Back to back losses but signs of promise
THE YKK sponsored Widnes Wild had an eventful opening weekend of the new NIHL 2021/22 season, putting in two battling performances but losing 5-4 away in the Midlands Cup to Blackburn Hawks on Saturday and then 4-7 at home in the league to Whitley Warriors at Planet Ice Widnes on Sunday.
The game in East Lancashire on Saturday saw Richard Haggar’s new look Widnes team come up against a lot of familiar faces in the Blackburn line up as, due to the relatively close proximity, there has been a lot of interchange of players over the years and these games are always very keenly contested.
The opening stages were very tense – with both teams testing each other out and neither wanting to give anything away – and it took until the 17th minute before former Wild player Lee Pollitt gave Blackburn the lead.
Tom Stubley equalised for Widnes just 90 seconds later but a further strike for the Hawks just 45 seconds after that handed the home side a 2-1 lead at the first period break.
The second period was just as close and pretty much the same thing happened as another former Wild player – Matt Wainwright - edged Blackburn further into the lead on 37 minutes and then new Widnes import – Latvian Vlads Vulkanovs - pulled a goal back just a minute later.
However, Pollitt was on target once again for Blackburn with just three seconds left in the period to leave the score standing at 4-2 to the Hawks.
The third period saw the Wild move up a gear and two goals within 90 seconds of each other – from Vulkanovs and then Nathan Britton - saw them pull level with 15 minutes still to play. Unfortunately, they were unable to build further on this positive spell and the score remained deadlocked at 4-4 as the clock slowly ticked down.
The decisive blow came with just under two minutes left to play when Blackburn scored what turned out to be the winning goal – interestingly enough from another former Widnes player, Michal Novak.
The home game on Sunday - at home to reigning champions Whitley Warriors in front of a sellout crowd - got off to a dream start for the Wild with a goal from Keiron Furlong after just 33 seconds.
The Warriors got into their stride, however and equalised on 9 minutes and then edged into the lead just 90 seconds later with a powerplay goal.
Two more goals for Whitley gave them a 1-4 lead at the first period break but Widnes were giving a good account of themselves in their first ever Moralee Division game and there was still plenty to play for.
The next goal also went to the visitors - on 24 minutes - and then a sixth goal at the half way point of the game looked as if might have put the game out of the Wild’s reach. However, heads did not drop and a shorthanded goal from Vlads Vulkanovs on 33 minutes followed up by a superb strike by player coach Richard Haggar halved the deficit and raised hopes of a Widnes fightback.
Whitley bounced back with another goal on 37 minutes to make the score 3-7 and then shut up shop for the night. Widnes looked better as the game went on and managed to outshoot the visitors by 17 to 16 in the third period but the Warriors’ defence was very stubborn and it took until the 57th minute of the game before the Wild were able to breach it again.
A second goal of the night for Vulkanovs rounded off the scoring – handing the Wild a 1-0 “win” for the period - and the game finished 4-7 to the Warriors.