Wild take the brave step into North Cup
WIDNES Wild ice hockey team entered the NIHL North cup competition this season for the first time in five years.
And it was quite a bold step, as the team was in a rebuilding phase following the retirement of former player coach Ollie Barron and a lot of player turnover during the summer months.
Incoming head coach Mike Clancy heralded the move as one of the first steps in his ambitious three year plan to build a team that would be capable of regularly competing at a higher level and it was to be quite a test, as the competition involved the Laidler Division Wild team taking on four teams from the higher Moralee Division –
Blackburn Hawks, Solihull Barons, Sutton Sting and Nottingham Lions – on a home and away basis in the qualifying group.
With the widely acknowledged step up in playing standards between the two divisions, this was always only ever going to be a “toe in the water” exercise to assess relative team strengths but it did turn out to be a fascinating voyage of discovery.
In fact, the Wild did better than they had ever expected – holding the Blackburn Hawks to a 5-5 draw at the end of regulation playing time before narrowly losing out in sudden death over time – and then taking Nottingham Lions to a penalty shoot out decider, after having drawn 5-5 in normal time in the Lace City.
This was the first time that the Wild had ever taken points off higher league opposition in a competitive fixture and as such, was cause for celebration.
Close games at home to the Lions (2-3) and Sutton Sting (1-3) also brought lots of positives and the Wild were only really outclassed in their two matches against the Solihull Barons, losing 3-9 at home and 13-2 away.
As a bit of background information, it is worth pointing out that unlike in, say, football where “the cup” has a particularly set of traditions and part of the fun is seeing who progresses to the next round and who they might be drawn against, running any sort of cup competition in ice hockey tends to be more difficult.
This comes from the fact that ice time for all the fixture dates has to be agreed at the start of the season – and to fit in with all the other teams that use the rink as well as the overall league fixture schedule – and this makes it difficult to accommodate a pure “knock out” cup competition
Therefore, in order to reduce fixture confusion the only manageable way to hold a cup competition is to have a qualifying group or groups with just the winners going to compete in the final stages
Despite having its own - relatively long standing Challenge Cup, even British ice hockey’s Elite League doesn’t have a proper cup competition as such as they count the first league meetings between all respective teams towards the cup and arrive at the initial qualifying group from those results.
Thus, with many teams at NIHL level either having problems getting extra ice time at rinks or, indeed, operating as a purely “development only” team with little support to finance extra games, cup competitions tend to be organised on a season by season basis depending on which teams what to enter.
9th January 2016: Billingham Stars
7 - Widnes Wild 3
The Wild’s first cup game – and first ever visit to Billingham - saw an incredibly entertaining match with seven goals being scored in the first period. Billingham took the lead after three minutes but Scott McKenzie equalised for the Wild four minutes later. Michal Fico then cancelled out a second Stars strike before Billingham edged 4-2 ahead. Chris Preston pulled the Wild back into contention with a great goal on 18 minutes but that was the best of the action as far as Widnes were concerned.
A fifth goal for Billingham straight after the restart edged them further ahead and further goals either side of the second period break handed them a 7-3 victory.
27th February 2016 Blackburn Hawks 12 - Widnes Wild 2
Wild defended doggedly and it took until the 12th minute for Blackburn to open the scoring. They went 2-0 up on 15 minutes but Scott McKenzie pulled a goal back for Widnes. The hosts scored again for 3-1 at the end of the first period.
Any hopes of remaining in the game were dashed as Blackburn scored just 51 seconds from the restart and then raced to an 8-1 lead by the mid-point of the game. Wild’s Shaun Dippnall scored an excellent breakaway goal to pull the score back to 8-2 but four more unanswered goals in the third period rounded off an easy win for the Hawks.
6th March 2016: Widnes Wild 1 Blackburn Hawks 7
The return game against the Hawks ran pretty much to script with the Wild battling well but having trouble making any sort of headway against the league leaders.
The visitors opened the scoring on seven minutes and five more goals in the ensuing 10 minutes – including two within 25 seconds of each other and a penalty shot – saw the game pretty much over as a contest by the first period break.
In a much closer second period – which the Wild actually “won” 1-0 Danny Bullock scored the only Widnes goal of the game on 28 minutes.
27th March 2016: Widnes Wild 2 Solway Sharks 8
The score was a very narrow 0-1 to Solway at the end of the first period but two goals for the visitors in the second edged them further ahead. A great goal from Michal Fico on 31 minutes finally got the Wild on the scoresheet but two more goals followed for Solway and saw them leading 1-6 at the second period break.
Two further goals came for the Sharks in the third period before Thomas Ratcliffe fired in the second Wild goal of the night after 50 minutes to round off the scoring for the evening.
2nd April 2016: Solway Sharks 5 Widnes Wild 1
The Wild’s first and - to date - only ever trip to Scotland saw them travel to Dumfries to take on the Solway Sharks and, with no league netminder available for the trip, Widnes Wildcats recreational keeper Ian “Budgie” Thirkettle was called into action for the game.
Wild took the lead with a wellworked solo goal by George Crawshaw.
Two quick goals early in the second period put Solway in the lead and although the Wild outshot the hosts in that middle third, the score remained 2-1 at the second break. Ian Thirkettle put in a superb display in goal, facing 44 shots overall and only seeing five go past him and the Sharks finished off the scoring with a 2-0 third period for a final score of 5-1.
3rd April 2016: Widnes Wild 1 Billingham Stars 7
The Wild’s last game in the 2015/16 NIHL North Cup competition was always going to be a bit special as, with the way the fixtures had turned out, the Billingham Stars would move to the top of the group and win the cup if they won the final game at Widnes.
A defeat, however, for the Stars would mean that Blackburn Hawks would remain top of the group and win the cup instead.
Despite the eventual scoreline, this was a very closely balanced game for a lot of the time. Tom McDonald performed heroics in the Wild net to keep the Stars attack at bay and it took until the 16th minute for them to score their first goal.
Although Billingham then scored again just two minutes later for a 2-0 scoreline at the end of the first period, Widnes could be pleased with their efforts. Two more goals followed for the Stars in the second period and then, with two more early in the third, it looked as if they already had one hand on the cup.
Widnes finally managed a consolation goal with a great effort from Thomas Ratcliffe in the 55th minute and Billingham rounded off the scoring with a late strike with just 90 seconds left on the clock.
A delighted Billingham team – backed up with a sizeable travelling support – were presented with the NIHL North Cup – their first trophy since the won the league title in 2012 and Widnes were able to look back on an interesting first foray into the cup competition.
A revision of the government ruling on the re-opening of leisure facilities following the coronavirus lockdown means that ice rinks will not now be able to open from 25th July as originally hoped. The new date that has been issued is 1st August so Planet Ice Widnes and other rinks around the country are now working on that basis.