Wild made to work before clipping the Hawks’ wings
● BLACKBURN HAWKS .............. 2 WIDNES WILD .......................... 8
THE RTL-sponsored Widnes Wild boosted their Laidler Division play off hopes with an 8-2 win away to the Blackburn Hawks on Sunday.
This visit to the league’s bottom team always looked likely to end in a Widnes victory, but the Hawks’ development team made them work hard for the points and the result remained very much in doubt until the third period.
Despite heavily out-shooting the Hawks throughout the game, the first goal did not come until the 12th minute when Nick Manning opened the scoring for the Wild.
Blackburn responded with a goal of their own just three minutes later and it was only due to a fine Pavel Vales strike late in the period that Widnes were able to take a narrow 2-1 lead into the first break.
The second period was another incredibly tense affair, with the Hawks defending strongly and the Wild attack having trouble making the most of their long spells of possession. In fact, it was Blackburn who scored next to tie the score at 2-2 just after the halfway point in the game.
The Wild’s one-goal cushion was eventually restored with a powerplay strike by Ollie Barron in the last minute of the period.
The third period finally ● brought out some of the form that the Wild will need to maintain over the next few games if they want to confirm their playoff credentials.
Three goals came in less than two minutes – from Matty Barlow, Geoff Wigglesworth and Barron – and the contest was effectively over by the 45th minute.
A goal from Mikey Gilbert shortly after that and then a powerplay effort from Wigglesworth in the dying seconds of the game rounded off the scor- ing and handed Widnes a welcome 8-2 victory.
With the other teams in the playoff chase all picking up points at the weekend as well, the league position is incredibly tight.
The Sutton Sting top the Laidler Division table with 50 points – four points ahead of both the Hull Jets and the Telford Tigers who have 46 each. Widnes are in fourth place, two points behind but they have a couple of games in hand over Telford and they play them away in Shropshire on Sunday in what will be a huge match for both teams.
Before that, the Wild have the relatively short trip to North Wales on Saturday teatime when they take on the Deeside Dragons’ development team at Deeside Leisure Centre. Face-off is at 5.45pm.
The Wild are next at home on March 11 when they play the Hull Jets in another crunch encounter at Planet Ice Widnes. Face-off is at 5.30pm and doors open at 4.45pm.