Ben Richards. Photo by IceHockeyMedia
Whitley Warriors headed to North Wales on Sunday evening for a league clash with the Deeside Dragons. Warriors welcomed former Deeside favourite Shaun Kippin back into their line up as the popular forward became available once again following suspension.
Once the action got underway it was Warriors who grabbed the games first goal when David Longstaff fired home. Whitley increased their lead shortly afterwards through Shaun Kippin however Dragons were able to level the game up by the end of the 1st period thanks to goals from Parsons and Chapell.
The 2nd stanza saw the home side take the initiative and Dragons held the advantage by 6 goals to 4 after 40 minutes of action with both of the Whitley strikes coming from Kippin who now had claimed his hatrick against his former side.
The game turned on its head in the final 20 minutes of play though as Warriors netted just 24 seconds into the period through Ben Richards before 2 quick powerplay goals from Dean Holland saw Whitley take the lead once more. Whitley continued to create chances and Kippin and Richards both grabbed further strikes which saw the scoreline 9-6 in the visitors favour.
At this point the home side opted to change their netminder however this tactic was unable to change the course of the match up as Warriors found the back of the net twice more with import forward Phil Edgar grabbing both of Warriors late goals.
Ben Richards who netted 2 goals and assisted on 6 strikes claimed the Man of the Match award for Warriors with Jordan Bannon being selected as the home sides best player on the evening. Shaun Kippin and David Longstaff who picked up 7 and 6 points respectively both also enjoyed their trip to North Wales.
Warriors are in action on home ice next weekend when the Nottingham Lions head up to Hillheads on Sunday evening in a fixture that will get underway at the normal face off time of 5pm. It would be great to see a large crowd in attendance as Whitley look to build upon their superb victory over Deeside.