Saturday 29th October – Moralee Division
Sheffield Scimitars 1 – YKK Widnes Wild 3
The YKK sponsored Widnes Wild put an end to their recent losing streak with a 1-3 victory away to the Sheffield Scimitars on Saturday.
Widnes had lost their last three league matches in a row and Sheffield had only picked up one point all season prior to this encounter so something had to give. Luckily, it went the way of the Wild camp in the end but, as the score suggests, this game was really close throughout and the result could have gone either way until the very last seconds.
Widnes got off to the best possible start with a goal from Player Coach Richard Haggar just 14 seconds from the puck drop. There were plenty of chances for both teams and Sheffield went on to equalise with a powerplay goal on 12 minutes, leaving the score at 1-1 at the first period break.
The hosts upped their game in the second period and narrowly outshot the Wild but it was Widnes who scored the next goal to retake the lead with a strike from Dani Haid on 39 minutes. That was the only goal in the second period so the Wild were able to take a very slender advantage back to the dressing room with 20 minutes left to play.
The third period saw a full scale assault on the Wild net – with Sheffield outshooting the visitors by 20 to 8 - but they were unable to find a way past Widnes netminder Miles Finney who, once again, put in a superb performance.
It only takes a matter of seconds to score a goal in ice hockey so a single goal lead is always rather precarious.
As the clock ticked down, the pressure built up on the Wild defence as Sheffield pushed forward to try and force a late equaliser. The Scimitars withdrew their netminder for the last minute in favour of an extra attacker but the tactic backfired and Nathan Parkes-Britton scored an empty net goal with just 2 seconds left on the clock to seal the win for the Wild.
The victory sees Widnes in 5th place in the Moralee Division table at this early stage of the season with 4 wins from 9 league games, 2 points behind 4th place Solihull Barons who have also played 9 games.
The Wild are next at home on this Sunday 6th November when they take on Deeside Dragons in the Moralee Division at Planet Ice Widnes, 5.30pm face off.
The M56 Cup game away to Deeside Dragons – which was originally scheduled for Saturday 5th November - has had to be postponed as the Dragons’ home venue is not available due to a firework display being held on the same day. Discussions are ongoing to try and arrange a suitable date for the game to be played.
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