Winning brace seals third place for Wild
THE YKK sponsored Widnes Wild made sure of finishing in third place in the Moralee Division league table with a four-point weekend that saw them notch up home wins over Blackburn Hawks and Billingham Stars.
This represents a superb achievement for a team who are playing their first ever season in this higher division as it means they will finish above several other long established teams.
In the game on Saturday, the Wild swept past a numerically deficient Blackburn side with few of the dramas that had clouded previous encounters between the two sides.
Widnes opened the scoring after just 22 seconds with a goal from Latvian import Vlads Vulcanovs and 4 minutes later the score was 2-0 courtesy of Mikey Gilbert.
The Wild were very much on top in this first period – outshooting the visitors by an incredible 30 to 12 – and they were further rewarded with a 3rd goal on 11 minutes – a powerplay effort from the stick of Vulcanovs again.
Blackburn eventually found the back of the net themselves in the 14th minute on a delayed penalty call against Joe Greaves for interference but the score remained healthy looking 3-1 to Widnes at the first period break.
The second period saw a great improvement for the Hawks in terms of puck possession and shots on goal but they still had great difficulty finding a way past Widnes netminder Harrison Walker. In fact Widnes scored again – on 28 minutes through Liam Charnock – to further extend the advantage, before Blackburn hit back 30 seconds later to score what would turn out to be their only other goal of the game.
The remainder of the game was rather subdued as the Wild elected to sit back to protect their lead and save their energy for the next day’s home game against Billingham.
The scoring for the evening was eventually rounded off in the 53rd minute with Liam Charnock’s second goal of the game – and the result means that Widnes can claim North West bragging rights over the Hawks for the season - at least by virtue of “goals scored” in the 6 games between the two teams (33 –20), which saw 3 wins for each side.
The game on Sunday against Billingham Stars was remarkable for several different reasons. As you would expect, it was highly entertaining with both teams still in the race for important finishing positions in the Moralee Division table but, with it being such a finely balanced opening to the game, neither team was able to make an early breakthrough.
That means that it was goalless at the end of the first period and, quite unusually for a senior men’s NIHL game, there were no penalties handed out either.
The first goal – when it did come – fell to the visitors, who eventually took the lead in the 27th minute. Widnes equalised 6 minutes later with a goal from Mikey Gilbert but Billingham edged back into the lead with 3 minutes to go in the period and held on to lead 1-2 at the second break.
Despite the scoreline at this stage, Widnes were well on top throughout this game in terms of puck possession and shots on goal and their superiority finally began to pay off in the third period.
Tom Stubley fired in the equalising goal on 44 minutes and then Nathan Britton put the Wild into the lead for the first time in the game 4 minutes later.
A goal from Joe Greaves on 55 minutes put a bit of daylight between the two teams and Latvian import Vlads Vulcanovs made sure of the win with his 35th league goal of the season with just over 2 minutes left in the game.
The whole game was played without a single penalty being awarded which is a very rare occurrence in competitive men’s ice hockey.
The two wins for Widnes over the weekend – along with defeats for Solihull and Sheffield - mean that the Wild can not be overtaken by the chasing pack and are guaranteed to finish in third place in the Moralee Division, in their first ever season playing at that level.
They have two more games in their regular season schedule before the play off quarter finals, which take place over the Easter weekend. These are: Sunday 3rd April: away @ Billingham Stars (5.30pm face off )
Sunday 10th April: home v Sheffield Scimitars (5.30pm face off)
The Widnes Wild Ladies team are at home this Sunday 3rd April when they take on the Slough Sirens in the Women’s Premier League – 4.15pm face off.
After the game against Blackburn on Saturday, Liam Charnock was presented with the Player Of The Month award for February. This highly popular award was re-introduced this season and is voted on by the fans via an online Twitter poll.
It is the second time that Charnock has been voted Player of the Month, having also received the award for October.
The full list of winners to date this season are: