Dani Haid scored in his first game back for the Wild (Photo by Keith & Jenny Davies)
Saturday 18th January 2025 – NIHL Moralee Division: Nottingham Lions 3 – Widnes Wild 5
The Widnes Wild NIHL team gave their play off hopes a boost with a highly important 3-5 win away to Nottingham Lions on Saturday.
The first period played out goal-less and it remained goal-less until Nottingham finally broke the deadlock with the opening goal in the 28th minute.
4 minutes later, the score was 2-0 to the Lions and it looked as if the Wild could be in trouble. However, they rallied from this and a goal late in the period from Bailey Thomson kept Widnes in contention, and the score stood at 2-1 at the second interval.
Nottingham edged further ahead on 45 minutes but a Wild goal from Ben McLellan 40 seconds later reduced the deficit back to just one
Widnes were on a roll by now and Luke Alston fired in the equalising goal on 49 minutes but received a heavy challenge for his trouble. McLellan piled in to stick up for his team-mate and was subsequently banished from the game for a check to the head on the perpetrator.
The Wild dug deep and managed to weather the ensuing 5 minute powerplay and Dani Haid fired them into the lead for the first time in the game with a goal on 56 minutes.
Nottingham withdrew their netminder in favour of an extra attacker in the hope of salvaging something from the game but Bailey Thomson scored an Empty Net Goal with 56 seconds left on the clock to seal the win for Widnes.
With Sheffield Scimitars not playing at the weekend, Saturday’s win sees the Wild leapfrog them off the bottom of the Moralee Division table into 9th place, three points behind Leeds Knights whom occupy the final play off spot.
The Widnes Wild NIHL team are next in action on Saturday 25th January when they entertain high-flying north-west rivals Blackburn Hawks at Planet Ice Widnes, 7pm face off.