Jace Gledhill picked up 2 MVP awards at the weekend (Photo by David Tattum)
Saturday 10th
January 2026 – NIHL Moralee Division: Widnes Wild 1 – Deeside D1
Dragons 2
Sunday 11th January 2026 – NIHL Moralee Division: Deeside D1 Dragons 3 - Widnes Wild 2
The Deeside D1 Dragons can proudly boast local bragging rights for
another season over near neighbours Widnes Wild after back to back wins against
their fiercest rivals at the weekend.
The Dragons won 1-2 away on Merseyside on Saturday and 3-2 at home on
Deeside on Sunday to complete a clean sweep of all 4 league games between the
two teams for the season.
The away game in Widnes was very close throughout and the result could
easily have gone either way. The Wild opened
the scoring after just 90 seconds but despite numerous chances for both sides,
the score remained 1-0 at the first period break.
The second period looked as if it was going to play out goalless but
Jake Witkowski fired in a Deeside equaliser with just 1 second left on the
clock, leaving the game all tied at 1-1 with one period left to play.
The Dragons had more of the play in the third period and their pressure
eventually paid off when Ross Kennedy fired the puck home on 55 minutes to
score what would turn out to be the game winning goal.
Jace Gledhill had an outstanding game in the Deeside goal, turning away
all but one of the 29 shots that he faced, and was named Dragons’ MVP for his
performance.
Sunday’s home game was similarly close and remained goal-less in the first period.
Deeside finally took the lead with a goal from team captain Jared
Dickinson on 28 minutes and Jake Witkowski doubled the advantage on 35 minutes.
Witkowksi found the net again with a powerplay strike with just 12 seconds left in the period and
the Dragons took a 3-0 lead into the second interval.
Widnes, however, looked dangerous throughout and scored two goals late
in the third period to reduce the deficit to just one.
This set up a nail-biting last couple of minutes but the Dragons held on
to record their fourth win over their local rivals this season and round off a
6-point weekend.
Jace Gledhill, once again, impressed in the Deeside net and picked up
his second MVP award in consecutive games.
Following the weekend’s results, the Dragons have moved back up into second
place in the Moralee Division table. They are tied on 53 points with Telford Tigers
who have also played the same number of games – 24 – and are only separated by overall
goal difference.
Solihull Barons - who also won twice at the weekend - are also in the mix
down in fourth place, two points behind but with a game in hand.
Blackburn Hawks still lead the table with 72 points from 26 games – massive
19 points clear at the top.
