It was all White on the night as the Taylors Butchers NIHL Coventry Blaze dominated the Hull Jets 4-1 with Dale White scoring all the goals.
The Blaze played a very physical game, playing on the Jets short bench with James Pease and Joseph Steeples leading the assault. Hull struggled to get anything going forward but netminder Jack Dalby stepped up his game to keep his side in with a chance.
Eventually the pressure paid off as Philip Pollok fires a shot and the rebound falls to White. White chips the puck over the body of Dalby and watches it drop down inside the goal after 15 minutes. The Blaze continued their attack but they couldn’t finish off and the period came to an end.
Just over a minute and Hull tie the game with Matt Jeffcock firing past Coventry netminder Connor Ranby who had originally been fairly untroubled. Dale Buckland left the game after a brief tussle with Jeffcock which gave him a match penalty for roughing. The offence for both teams seemed to struggle to mount any real attack until just four minutes remained in the period and White picked up his second, shooting from just inside the blue line after a pass from Pease. Hull had been gaining some momentum before the goal but this disappeared completely when White got his hat-trick with four seconds remaining in the period.
The final period started the same as the others, Coventry were physical but struggled offensively. Pease had the best chance as an attempted clearance hits him deep inside Jets defensive territory but Dalby again steps up to save. White nearly gets an assist as he passes across the goalmouth to Stephen Heape but a Jets stick knocks it just out of reach. Hull increase the pressure on Ranby to try and get one back but the defence manage to keep it out and feed it to White. He brings it just outside the Hull third and lets rip a rocket into the top left corner. Hull can’t get anything on the Blaze net and the Blaze are more than happy to sit back and see out the win.
Report by Marcus Gambrill
Photo of Dale White by Scott Wiggins - www.scottwiggins.co.uk