The game opened at a furious pace with both netminders in early action.
Chris Preston broke clear for Wild in the 6th minute and his shot to the top
right corner was well saved by Hartley.
Despite some strong attacking, the final shot was letting Widnes down.
After sustained pressure Sheffield took a lead at 15.37 - Nathan Britton
scoring from close range. The visitors increased their lead on the powerplay at
18.10, Tom Humphries firing home a low shot from the blue line into the bottom
left corner.
After Widnes had opened the 2nd period with purpose, Nathan Britton
broke clear and fired an unstoppable shot past Greg Ruxton at 23.45. A
disastrous three minutes followed with Sheffield scoring three more goals
without reply. Widnes called a time out and finally some organisation came into
the defensive play. After an altercation behind the Sheffield goal, Widnes
finally took advantage of the powerplay for Filip Supa to find the net at
36.19. After some sustained Widnes pressure, Sheffield broke clear on the
powerplay and despite Ruxton saving to his left, the puck crept inside the left
hand post at 39.51.
In a final penalty-strewn
period, Widnes piled constant pressure on the Sheffield net. Despite having a 5
on 3 advantage on several occasions, they couldn’t find a way past netminder
Hartley who kept out 23 shots. The monotony was broken when Chris Preston and
Joel Aheran dropped the gloves and battled in front of the Sheffield net. In a
rare attack on the Widnes net, a speculative shot from Arron Bell beat Greg
Ruxton to take the final score to 1 - 8. This was a really disappointing
display from the Wild, greatly missing the creative talents of the missing
Bobby Caunce.
Report by Dick Gillingham
Photo by Geoff White - www.gw-images.co.uk
