WIDNESWILD Success aplenty – but still
visitors grew in confidence.
Daniel Bullock was put clear by Sam Dunford in the eighth minute and he rounded netminder Mark Turnbull to equalise.
A big and noisy Wild visiting support nearly lifted the roof. Their noisy encouragement was in evidence throughout.
Within three minutes Wild took a sensational lead when some fine interpassing from Dipnall and Caunce led to Supa finding the net.
Widnes held the lead until the last seconds of the first period when a low shot beat a screened Ruxton.
Netminder Ruxton produced real heroics in the seond period, foiling dozens of Warriors raids but he was beaten by several shots coming through a crowd of players.
With the end of second period score at 6-2, Wild battled hard on tiring legs to shut down a home team keen to add to their goals total.
After taking an incredible 64 shots, Ruxton gave way to Nicole Jackson to see out the last ten minutes.
Although heavily outshot, Widnes battled through to the end with Bez Hughes and George Crawshaw close to scoring in the last three minutes.
Promotion / Relegation Play Off 2016 (Single Game)
16th April 2016: at Blackburn Arena Sheffield Spartans 5-0 Widnes Wild
Following their second place finish in the Laidler Division table behind champions Deeside Dragons at the end of the 2015/2016 season, the Wild once again qualified for a promotion play-off place.
This time the opponents were the Sheffield Senators but, on this occasion, due to a lack of ice time available at iceSheffield for the away game, it was agreed to play the match as a one-off tie at a neutral venue – in this case, Blackburn Arena.
This was the first time that a promotion play-off had ever been played as a one-off game in this country and it attracted attention from across the ice hockey world, with live coverage on NIHL Radio and lots of fans of other teams going to Blackburn to watch the game.
As things turned out, fortune favoured the Moralee Conference side as the Spartans took the lead as early as the third minute and never really looked like losing after that.
They outshot the Laidler Conference runners up by 40 to 24 and picked up what was their first win since the middle of January.
Widnes – despite having prepared well for the tie with recent NIHL North Cup games against Moralee opposition in the shape of Blackburn Hawks, Solway Sharks and Billingham Stars – were unable to make any impression on a stubborn Spartans defence and endured their only competitive shut-out of the season.
Promotion/Relegation Play Off 2017 (Single Game)
2nd April 2017 (at Blackburn Arena)
Deeside Dragons 4-3 Widnes Wild (after Overtime)
The Wild’s last foray into the promotion game brought with it their closest result to date.
The team were buzzing following their first ever trophy win in the Laidler Division Play-Offs and, with the promotion game pitting them against local rivals Deeside Dragons, there was much to play for.
Once again, the match was played as a single winner-takes-all tie at Blackburn Arena.
It was the third time in three seasons that Widnes had qualified for the promotion game, having lost 5-0 to Sheffield Spartans in a one-off game