Renegades fail to Blaze trail in loss

JUNIOR ICE HOCKEY

WHITLEY Renegades are five points adrift of leaders Coventry Blaze in English Under-20 League after suffering a 1-0 defeat to the league leaders.

It was always going to be a difficult task going to the Skydome Arena to face the unbeaten Blaze.

The home side were on the front foot from the start and a string of penalties against the Renegades did not help their cause in the flow of the game.

It was their fourth minor penalty of the game which brought Coventry the only goal of the game, which Andrew Haywood tucked away past Thomas Brown.

Up until then Brown had been keeping Coventry at bay with fine saves and he was the busier of the two netminders as his opposite number Joshua Crane had only four shots to stop.

The second period again saw Brown keep his side in the game as the Renegades did not quite manage to take advantage of the opportunities which came their way.

Both sides could have added to the goals tally but Brown and Crane stood firm as the home side took the points with the only goal of the game.

The Renegades’ next game is against Sheffield Scimitars at Hillheads next month. ■■WHITLEY Bay Arrows were beaten 8-0 by the runaway leaders of English Under-11 North League Manchester Storm.

Home side Storm found the net as early as 50 seconds as Noah Kaarainen nabbed the first of his three goals.

He added his second three minutes later and in the fifth minute Kurts Baumanis, who assisted on the first two goals, grabbed the third.

Joshua Milnes and Kaarainan made it 6-0 by the completion of the first period.

If not for Arrows’ netminder Oscar Groot, who faced 25 shots in the period, the lead could have been many more.

Mark Lowes came on to replace Groot at the start of the second period and with just 65 seconds having elapsed the home side were 8-0 up, Baumanis and Josh Crawley completing the victory.

When there is an eight-goal winning margin in under-11 matches the scoring is not recorded - but the match continues.