Whitley Warriors took on the Manchester Minotaurs on home ice on Sunday evening in NIHL North Moralee Conference action. Warriors had all their senior players available to them and Coach Simon Leach opted to play 4 line hockey throughout the contest. The only player missing from the Whitley roster was youngster Ben Richards.
Recent signing Ryan Sample operated on Warriors 4th forward line along with youngsters Callum Queenan and Kyle Hindmarsh- Ross, club captain DJ Good dropped onto the line at times to add some more experience to the unit. Whitley opted to maintain the personnel and make up of their main 3 offensive lines (Culley, Tinsley, Reynolds – Watson, DJ Good, M.Good – Barnes, Murdy, Crammond) as all units have been very effective of late.
Whitley started the game positively and Warriors held a 1-0 lead by the 3rd minute of the game thanks to a superb Nathan Ryder effort from just inside the blue line which was just too powerful for Paul Maudlsey in the Manchester net. Warriors continued to create chances in the opening period of play and Tommy Ralph made it 2-0 with 15 minutes on the clock with another effort from distance after Daniel Murdy fed the puck to him after winning a face off in Manchester’s defensive zone.
Minotaurs prolific import Lukas Zeman who has a remarkable 20 goals in just 8 games this season was struggling to make an impact in the contest as Warriors were restricting the time the Czech forward had on the puck and without Zeman’s offensive zest Manchester were looking a little short of ideas up front.
Just 2 minutes into the 2nd period Callum Watson made it 3-0 when he found the back of the net from an acute angle after being sent on his way by d man Ross Hanlon. Warriors were now looking extremely dangerous offensively and Mark Good was the next Warrior on the scoresheet after Ryan Sample set Whitley’s number 4 up with a superb cross ice pass.
Whitey continued to create openings in the middle period of play and Adam Reynolds made it 5-0 on the half hour mark after some nice build up play from Karl Culley and DJ Good. Shortly after that strike Minotaurs had a powerplay opportunity as Rob Wilson was given a minor penalty for holding however Warriors penalty kill were able to restrict Minotaurs meaningful scoring opportunities while the visitors held the man advantage.
Manchester opted to change their netminder going into the last period of the game which saw young Harry Greaves replace the experienced Maudlsey in goal. Greaves made a couple of solid stops just after entering the game however the young goaltender gifted Warriors the 6th goal of the evening when he was unable to deal with a Jamie Tinsley shot from distance and the puck dropped over his head into the net. Warriors were short handed 3 on 5 at the time as both Callum Read and Rob Wilson were in the sin bin which made Jamie’s goal all the more remarkable.
With just 2 minutes and a second left in the game a flare up occurred on the boards when Ryan Sample clashed with Minotaurs Zeman. Sample was keen to drop the gloves against the Czech forward however Zeman had no interest in accepting the challenge and Manchester captain Jake Nurse bravely left the bench to go toe to toe with Sample. Both players were given misconduct and roughing penalties for the altercation however Whitley were placed on the short hand as Referee’s Lydall and Wardell awarded 16 minutes of penalties to Sample with Nurse collecting 14 minutes for his part in the incident.
This clash seemed to fire Manchester up and Minotaurs fired home their first goal of the game under a minute later when Max Drakeley netted on the powerplay after being set up by Sean Day denying Warriors netminder Richie Lawson his 1st shut out of the 2013/14 season.
Lawson was rewarded for his fine display of goaltending though as he was selected as Whitley’s Man of the Match in the 6-1 victory over Manchester with the industrious Sean Day being chosen at the visitors best player throughout the game.
Whitley Points –
Nathan Ryder, Tommy Ralph, Callum Watson, Mark Good, Adam Reynolds and Jamie Tinsley 1+0, DJ Good 0+2, Daniel Murdy Ross Hanlon, Ryan Sample, Karl Culley and Dan Harris 0+1
Manchester Points –
Max Drakeley 1+0, Sean Day 0+1
Penalty Minutes –
Whitley – 28 minutes Manchester – 16 minutes
Next weekend’s game sees Warriors come up against the current NIHL North Champions the Solway Sharks at Hillheads Ice Rink on Sunday evening (5pm face off).
Warriors are hoping for a bumper attendance as two of the sides challenging for the NIHL North Moralee Conference title will be taking each other on in competitive action for the first time this season in a game that could well turn out to be a thriller.
A preview of the game should be on this website on Friday as Warriors look ahead to one of the most important games of the 2013/14 season to date.