Photo by IceHockeyMedia
Whitley Warriors took on fellow play off contenders the Solihull Barons on Sunday evening in a road game. Warriors were a little short of bodies in defence for the clash with Barons as the likes of Dan Pye and Joe Stamp were unable to make the trip down to the Midlands for the NIHL North Division 1 match up.
The opening goal of the game came on 7 minutes when Baron’s Andrew Whitehouse fired home however Warriors were only in arrears for 24 seconds as Stu Tomlinson quickly found the back of the net for the visitors. Solihull were able to regain the lead towards the end of the opening period of play thanks to a strike from Richard Slater.
Barons increased their lead to 3-1 shortly into the 2nd stanza of action when Ryan Selwood’s effort got the better of Warriors netminder Richie Lawson. Warriors were creating their own forward openings though and skipper Dean Holland pulled a goal back for Whitley with 26 minutes on the clock. Holland was again involved when Warriors levelled the scores at 3-3 as he fed the puck to Harry Harley who got the better of Josh Nicholls in the home side’s net.
Solihull recaptured the lead before the 2nd interval though when forward Thomas Soar grabbed his first goal of the evening. The final period of action saw the home side tally a further 3 goals through Josh Bruce, Andrew Whitehouse and David Rodgers which enabled Barons to skate to a 7-3 victory. The result leaves Whitley in 4th place in the standings with 22 points with Barons just 1 place and 2 points ahead of them in the table. Warriors crucially do still occupy a play off berth though and given the Tynesiders have a single point advantage over their nearest rivals for 4th spot the Sutton Sting the race for the final play off berth looks like it will go to the last game of the season.
Next weekend sees Warriors in action once again as David Longstaff’s side travel down to North Wales to face the Deeside Dragons who currently sit at the foot of the NIHL North Division 1 standings. A victory for Warriors against the Welsh outfit would be a huge boost to Whitley’s play offs hopes with only a handful of league games left in the 2016/17 campaign.