Sheffield Senators lined up for their 3rd game of the season against Deeside Dragons at Ice Sheffield on Saturday afternoon. Another competent performance against hard working opponents saw Senators cement their second place in the league table with a deserved 5-1 victory.
Sens got off to a great start with some good spells of pressure in and around Deeside’s net but it took a cracker of a shot from just inside the blue line from Sam Hurst to open the scoring; a shot that left Dragons netminder Cox absolutely no chance timed at 4.59. Senators almost made it 2-0 from which Dragons broke out to nearly equalise after which both defences were in determined mood not to concede in a period that Senators shaded as the better team; certainly looking the stronger of the two teams.
The second period got underway pretty much as the first had done but this time the pressure on Dragons goal paid off with an early strike from Nathan Britton assisted Tom Humphries on 20.30. Senators couldn’t quite press home their early dominance and should have increased their lead but as the period progressed Deeside became a little more adventurous which in turn saw Senators at times let Dragons come onto them but restricted Deeside to just four shots. However one of those shots found its way into Sens goal, a powerplay goal scored by James Parsons and in fairness was probably just rewards for their efforts but imagine that Senators would have been disappointed going into the period break 2-1 up.
Into the third period and Senators stepped it up a few notches to dominate the period. They looked comfortable on the puck and the few times Deeside did threaten, Sens were on their game to break up any attack on their goal. Nathan Britton added two goals, the first timed at 45.32, assisted Josh Gent & Tom Humphries, the second which was his hat-trick goal and a beauty too was timed at 53.17. Tom Humphries got the assist has he set Nathan up who showed great skill and awareness to pick his spot and fire an unstoppable shot past Cox. Senators, who also had a goal washed out for high sticks with the puck coming off the high stick of a Deeside player into the goal, saw the period out by playing sensible hockey to both thwart and frustrate their opponents. Dragons continued too battle away and whilst pressing for goal on the powerplay lost possession as a loose puck found Sergevs "Stevie" Jegorovs who calmly passed to Josh Gent who showed a great deal of tenacity to break and score a good short-handed goal on 58.51 to make the score, which was the final score too, Senators 5 Deeside Dragons 1.
Another solid team performance, one of the better "home" performances to date with another positive result against spirited opponents however, on the day they were in the end, no match for Senators on the day which included an impressive hat-trick from Nathan Britton (in photo) who was awarded both the Man of the Match beers and the Senators Shield by his teammates.
Report by Phil Holden