The NIHL North Division Championship Play Offs get underway this weekend at Ice Sheffield with the top 4 sides in both Division 1 and 2 battling it out to be crowned champions of their respective divisions. Whitley Warriors face the Solihull Barons in the final game of the schedule on Saturday evening in a game that faces off at 7.30pm.
Warriors and Solihull have met on 4 occasions so far this season with Whitley coming out victorious on 3 occasions though it was the Barons who won the last contest the 2 sides played one another in a league match up in mid March. All of the games between Warriors and Solihull this term have been highly competitive physical match ups and this weekend’s clash looks set to be another tight tense game between 2 well matched sides.
Whitley talisman Dean Holland shared his thoughts ahead of Play Off weekend.
“The lads are feeling great we are full of confidence, exactly how you want to be going into the playoff finals. I don’t think the later face off will make much difference to us, we need to control the things we can control in the game and not worry about anything else.
Dean went onto give his views on the match up with Solihull.
“Obviously playoff games are always physical and they are generally played on the edge. At the end of the day it’s a situation where if we win our 2 games we will come away with a trophy. I’m not sure if I will see any of the other games that’ll be going on over the weekend maybe just the one before Warriors game I suppose as we’ll be at the rink then.”
Dean then spoke of his admiration for all of the Warriors fans who will be supporting the club in Whitley’s play off bid this weekend.
“I would just like to thank you to everyone who is making the trip to Sheffield to support the Warriors! I know you will be the loudest fans in the building! I’m sure you’ll be our extra player out on the ice. When our fans get going there’s no better fans than Warriors fans! #COYW.”
Warriors look set to go into the play off weekend with an extremely strong roster of players for Whitley’s coaching team of David Longstaff and Dave Holland to choose from. The entire Warriors organisation has been preparing for the play offs for several weeks now and it would be great to see a sea of maroon and gold at Ice Sheffield when Warriors hit the ice for their game with the Solihull Barons.