Whitley Warriors began their play off preparations in fine style as Simon Leach’s side beat local rivals the Billingham Stars 7-5 in a challenge match up at Hillheads. Warriors without a number of their players for this fixture as Nathan Ryder is currently out of action with a shoulder injury while 2 of the Whitley youngsters in Ben Richards and Callum Read were away with the Great Britain Under 18’s playing in the World Championships up in Dumfries, Scotland.
In a bizarre twist of events Billingham had no senior goaltenders available for this game so Warriors loaned Stars their 2 back up goalies Joe Harley and Mark Turnbull. Joe iced for the opening period of action with Mark playing the remainder of the contest for the Stars.
Assistant Coach Dave Holland ran the Warriors bench against Billingham as Head Coach Simon Leach was away helping to coach the GB under 18’s. Richie Lawson played in goal with Whitley rotating 5 d men throughout the contest. Warriors started the game with 4 forward lines however captain DJ Good was double shifting as he played on both the 2nd and 4th lines.
Whitley started the game positively and just 48 seconds into the contest Adam Reynolds fired Warriors into the lead when he netted an unassisted marker. Warriors were looking very dangerous in the opening stages of the game and Harry Harley made it 2-0 to Whitley at the 5 minute mark when he fired past his brother Joe in the visitors net.
The home side continued to create offensive opportunities and Harley quickly found the back of the net again after he had been set up nicely by experienced blue liner Rob Wilson. Warriors 4th line then got in on the act and grabbed a goal when Daniel Murdy lit the lamp with youngster Kyle Ross providing the assist.
Warriors extended their advantage to 5-0 just 54 seconds into the 2nd period when Adam Reynolds fired home his 2nd goal of the game again unassisted. Under a minute after the 5th goal of the evening the first penalty of the contest was called by referee Tony Boynton when Warriors Karl Culley was given 2 minutes in the sin bin for holding the opponents stick. This infringement gave Billingham a powerplay opportunity and Stars made the most of their man advantage when Stephen Wallace found the back of the net with a sweet strike.
Billingham then started to play some nice hockey and the visitors netted 3 quick goals towards the end of the 2nd period when Wallace, James McCabe and Anthony Price all scored for the visitors, which saw Stars just 5-4 down going into the final stanza of action.
Stars continued to impress offensively and just six minutes into the 3rd period Billingham tied the game up when Michael Bowman scored a powerplay marker after Whitley’s Dan Harris had been given a 2 minute penalty for tripping alongside a 10 minute misconduct penalty. Warriors also lost the services of teenage forward Callum Queenan early in the third period when the youngster left the action due to a shoulder problem.
Despite losing a 5 goal lead Warriors were still able to lift their game late on and Daniel Murdy fired Whitley ahead on 52 minutes when he beat Stars stand in netminder Mark Turnbull. Just a later Warriors skipper DJ Good almost increased the home sides lead further however his powerful effort cannoned back off the cross bar. Whitley did make it 7-5 shortly afterwards though when Harry Harley grabbed his 3rd goal of the game which saw the Tynesiders claim the victory and maintain their impressive recent form.
Warriors Points
Harry Harley 3+0, Adam Reynolds 2+1, Daniel Murdy 2+0, Jamie Tinsley 0+2, Rob Wilson, Kyle Ross and Callum Watson 0+1
Stars Points
Stephen Wallace 2+1, Michael Bowman, James McCabe and Anthony Price 1+0, Garry Dowd 0+3, Richie Thornton and Ben Davison 0+1
Penalty Minutes
Warriors – 14
Stars – 12
Whitley’s Adam Reynolds was chosen as the Man of the Match which will be sponsored by the Tyne Bank Brewery next season. Stars stand in goaltenders Joe Harley and Mark Turnbull were assessed as the visitors best players on the night.
Warriors Coach Dave Holland shared his views on the game.
“I thought we had a great start everyone followed the systems we wanted them to and we finished the period really well. Billingham picked up their game in the 2nd and caught us out a little.
“In the third period everyone buckled down and did their job and I think we proved we were the best team of the night.
“I thought Daniel Murdy played well for us tonight, we moved him to the 3rd line with Callum Queenan getting injured and it worked really well.”
Warriors are next in action this coming Saturday (face off 6.30pm) when Whitley travel down to Teesside to face the Billingham Stars in the final challenge game before the NIHL North Moralee Conference play offs get underway up in Dumfries in mid April.
Tickets are still available for the play off weekend which is over the 11th and 12th of April at the Dumfries Ice Bowl and supporters can acquire them by visiting http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/search/Dumfries+Ice+Bowl+Dumfries. Warriors would be grateful if supporters can state they are Whitley fans when booking their tickets for play off weekend.