Wild’s losing streak runs to seven games
THE Widnes Wild NIHL team rounded off their regular season league schedule with a 6-1 defeat away to Deeside Dragons on Sunday evening.
The prospect of finishing off the season with back-to-back derby games against local rivals Blackburn and Deeside might have looked quite appealing when the fixture list was being put together back in August but it has all become a bit of a nightmare for the Wild as they now find themselves on the wrong end of a sevengame losing streak.
They actually put up a good fight against the Dragons – at some times literally – but were unable to make the most of their chances when they arrived.
It took until the fifth minute of the game for the first goal and that fell to Deeside, who doubled their advantage on 13 minutes to take a 2-0 lead into the first period break.
A third Deeside goal on 25 minutes was followed by a fourth and the Dragons looked well in control by this stage. However, the home side started to pick up niggly penalties and Widnes had a number of powerplay opportunities including a brief 5-on-3. Unfortunately, they were unable to make any of them count and Deeside further extended their lead with a 5th goal on 36 minutes.
Former Wild player, now Dragon, Joe Greaves picked up a 5+game penalty for an incident at the end of the second period and this handed the Wild a 5 minute powerplay at the start of the third but, here again, they were unable to make the extra man advantage count in front of goal.
The Widnes duck for the night was eventually broken 42 seconds after the end of the powerplay when Jonathan Williamson fired in a Joey Coulter pass to finally give the travelling Wild fans something to cheer about.
Shortly after this, some pressure was relieved around the rink as a couple of skirmishes broke out on the ice, which resulted in Wild’s Kyle Carruth and Owen Rae and a couple of Dragons sitting out fighting penalties in the sin bin.
The game calmed down again after this and the match edged towards its inevitable conclusion. A 6th goal for Deeside on 56 minutes by former Wild import Jakub Hajek rounded off the scoring for the game.
Following the final weekend of games in the Moralee Division, the final positions in the league table have now been established and the pairings for the Play Off quarter finals are all confirmed.
Solihull Barons finish as runners up in the table after a 5-3 victory over Blackburn Hawks who have to be content with finishing 3rd. Deeside Dragons finish in a highly creditable 4th place. This is important because the playoff quarter finals match up the team finishing 1st with the team finishing 8th, 2nd playing 7th, 3rd playing 6th and 4th playing 5th.
With Widnes having finished in 7th place in the final Moralee Division table, they will now take on Solihull Barons in the quarter final which will be played over two legs this weekend – Saturday and Sunday 30th and 31st March. The winners of the 4 quarter final ties will qualify for the Finals Weekend that is to be held at iceSheffield over the weekend of 6th and 7th April.
The DMUK Widnes Wild women’s team suffered a 1-5 defeat at the hands of play off contenders Telford Wrekin Raiders at Planet Ice Widnes on Sunday.
Following on from their comprehensive 3-15 away victory over Whitley Bay in their previous game, there were hopes that the Wild women might be able to launch a late charge to qualify for the play offs themselves but Telford proved to be a much tougher challenge altogether.
The game saw home debuts for Charlotte McAdam and Eleanor Johnson but Widnes were missing a couple of regular players and had to juggle their usual lines, meaning that it took them a while to get going.
Telford scored the first goal mid-way through the first period and then added a second on 17 minutes, taking full advantage of a powerplay for a Wild penalty. The score remained 0-2 to the Raiders at the first period break but, with them having outshot Widnes by 6 to 18, it could have been worse had Stephanie Drinkwater not been on form in the Wild goal.
The second period saw a tighter Widnes defensive performance and, while they were still heavily outshot, the resulting 0-0 period score gave rise to hopes that there might be a late rally in the final 30 minutes of play.
These hopes were dashed by a third Telford goal just 55 seconds into the period – before incoming netminder Ellie Green had time to settle – and further goals on 42 and 44 minutes put the game well beyond Widnes’ reach.
The Wild breakthrough finally came with 45.33 on the clock when Widnes captain Charlotte Cramp slotted the puck past the Telford netminder, rounding off the scoring for the game.
The Wild Women’s Most Valuable Player awards for this season have been sponsored by Lucy London - Poet In Residence for the 5th year in a row and consist of goodie bags containing a limited edition MVP teddy bear and a selection of Body Shop products provided by Running Mum Beauty. The awards were presented by match volunteer Fiona Tyrer and went to Rebecca Craig for Telford and Karyn Cooper for Widnes.
The 1-5 result means that Telford remain in a good position to challenge for a top two spot and a place in the end of season play offs while Widnes look resigned to battling for the mid-table places.
The Wild women have two more home games left to play and await a league management decision regarding two outstanding away games for which no suitable replay date has been found.
The Wild Women are next in action on Sunday 28th April when they take on Sheffield Shadows at Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm face off.
● The Widnes Wild Academy junior teams had a mixed weekend, winning one and losing one of the two games that were played across the age groups.
The Under 16 team beat
Coventry U16s 6-3 at Planet Ice Widnes on Saturday, while the Under 18B team lost 4-8 to their Coventry counterparts straight afterwards.
This weekend sees Wild Academy Under 12 team away in Sheffield on Saturday 30th March – 2.35pm face off – and the Under 16s away in Leeds the same day, starting at 4.20pm.
The next home ice action for the Wild Academy teams is the weekend after when the U12s and U14s are both at home to Nottingham on Saturday 6th April at Planet Ice Widnes, starting at 4.20pm
Admission is free for all spectators to Wild Academy home games at Planet Ice Widnes and fans are encouraged to go along and support the stars of the future.
The Wild Academy players showed their support for World Down Syndrome day last week by wearing odd coloured socks at their training session on 21st March.