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| Rhys Edwards scored home and away against his former club in the Dragons' QF win over Widnes (Photo by David Tattum) |
Saturday 28th March 2026 – Play Off Q/Final (1): Deeside D1 Dragons 8 – Widnes Wild 3
Sunday 29th March 2026 – Play Off Q/Final (2): Widnes Wild 3 - Deeside D1 Dragons 5
Deeside win 13-6 on aggregate.
The Deeside D1 Dragons cruised into the semi finals of the Moralee Play Offs after a 13-6 two-leg aggregate victory over local rivals Widnes Wild at the weekend.
They beat their near neighbours 8-3 in the home leg
at Deeside Leisure Centre on Saturday and then finished the job with a 3-5 win away
on Merseyside on Sunday.
In Saturday’s home game, Deeside took the lead in
the 5th minute with a goal from Colin Cromie and then doubled the
advantage 8 minutes later with a powerplay strike from Jake Witkowski.
Widnes pulled a goal back on 18 minutes and the
score remained 2-1 at the first period break.
The second period was all Deeside as they outshot
their opponents by more than 2 to 1. Their efforts were rewarded by two
unanswered goals from Witkowksi – for a straight hat-trick – and then further
strikes from Theo Malone and Rhys Edwards.
Widnes finally pulled a goal back early in the
third period with a strike from former Deeside favourite Alex Parry but two
quick-fire goals within 30 seconds of each other on 51 minutes – from Dan
Fadejevs and Ross Kennedy – put the Dragons 8—2 ahead.
Widnes rounded off the scoring for the game on 55
minutes and Deeside were able to take an 8-3 lead into Sunday’s return leg.
Widnes led 1-0 after the first period of the game
on Sunday and went 2-0 ahead just 48 seconds into the second period. However
Deeside picked up after that and goals from Ross Kennedy and Colin Cromie saw
them draw level and then a brace from team captain Jared Dickinson saw them
open up a two-goal lead.
Widnes pulled a goal back on 35 minutes but the
Dragons still led 3-4 on the night with one period left to play, and 12-6 on
aggregate, so all was looking good.
Rhys Edwards scored the only goal of the third
period to edge Deeside further ahead and they comfortably progressed to the
semi final with a 13-6 aggregate victory.
The Dragons now face Hull Jets in the two legged
semi final which will be played on a home and away basis this weekend.
The other semi final will be contested by Blackburn
Hawks and Billingham Stars and the two winners will meet in the single game
final on 11th April as part of the Sheffield Showdown NIHL play off weekend.
