The Wild defend away at Hull (Photo by Vince Cowell)
Saturday 6th January 2024 – Moralee Division: Hull Jets 6 – Widnes Wild 3
The Widnes Wild NIHL team made a cautiously positive start to the new year with two battling performances on the road ending in a 6-3 defeat away at Hull Jets on Saturday and a narrow 6-5 overtime loss to Solihull Barons on Sunday.
The game at Hull started badly for the Wild as they conceded the opening goal after just 11 seconds, however a strike from Will Harper just two minutes later drew Widnes level and the score remained 1-1 at the first period break.
The teams were just as closely matched in the second period with Hull scoring again on 23 minutes and Joey Coulter equalised two minutes after that. Then a further Hull goal on 36 minutes was once again countered with a Mikey Gilbert goal 90 seconds later to leave the score standing at 3-3 after two periods.
As the game went on tensions began to boil over and the third period was riddled with penalties for both sides. Widnes suffered the worst from this phase of disruption and found themselves 5-3 down with 10 minutes left to play.
The Wild withdrew netminder Luca Tessadri for the last minute in favour of an extra attacker to try and salvage something from the game but the move back fired and Hull scored an Empty Net Goal with 14 seconds left on the clock.
