Dan Fadejevs scored against Billingahm on Saturday (Photo by Angel Devlin Sports Photography)
Saturday
21st March 2026 – NIHL Moralee Division: Deeside D1 Dragons 5 – Billingham Stars 4
Sunday 22nd March 2026 – NIHL Moralee Division: Billingham Stars 7 - Deeside D1 Dragons 3
The Deeside D1 Dragons rounded off their Moralee
Division regular league season with a mixed weekend beating Billingham Stars 5-4
at home on Saturday and then losing 7-3 to the same opposition away in the North
East on Sunday.
Saturday’s home game was the Dragons’ first since
they clinched the runners up spot in the league and there was quite a party
atmosphere with a sizable, vocal crowd.
There were display stands for the Andy’s Men’s Club
men’s health charity and Blood Bikes Wales and an exhibition of the rather
bizarre game of “Bubble Football” on the ice during the break.
Jake Witkowski opened the scoring for the Dragons
in the 3rd minute with a goal that meant he had beaten the previous record
for points scored in a single season in the Moralee Division.
Dan Fadejevs put Deeside further ahead on 9 minutes
but Billingham pulled a goal back just 14 seconds later and the score remained
2-1 at the first period break.
This game was extremely close throughout and Billingham
equalised on 23 minutes. However, goals
from Ross Kennedy on 28 minutes and Jake Witkowski on 37 minutes saw the
Dragons leading 4-2 and the second interval.
Billingham fought back again in the third period
and fired in two more goals to level the score at 4-4 with 5 minutes left to
play.
Undaunted by this late setback, the Dragons dug
deep and Colin Cromie scored the winning goal on 57 minutes on a powerplay,
punishing a Stars hooking call, to hand Deeside a narrow, close fought 5-4
victory.
Billingham were quickest out of the blocks on
Sunday and raced to a 3-goal lead before Jake Witkowski finally found the back
of the net for the Dragons on 18 minutes.
Colin Cromie further narrowed the deficit two
minutes into the second period but two more goals for the hosts saw them
leading 5-2 and the second break.
Billingham scored twice more in the third period to
open up a 7-2 lead and, although Ross Kennedy pulled another goal back for
Deeside on 55 minutes, it was too little too late and the Stars coasted to a
7-3 victory.
With his 3 goals and 2 assists at the weekend, Jake
Witkowski set a new Moralee Division record for points scored in a single
league season. His tally of 138 points (66 goals and 72 assists) beats the
previous record of 133 (65+68), which was set by Jason Hewitt of Hull Seahawks
in 2018/19.
Despite Sunday’s defeat, Deeside finish the regular
season in second place in the league table with 28 wins from their 36 games.
They finish 11 points behind champions Blackburn Hawks and 5 ahead of Solihull
Barons who finish 3rd.
The Dragons’ attentions now shift to the end of
season play offs where they will meet local rivals Widnes Wild in back to back
games in the quarter finals this weekend.
Deeside beat Widnes in all four of their league
meetings during the regular season and will be hoping to carry their excellent
recent form into the knockout games. But play off hockey can be unpredictable
and there is no such thing as a certainty.
The D2 Dragons have also qualified for the playoffs
in the Laidler Division and will face Coventry Blaze over two legs in their
quarter final tie this weekend.
Find out more about Andy’s Man Club HERE
Find out more about Blood Bikes Wales HERE
and find out more about Spartacus Bubble Soccer HERE
