Pirates in cruise mode to play-off semi-finals
STING HAVE NO ANSWERS TO CHAMPIONS
IT had been 28 years in the making.
Twenty-eight years dogged by financial strife and false dawns, interspersed with on-ice heartbreaking close shaves as underdogs, but finally on Saturday Hull Arena bore witness to a league title celebration.
For fans - from “oldies” of the 1988-89 first season as Humberside Seahawks to “newbies” enticed by the city’s senior team’s latest reincarnation Hull Pirates - it was a moment to savour.
There was the whiff of nostalgia as former Hull captains Mike Bishop and Stephen Johnson returned alongside current skipper Jamie Chilcott to raise a banner which proudly declared Hull Pirates to be National One North champions.
Pirates arrived on the ice to a standing ovation and Queen’s “We are the Champions” belted out over the sound system.
True, it didn’t match the scenes of delirium that had accompanied Pirates’ title victory six days earlier in Sheffield, nor did the post-game trophy presentation.
It was merely confirmation Pirates had delivered the much-craved title that had been awaited since the all-conquering 1990-91 Humberside Seahawks.
That glorious season the Seahawks also won the play-offs. On present form, Pirates could well follow in the footsteps of those who carved their niche in Hull’s ice hockey history.
Sutton Sting, Pirates’ play-off quarter-final opponents, were hopelessly out-classed and never destined to be party-poopers.
Pirates won as they pleased at 14-1 on Saturday and 15-3 in last night’s academic second leg.
Parity lasted under three minutes as Sam Towner opened Pirates’ account.
Thereafter, it went downhill for Sutton, with Jason Hewitt bagging four goals, with two each from Lubomir Korhon and Matty Davies, another from Towner and one from Sonny Karlsson, Jordan Fisher, Jon Kirk and Tom Stubley.
At 9-0 down Dom Martin opened Sutton’s account in the 44th minute, but it served only to spark Pirates into inflicting more punishment.
Sutton had more chance of resolving Brexit than pulling back the deficit last night.
Pirates led 6-1 at the first break, briefly wobbled at 7-3, but were 11-3 up after 40 minutes before adding four goals in the final period for a 29-4 aggregate score.
“I’m not being cocky, but it’s what we expected, to be fair,” said player-coach Hewitt post-match on Saturday.
“The trophy presentation was a little toned down because we’d won it last weekend in Sheffield, but we wanted to show fans our appreciation on our home ice.”