Whitley face Sutton Sting on Sunday (face off 5pm) in Warriors’ first home NIHL North Division 1 game of the campaign. Warriors go into the game with a large roster of players for Coach Simon Leach to choose from however the experienced blue liner Rob Wilson is out of action due to a back problem while teenage forward Callum Queenan also misses out due to injury.
Warriors have several goaltending options open to them with four netminders in Joe Harley, Mark Turnbull, Richie Lawson and Jordan Boyle on the club’s books. Senior netminder Richie Lawson is now back in full training and will be pushing for a starting spot however given how well Mark Turnbull played in Warriors opening league game of the season when the youngster picked up the Man of the Match award, he will also be under consideration.
Young winger Ben Richards, who missed the Blackburn game through injury, is now fully fit and likely to be named in Warriors’ squad this weekend while the experienced forward DJ Good is set to ice after recovering from a hand injury he picked up in a pre-season game against Kirkcaldy Kestrels.
Warriors’ opponents on Sunday Sutton Sting play their first game of the 2014/15 season on Saturday evening when they take on Blackburn Hawks, curiously the Sting have not played any warm up games at all prior to their competitive campaign getting underway.
Sting have two imports on their roster in Slav Movko and Ivo Celar. Movko played for Sutton last term picking up 10 points during the campaign and the Latvian forward will no doubt be hoping to improve his point’s tally this season now that he has been able to acclimatise to NIHL hockey in the UK.
Sutton’s other import is defenceman Ivo Celar who has never played in British hockey prior to the 2014/15 season. Celar has played almost 100 games in the Slovakian second and third tiers of hockey which suggests that the 22 year old could well have more than enough quality to make an impact in the NIHL North set up this season.
Other players on the Sting roster who are worth keeping an eye on this Sunday include their top scorer from last season Jamie Spurr, Russian-born netminder Dmitri Zimozdra and dependable D-man James Goodman who has been part of the Sutton set up for a number of years now.