Rollercoaster campaign ends in defeat
THE Widnes Wild Ladies team finished off their rollercoaster Women’s Premier League season with an 8-2 defeat away to the Firebees in Slough on Sunday.
The home side took the lead three minutes into the game but Widnes drew level soon after with a superb goal from Katie Fairclough.
Two more quick-fire goals followed for the Firebees just 40 seconds apart and then a further strike late in the period saw them leading 4-1 at the first break.
Widnes had a much better second period in terms of puck possession and shots on goal but found themselves caught out at the back as they pushed forward trying to narrow the deficit. This led to three answered goals, which gave the Firebees a commanding
7-1 lead at the mid-way point of the game.
Wild heads did not drop, however, and the continued Widnes pressure was eventually rewarded with a goal from team captain Leen de Decker on 38 minutes.
There was just one goal in the third period – for the home side in the 44th minute to bring the score to 8-2 – and embattled netminder Stephanie
Drinkwater put in another heroic performance in the Widnes goal to keep the score down.
In fact, she turned away an incredible 60 of the 68 shots that she faced over the course of the game and actually finished the match with a better overall “save percentage” than her opposite number on the winning team.
Another interesting statistic saw the Wild women not incur any penalties for the third game in a row – quite possibly some sort of record - and this was, indeed, the 7th out of 16 league games overall this season where they managed to go penalty free.
Sunday’s win over Widnes meant that the Firebees made sure of a 4th place finish in the league table and thus clinched the final spot in the end of season play offs.
The WPL regular season programme finishes off next weekend with Kingston v Slough on Saturday and Bristol v Firebees on Sunday and the top four teams will meet in the play off weekend, which will be held at the Planet Ice rink in Widnes over 4th & 5th June.
● The Wild Academy Under 12 team rounded off their season with a 10-2 challenge match defeat away to Whitley Bay on Saturday.
It was very plucky performance by the Wild youngsters - who had a number of Under 10 age group players in their line up – particularly after an early start and long journey to the North East for the 12 noon face off.
Whitley took the lead just one minute into the game and built up a 3-0 by the time Widnes scored their first goal – through Stanley Shearn, with 30 seconds left in the period.
Three unanswered goals followed for the hosts and they led 6-1 at the second break and added two more early in the third period.
The Wild’s second goal of the game eventually came on 38 minutes with a strike from Jacob Foster but two more goals for Whitley just 22 seconds apart quashed any hopes of a late Wild rally.
● The Under 10s season is made up of multiple days of “cross-ice” games held typically between the same teams throughout the year. This season the Widnes Wild Academy faced Manchester, Bradford, and Telford, and also guested once at Hull mid-way through the season.
Games are played across the width of the ice, instead of using the full length of it, and are played for fun with no scores being recorded or player statistics officially collected.
The Wild U10 team started the season with no goalie and, under an EIHA ruling, were allowed to play an U12 goalie in order to get the season going. However, midway through the season saw two goaltenders join the team and both started their journey with focus and determination.
Jacob Shaw and Henry Pearson both took turns in goal and also stood in for the opposition in the cross ice events to help other teams out who were missing their own goalie.
With both new and returning players to the U10s squad, the focus for the season has always been and will remain to have lots of fun. Working as a team and concentrating on passing, shooting, finding space, learning positions and communicating between all of the players, helped the Wild Academy go from strength to strength as the season progressed. Due to player shortages within the U12s team, many of the U10s were asked to play up an age group and each one has done themselves very proud.
The U10s built the philosophy of “B Y B” which means to “Be Your Best”. Each player mentioned below did exactly that for the whole season, they played as best as they could regardless of opponent and came off every shift with a huge beaming smile!
THE WILD ACADEMY U10S PLAYERS FOR SEASON 2021/22 WERE: Joel Babu, James Back, Augustin Balaz, Elias Boardman, Ollie Cliffe, Jacob Downe, Caleb Eddleston, Max Goodey, Rex Goodey, Ethan Liversage, Kian Liversage, Lilly Miller, Heiko Petrusevicius, Jacob Shaw, Stanley Shearn, Harrison Ward, Poppy Ward, Henry Pearson.
The Widnes Wild Academy Junior Club operates competitive teams at Under 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 levels and also runs training sessions for children of all ages and abilities – boys and girls - from beginners to advanced.
For more information, contact the Academy Head Coach Mike Gilbert by email at mike.gilbert@planet-ice.co.uk or telephone 0151 420 7930.