Wild celebrate clean sweep at Billingham
BILLINGHAM STARS ...... 2 YKK WIDNES WILD ........ 4
THE YKK sponsored Widnes Wild rounded off a clean sweep of wins for the season over the Billingham Stars with a 2-4 victory away in the North East on Sunday.
It was their fourth win in four starts against the Teesside team this season and, along with similar 100% records against the Solihull Barons and Nottingham Lions, represents a superb achievement for a team who are playing their first ever season in this higher Moralee Division.
Billingham took the lead in the fifth minute of the game – which was very closely contested throughout – but Widnes equalised four minutes later with a strike from top goal scorer Vlads Vulcanovs.
The second period saw Billingham take the lead again 25 minutes but, once again, Widnes drew level - with another Vulcanovs
goal three minutes later.
The Wild took the lead for the first time in the game with a goal from player/coach Richard Haggar on 33 minutes and the score remained at 2-3 at the second break.
Billingham gave a very good account of themselves throughout the game and out-shot the Wild by some margin but were unable to make the most of their chances. Instead, Widnes went on to extend the lead with a 4th goal on 54 minutes from Tom Stubley and they held on to notch up another important victory.
Although there are still games left to be played in the Moralee Division’s regular season, the results over the weekend mean that the pairings for the Play Off Quarter Finals are all confirmed. The quarter finals will be played over two legs, home and away, on the weekend of 16th & 17th April and will feature:
Solway Sharks v Nottingham Lions, Whitley Warriors v Blackburn Hawks, Widnes Wild v Billingham Stars and Sheffield Scimitars v Solihull Barons.
The winners of each tie will progress to the Moralee Play Off weekend, which will be staged at Planet Ice Leeds the following weekend.
Before that, the Wild still have one more game to play in order to round off their regular season schedule in the Moralee Division. The last league game of the season is this Sunday 10th April when the Wild take on Sheffield Scimitars at Planet Ice Widnes. Face off is at 5.30pm and doors open at 4.45.
The YKK sponsored Widnes Wild were pleased to make a special award to fan favourite Mikey Gilbert after the home game against Billingham last Sunday to recognise his having passed 100 games with the club.
Gilbert joined the Wild from Altrincham Aces back in the summer of 2017 and has now notched up 127 games in Widnes colours, scoring 69 goals, 97 assists and accumulating 141 PIM.
He was presented with a Wild shirt signed by all the players with his name and “100” printed on the back.