Team Captain for the day Laura Marcroft was the Wild Women’s MVP in the match against Leeds (Photo by Paul Breeze)
The DMUK Widnes Wild women’s team put in a battling performance but ended up on the wrong end of a 2-3 scoreline against Leeds Roses in their last game of the season at Planet Ice Widnes on Sunday.
The Wild Women had lost 8-2 in the away fixture against Leeds earlier in the season and then suffered a huge disappointment in their last home game against Sheffield when an equalising goal with just 27 seconds left to play robbed them of a win, so there was a lot of cross-Pennine pride at stake in this final league game.
The match started well for Widnes and they opened the scoring in the 7th minute with a well-taken goal from Preston Gennoe. There were numerous chances for both teams and the visitors had a slight edge in terms of shots on goal, but Stephanie Drinkwater water looked very composed in the Wild net and the score remained 1-0 at the first period break.
The second period was as closely contested as the first – with lots of end to end action - and Leeds eventually equalised with a goal on 25 minutes. Widnes hit straight back, however, and a second goal from Gennoe on 29 minutes edged the home side back in front.
The score stood at a tantalisingly close 2-1 to Widnes at the second interval and the Wild Women just needed to carry on as they were and hang on for another 20 minutes to bring their season to a winning conclusion.
Having managed to keep penalty free during the first two periods, it all began to go wrong in the third as the clock ticked down and the game began to get niggly. Leeds pushed forward in an attempt to force an equaliser and Widnes were forced into conceding penalties to keep them at bay.
The game changing moment came when the Wild women were 35 seconds into a slashing call and Leeds were able to make the most of their player advantage to level the score with 12 minutes still to play. This gave the Roses a huge boost and they went on to take the lead 3 minutes later.
The Wild women pushed hard to try and find a way back into the game but they were unable to make any headway against the stubborn Leeds defence in the last 10 minutes and the game ended in a narrow 2-3 victory for the visitors.
The Wild Women’s Most Valuable Player awards for this season have been sponsored by Lucy London - Poet In Residence for the 5th year in a row and consist of goodie bags containing a limited edition MVP teddy bear and a selection of Body Shop products provided by Running Mum Beauty. The awards were presented by match volunteer Colin Ellis and went to Emma Allender for Leeds and Laura Marcroft for Widnes.
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The Wild Women finish the season in a mid-table position in WNIHL Division 2 North. Their final placing is not yet confirmed as other teams still have games left to play.
There is also the situation regarding two unresolved away games - at Grimsby and Hull – which were supposed to be re-arranged but have not been due to ice availability issues. The League Management Committee will make a decision on these games and allocate league points accordingly.
