Ross Douglass. Photo by IceHockeyMedia.
Whitley Warriors slumped to another derby defeat at the weekend, losing 7-2 at home to rivals Billingham Stars.
Whitley were without the injured trio of Kyle Ross, Adam Wood and Liam Smedley while Callum Queenan also missed out. They were however able to bring back Jamie Ord, who had missed the last eleven games and was a welcome addition to the line-up. Josh Crane got the start in goal.
The opening two periods saw two evenly matched sides that couldn’t be separated. Following some scrappy play in the opening exchanges it was Whitley that got the early breakthrough, Phil Edgar scoring off the game’s first powerplay opportunity at 3:14.
But Billingham were soon level three minutes later with a powerplay goal of their own. With Warriors captain Dean Holland off the ice for roughing, Michael Elder was able to redirect James Hellens shot through Josh Crane’s pads with his back to goal just seven seconds into their man advantage. A hit late in the period saw Billingham’s Patriks Grigors get a two minute penalty for a check from behind which floored Shaun Kippin.
Warriors dominated the opening period in shots, 17-8 in Whitley’s favour, but only had the one goal to show for it after Thomas Brown made some important saves.
With the sides continuing their even match up into the second period, it took until 27:59 for the Warriors to eventually re-take the lead when Ross Douglass fired home from his own rebound. The forward, who was restored to the top line, watched his first two efforts saved by Brown in the Billingham net before he eventually scored with his third attempt and second rebound. Dean Holland recorded his 60th point of the season with an assist while Phil Edgar got his 30th assist.
But less than four minutes later, Billingham were back level once again. It was at this point where the game would turn against the home side. With the Warriors on the powerplay, James Moss picked off a pass to break up the ice to feed Chris Sykes with a tic-tac-toe move to the back post which saw the game tied at 2-2. Late in the period the pair would combine again to give the Stars their first lead of the game, one they wouldn’t relinquish.
Despite being a goal down heading into the break, Whitley could still feel confident given they had outshot their opponents 17-13 in the second period. However, all that soon changed in the third session as the Warriors conceded four goals in less than seven minutes.
James Moss scored 28 seconds into the final period when he stabbed home low under Crane’s pads, before a second shorthanded goal was given up 33 seconds later, Finn Braden and Callum Wilkinson breaking with pace for the former to feed the latter to score and giving Crane no chance. At that moment the Whitley bench decided to change goalies with Dean Bowater coming on in relief to a visibly upset Crane.
Dean Holland soon went into the box for tripping and that presented the Stars with another powerplay opportunity which Braden scored from 31 seconds later.
Moments after that Jay Lucas was in the box for roughing and former Whitley favourite Rolands Gritāns wasted no time in converting against his old team’s penalty kill. By this point Warriors looked shell-shocked. Unable to solve Brown, they never looked like scoring again. Billingham were physically stronger than their hosts and did to them what Whitley have done to teams for years.
Lennon Thomas and Ben Greenhalgh were sent to the box for roughing midway through the third period but with less than four minutes to go, Patriks Grigors was handed a five plus game misconduct for spearing. Stars comfortably finished the game with four men.
Stats
Shots
Warriors: 46
Stars: 38
Scorers
Warriors: Phil Edgar 1+1, Ross Douglass 1+0, Dean Holland 0+2, Matty McDonald 0+1.
Stars: Chris Sykes 2+3, James Moss 1+2, Michael Elder 1+1, Rolands Gritāns 1+0, Finn Bradon 1+1, Callum Wilkinson 1+0, James Hellens 0+1, Jack Emmerson 0+1, Joe Dowdle 0+1.
PIMs
Warriors: 20
Stars: 49
Man of the Match
Warriors: Anth Wetherell
Stars: Thomas Brown