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 Last Saturday night Solway
entertained the Whitley Warriors in their fourth and final
Northern League encounter of the regular season and, despite
both teams being without key players, they provided an excellent
nights entertainment. The opening session started brightly
enough as both sides showed their intention to play open,
entertaining hockey and the first real incident came in the
fourth minute when the puck took a wicked deflection of a Solway
stick and struck Whitley defenceman David Barrett in the face.
Luckily for him he was not badly hurt and within two minutes he
twice blocked attempted passes from Anthony Payne before the
veteran Sharks forward produced a superb body-swerve to take him
into free ice in the Warriors defensive zone. Payne picked his
spot high right but the Whitley netminder read his intention and
saved well. Within twenty seconds Payne was the defensive
saviour when he dived full length along his own blueline to
intercept a long pass out of defence that would have left Daniel Murdy one on one with Dewar Anderson. The end to end theme
continued immediately as Shaun Kippin cut in from the right wing
but Thomas Murdy in the Whitley goal was well placed to save and
home netminder, Dewar Anderson, was forced to do the same as DJ
Good found himself through on goal. On Whitleys first powerplay
a mazy skate by Tim McKay gave him a good shooting opportunity
but Solway forward couldn’t find the finish to beat Murdy. With
just over two minutes left in the period the Sharks though for a
moment that they had opened the scoring as a shot from Kippin
looked to have squirmed below Murdy and into the Whitley goal.
The goal judges light came on but referee Toby Craig ruled the
effort out as the goal had become dislodged before the puck
crossed the line. A minute later the goal became dislodged again
as Murdy and Barrett crashed into the pipes, with the latter
once more coming off the worse but happily he was able to
continue after a short time.
The second period began brightly
for Whitley as Michael Allinson picked up rebound off the boards
just in front of the Sharks goal and Dewar Anderson was forced
to show fine reflexes to get down quickly and smother the
Warriors shot. A minute later Allinson robbed Tim McKay on his
own blueline and skated up centre-ice before crashing his shot
past Anderson to open the scoring. McKay made amends for his
error a minute later when he took the puck up the left-hand
boards before picking out Shaun Kippin in front of the visitors
goal and the Whitley native finished clinically to level the
match for the Sharks. Losing the opening goal seemed to have
stirred the Sharks from their slumber and they set siege to the
visitors goal. Six minutes into the session some excellent work
from Alan Crane and Gordon Horne on the boards behind the
Warriors goal saw possession fall to the latter. Horne took his
time before carefully threading a pass through to Payne, free
six yards from goal, and his wrist-shot found the back of the
net. Two minutes later Kevin Conway picked up possession on the
left wing and picked out Horne free in the centre and the young
Shark fired a slapshot high into the roof of the Whitley goal.
 It seemed like nothing could
stop Solway at this stage until the referee awarded Whitley a
powerplay when he penalised Euan Edgar for hooking. At this
point the Warriors might have been content to simply gather
their breath after the Solway onslaught but a Paul Sample shot
from the right point position was redirected close to goal by
Daniel Murdy and the Sharks netminder had no chance to recover.
But normal service was soon restored as Tim McKay picked up
possession from a face off in the Whitley ‘D’ and fired the puck
around the boards to Gordon Horne, who in turn picked out Alan
Crane a yard from goal and the Sharks were two ahead once more.
Crane and Kippin both tested the Whitley netminder as Solway
looked to increase their advantage but Ryan Sample gave warning
that Whitley were not dead in the water as he forced Anderson
into an excellent low save to his left. A Kevin Conway shot was
then deflected high towards the roof of the net from a Warriors
stick but somehow Thomas Murdy changed direction and got his
glove there in time to deny the Sharks once more. In the
thirty-fourth minute another net-bound shot was blocked by Murdy
but this time the rebound fell to Horne a yard from the Warriors
line and he was able to force the puck home for his second goal
of the night despite strong pressure from the Whitley defence. A
late powerplay may have given the visitors hope but it was well
killed by the home defence, especially Anthony Payne, who ate up
almost thirty seconds by himself as he toyed with Warriors
forwards, turning backwards and forwards behind his own goal.
 Most spectators probably
expected the short-benched Warriors to tire in the final period
but big Michael Allinson was once more their inspiration as he
brought the deficit back to two when he scored an unassisted
goal converting high to Andersons’ right. Kippin, with some
excellent stick work, and Gallagher came close to restoring Solways’ three goal cushion before Ian Defty brought the puck up
the left wing and cut it back for Kevin Conway to convert with
ease. Sharks supporters must have though that the points were in
the bag now, but in an amazing show of determination and
resilience the Warriors began to claw their way back into
contention. An excellent reverse pass from Peter Zajac
wrong-footed the home defence creating space for Daniel Murdy
who fired home his second of the night. Two minutes later Allinson found Barrett free in the centre from the left wing and
he found the top right-hand corner of the net to reduce the
deficit to one. The Sharks gradually began to regain control of
the match from this point, not that Whitley didn’t pose
problems, they did, but only one real flashpoint remained. Kevin
Conway took exception to the attention of a Warriors defender
and both he and Allinson, a case of mistaken identity on the
laters part, found themselves in the penalty box. The Whitley
man, in pleading his innocence uttered a rather loud expletive.
To Michaels’ credit he immediately turned around and apologised
to the supporters behind the penalty box – fair play big man.
The Solway defence held out for the remainder of the match
fairly easily as neither side seriously challenged either
netminder and the clock ticked down to zero.
Scoring statistics for the
Sharks were as follows: Gordon Horne two goals and two assists,
Kevin Conway 1+1, Anthony Payne, Alan Crane and Shaun Kippin all
1+0, Tim McKay 0+3 and Ian Defty 0+1. Dewar Anderson saved
twenty-one of the twenty-six shots that he saved for a save
percentage of 80.77%. Anthony Payne was chosen as the Elsa’s
Hockey man of the match for the Sharks while Michael Allinson
received 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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