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| Photo by Kat Garner |
Saturday 28th April 2018 – Challenge Match
Blackburn Buccaneers 8 - Halton Huskies 4
Period Scores: 4-2, 4-2, 0-0
Penalties In Minutes: Buccaneers 6 - Huskies 2
Match Official: L Wright
On the night that the Great Britain team won the gold medal in Budapest and, with it, promotion to Pool A of the World Championships for the first time in 25 years, the Blackburn Buccaneers and Widnes-based Halton Huskies played out an exciting challenge game at Blackburn Arena on Saturday night, resulting in an 8-4 win for the home side.
The Buccaneers opened up the scoring with a goal within 90 second of the start from Simon Pickering and were 2-0 up after a strike from Mark Jenkins on 5minutes. The Huskies hit a goal back through Jeff Chapman-Watson with 9 and half minutes gone but the Buccaneers restored their 2-goal lead just 20 seconds later with a goal from Michael Walsh.
A second goal from Walsh on 15 minutes put the Buccaneers 4-1 ahead but a strike from Huskies’ Anthony Hughes kept the margin at two goals heading into the first break.
The Huskies upped their game in the second period but any chance of pulling themselves back into the reckoning were lost as the Buccaneers scored three unanswered goals between 27 and 32 minutes – courtesy of Scott Anthony-Jones, Karl Milton and Simon Pickering - to give themselves what would turn out to be an unassailable lead.
The Huskies then hit back with two quick goals of their own - from Jeff Chapman Watson and Michael Parkin – to bring the score to 7-4 but anther goal from Jenkins just 40 seconds later put the Buccaneers firmly in control.
Rather unusually, the last 25 minutes of the game were played out goal-less and the scored remained 8-4 to the Buccaneers at the end of 60 minutes.
The two teams meet again in the return fixture on Sunday 17th June at Planet Ice Widnes – 7.30pm face off.
Full Line Ups & Player Stats:
Blackburn Buccaneers:
Simon Pickering (2+2), Karl Milton (1+0), Carl Everitt, Sam Towse, Michael McLoughlin (0+3), Scott Anthony Jones (1+0, 6PIM), Chris Beesley, Daniel Ewen, James Longworth, Michael Walsh (2+0), Mark Jenkins (2+0), Adam Bolton, Jade Bolton, Dan Watson, Glen Rattray - nm
Halton Huskies: Connor Cooper, Eduards Savickis, Howard Hughes, James Kelly, James Behan, James Williams, Jeff Chapman-Watson (2+0), Anthony Hughes (1+1), David Simonds, Daniel Trust (2PIM), Kevin Ashcombe, Michael Parkin (1+0), Mike Smith, Paul Barratt, Thomas Jenkins, Joel Clark - nm
