Jake Witkowski scored 4 goals against Billingham (Photo by Angel Devlin Sports Photography)
Sunday 7th December
– NIHL Moralee Division: Deeside D1 Dragons 10 – Billingham
Stars 6
The Deeside Dragons made it five wins in a row with a 10-6 victory over defending
champions Billingham Stars at Deeside Leisure Centre on Sunday.
The Stars have been having a disappointing season by their own high standards
but this was the first time that the two teams had met in the current campaign
so it was a bit of an unknown quantity.
As it turned out, this was a thriller of a game, with end to end hockey,
played at a furious pace throughout.
Deeside took the lead with a powerplay goal from Jake Witkowksi with
just 95 seconds gone on the clock It was
2-0 to the Dragons courtesy of a Matty Barlow goal 82 seconds after that but
then Billingham found their feet and hit back.
Three straight goals for the Stars saw them overhaul the Deeside lead
and sneak ahead 2-3 by the 9 minute mark. The Dragons equalised with a second
Barlow goal on 11 minutes but Billingham edged ahead once more within 40
seconds.
A Ross Kennedy strike drew Deeside level once again on 16 minutes and
the score stood at an evenly balanced 4-4 at the first period break.
The Dragons edged back into the lead again on 24 minutes with Witkowski’s
second goal of the game but, once again, Billingham equalised almost immediately.
Ross Kennedy put Deeside back in front with a goal at the midway point
of the game and, despite the Dragons outshooting the Stars by 3 to 1 over the course
of the period, the score remained 6-5 at the second interval.
The third period started with yet another Billingham equaliser as the
Stars punished a boarding call with a powerplay goal on 42 minutes and the score
remained locked at 6-6 as the game headed into its final 10 minutes.
Jake Witkowski’s hat-trick goal on 52 minutes put the Dragons back into the
lead and there was finally daylight between the two teams when Ross Kennedy put
away his third goal of the game on 57 minutes.
Billingham called a time out at this point and removed their netminder in
favour of an extra attacker but the tactic failed as Witkowski fired in an
empty net goal for his fourth of the night and pretty much sealed the win for
the Dragons.
A powerplay goal with just 25 seconds left on the clock for Charles
Phillips rounded off the scoring and Deeside were able to celebrate a hard
fought 10-6 victory.
Following the weekend games, the Dragons remain in third place in the
Moralee Division table with 38 points from their 18 games to date. Blackburn
Hawks still lead the table with 51 points from 19 games and Solihull Barons are
in second with 43 from 19.
Deeside now have a game in hand over both Blackburn and Solihull - who
played each other home and away over the weekend, with the Hawks winning both matches
Telford Tigers remain 2 points behind the Dragons in fourth place with 36
points after hammering the Nottingham Lions 10-2 on Sunday – having now played
the same number of games.
The D1 Dragons are away to Leeds Knights this Saturday 13th
December - 7,30pm face off - and are then back at home on Sunday when they take
on Solihull Barons at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5.15pm face off.
Sunday’s game will be especially important as, if Deeside manage to win
away in Leeds on Saturday and then beat the Barons on Sunday, they will leapfrog
Solihull and move up into second place in the league table
Before that, the D2 Dragons team are at home on Saturday when they take
on the Laidler Division’s bottom team, Nottingham D2 Lions – 5.15pm face off.
