‘Four-pointer’ victory for Wild
THE YKK sponsored Widnes Wild consolidated their third place position in the Moralee Division table with a weekend that saw a 9-3 defeat away at league leaders Solway Sharks on Saturday and then an 8-4 win over fellow play-off hopefuls Solihull Barons at Planet Ice Widnes on Sunday.
The loss away in Scotland to the runaway “champions elect” was always on the cards but the game against Solihull was a real “four-pointer” and the Wild now sit clear of the Barons on points, and with a game in hand heading into the final furlong of the league season.
In the game at Solway on Saturday, the first period started off pretty even with the Sharks taking the lead on 7 minutes and Liam Charnock equalising for the Wild just 90 seconds later.
Solway edged ahead again with a delayed penalty goal on a hooking call on 13 minutes and went on to lead 3-1 at the first period break.
A fourth goal for the Sharks five minutes from the restart was cancelled out by a Tom Stubley goal but any hopes of a Widnes fightback were dashed when Joe Greaves got into a fight and was ejected from the game for kneeing. Solway scored on the resulting powerplay and a further goal late in the period saw them lead 6-2 after 40 minutes of play.
Three unanswered Sharks goals early in the third period put the game well and truly out of Widnes’ reach and a Matty Barlow strike with 10 minutes left to play rounded off the action for the night.
The home game on Sunday saw Solihull take the lead after three minutes and it took until the 15th minute for the Wild’s Latvian import Vlads Vulkanovs to fire in the equaliser.
Solihull hit back with two quick goals late in the period slightly against the run of play and led 1-3 at the first break.
Three straight goals in the second period – two from Player / Coach Richard Haggar and one from Mikey Gilbert - edged Widnes into the lead for the first time by the half way point of the contest – but Solihull kept battling away and tied the game at 4-4 with one period left to play.
The Wild upped their game considerably in the last period and threw the proverbial kitchen sink at the Barons – outshooting them by 24 to 10 in the final 20 minutes.
The pressure paid off as three more goals from Vulkanovs (to give him an impressive 4 in the game) and one from Dani Haid saw Widnes coast to an 8-4 victory, which gave them a clean sweep over Solihull in the 4 league meetings this season and also handed them the initiative in the battle for the end of season play off places.
Vulkanovs’ four-goal haul means that he remains the top goal scorer in the Moralee Division for the season so far with 30 strikes in 19 games Solway’s Peter Gapa and Nottingham’s Zachary Yokoyama are joint second with 27 goals each. Gapa leads the scoring standings in terms of overall points with 52, while the Wild’s Richard Haggar has the highest number of assists and currently sits in third in the list with 12+33=45.
The Wild are away in East Lancashire next Sunday 20th March when they take on North West rivals Blackburn Hawks – 6pm face off. They then have two home games the following weekend – against Blackburn on Saturday 26th March and Billingham on Sunday 27th March.
A special “double header” ticket offer has been made available for fans to be able to watch both home games that weekend at a reduced price.
The double header weekend ticket will cost £17.00 for adults and £10.00 for children and will cover both games. This represents a saving of £5 on the normal cost of two games for adults and £2 for children.
The special “Weekend” tickets must be purchased in advance, either in person from the Box Office at Planet Ice Widnes or via the online booking system. More information can be found on the Wild club website at www.widneswild.co.uk.