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| Isabel Bateson was the Wild Women’s MVP at Caledonia (Photo by David Mair) |
The Widnes Wild Women played their first away game of the new WNIHL
season away to Caledonia Steel Queens in Edinburgh on Saturday and had to
travel back home south of the border on the wrong end of a 16-1 defeat.
The game saw Widnes debuts for three more summer signings:
Netminder Isabel Bateson, who has come from a background in university
hockey,
Esme McCann who is also a player with the new Manchester Storm women’s team
that are playing in Division 2 North this season. She is benefitting from an
England Ice Hockey development initiative that allows young players to “play
up” for another team in a higher division to give them extra ice time and
experience,
and Dee Vause, who is also on a 2-way arrangement - with Whitley Bay Beacons
having previously played junior hockey with Blackburn, Manchester and Bradford.
The game on Saturday was another tough one for Widnes and they were on the
back foot pretty much from the start. Caledonia opened the scoring in the 3rd
minute and were leading 7-0 by the end of the first period.
Widnes finally found the back of the net in the 28th minute when
Karyn Cooper fired in a blueline shot for a powerplay goal to punish a tripping
call to make the score 7-1 but the Wild Women were unable to build on that.
The Steel Queens led 11-1 at the second interval and scored 5 unanswered goals
in the third period to secure a comprehensive 16-1 victory.
Bateson – making her WNIHL debut in the Widnes goal - had a busy time of
it and faced 67 shots, turning away an impressive 51 of them and, without her
sterling efforts, the score would probably have been higher.
The Wild Women are next in action on Sunday 26th October when
they welcome the Steel Queens in the return fixture to Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm
face off.
You can see the whole match on the Steel Queen’s YouTube channel HERE
And Karyn’s goal can be seen at 50.06 on the video.
