Wednesday 7 February 2018

Halton Huskies and Grimsby Stormers in 29 Goal Thriller


Top: Ashley Hame scored 5+3 for Grimsby. 
Above: Edward Ridding opened the scoring for the Huskies
away at Grimsby  (Photos by David Law)
Saturday 3rd February 2018 – Challenge Match
Venue: Grimsby
Grimsby Stormers 26 – Halton Huskies 3
Period Scores: 9-2, 11-1, 6-0
Penalties In Minutes: Grimsby 4 – Halton 8
Match Officials: Bentham / Sewell

Halton Huskies Line Up and Scorers:
James Kelly (1+1), Michael Parkin (1+0 4PIM), Kevin Ashcombe, David Simonds, Paul Barratt, James Williams, James Behan, Conor Cooper, Nathan Hewitt, Edward Ridding (1+1, 4PIM) Stephen Burns (nm).


Grimsby Stormers Line Up and Scorers:
Jason Haigh (12+0 2PIM), Luke Clark (4+7), Ashley Hame (5+3 2PIM), Lubovir Swatojanski (3+2), Oskars Melovoks (1+3), Ross Smith (1+0), John Yorston (0+2), Steven Drew (0+2), Gareth Drinkall (0+1), Andrew Welbourne, Ryan Wilkinson, Josh Wood (nm).


The Halton Huskies travelled across the country to North Lincolnshire to take on the Grimsby Stormers in what turned out to be a fascinating 29-goal game. Unfortunately for the Widnes-based team, 26 of those goals ended up in their own net and, while the final score might look rather one-sided, it was useful experience for the Huskies against notably stronger opposition.

The Huskies actually scored first – just 97 seconds intro the game with a well taken solo effort from Edward Ridding - but by the time Michael Parkin scored their second at 11.13, the Stormers had already fired in 5 goals of their own to take an unassailable lead. 4 more goals followed for the Grimsby team – including 3 within 33 seconds of each in the last minute of the period, to give the Stormers an impressive 9-2 lead at the first break.

Two more goals just 13 seconds apart at the start of the second period set the tone for the rest of the game and the Stormers were leading 19-2 by the time that the Huskies scored their third goal – through James Kelly in the 38th minute. Grimsby found time for another goal before the second break and took a 20-3 lead into the third period.

The Stormers scored again just 38 seconds into the third period and added two more in the next 60 seconds. The Huskies actually managed to shut up shop after that and kept the marauding home side down to just 3 more goals in the remaining 18 or so minutes in what was their best phase of play, although they were defending for much of the time and had very few shots on goal.

Top scorer for the Stormers was Jason Haigh with 12+0 while Ashley Hame contributed 5+3 and Luke Clark 4+7.

The Halton Huskies have more games arranged over the next few weeks:

Sunday 18th Feb: home v Whitley Bay Sharks – face off 8.30pm
Sunday 25th Feb: home v Sheffield Ice Tigers – face off 8.30pm
Sunday 18th Mar: home v Coventry Spitfires – face off 8.30pm
Saturday 7th April: away @ Whitley Bay Sharks – face off 12.15pm
Sunday 22nd April: away @ Solihull Grizzlies – face off 7.15pm
Saturday 28th April: away @ Blackburn Buccaneers - face off 6.15pm
Sunday 17th June: home v Blackburn Buccaneers - face off 8.30pm

Home games are played at the Silver Blades / Planet Ice rink at Widnes and admission is free!