McMeeken who saved fourteen of the twenty shots that he
faced (save percentage 70.00%). Shaun Kippin was named as the
Border Utilities man of the match for the Sharks while Graeme
McCamley 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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