Wild tame Tigers in penalty-filled game
WIDNES WILD .....................................9 TELFORD TIGERS 2 ............................1
THE YKK-sponsored Widnes Wild gave their NIHL Laidler Division title defence hopes a huge boost with a 9-1 victory over the Telford Tigers 2 Team at Planet Ice Widnes on Sunday.
The game started well for the Wild with M.J. Clancy scoring the opening goal after just 51 seconds.
Team captain Danny Bullock doubled the advantage 7 minutes later and Ryan Kemp made it 3-0 on 13 minutes.
The second period started with a lively incident that saw the Wild’s Chris Gee expelled from the game for fighting and during the ensuing five minute Telford powerplay, the Wild managed to score two shorthanded goals to build up an impressive 5-0 lead.
The Wild defence came under a lot of pressure as Telford tried to make the most of their man advantage and they eventually broke through with a powerplay goal of their own at 31.34.
The Wild bounced back from this and two more goals – from Czech import Jakub Hajek and a second for Bullock – gave them a commanding 7-1 lead at the second period break.
The third period was pretty much all Widnes, as they out-shot the Tigers by 19-6 over the last 20 minutes. By this point, the game was obviously beyond Telford’s reach and it seemed merely a case of how many more the Wild could score.
Peter Toth scored an eighth goal for the Wild two minutes after the restart and Matt Tarpey fired in the Wild’s ninth goal on a powerplay on 50 minutes.
While not a violent game, there
● Jakub Hajek scores for the Wild were a lot of penalties handed out and Telford did not help their cause by picking up a stream of calls for incitement and abuse of match officials, particularly during the last period.
The Tigers had been a bit of a bogey side for the Wild over the past few seasons, so this was a good win to get under their belt as they now head into an important series of league games that will see them make up some of their games in hand over the other teams.
Peter Toth’s goal on 42 minutes was his first league goal for the Wild since joining from Sutton Sting during the summer and he received the MVP (Most Valued Player) award for Widnes. Liam Preece
received the MVP award for Telford and these were both presented by Wild match night volunteer Sue Cartlidge.
The YKK-sponsored Widnes Wild are next in action this Sunday 24th November, when they take on Moralee Division Blackburn Hawks 1 team in the NIHL Midland Cup at Planet Ice Widnes – 5.30pm face off.
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