Ducks netminder Callum Preston receives the MVP award from team sponsor Richard Beevers, CEO of Customer Plus (Photo by Paul Breeze)
Saturday 14th September
2024 – NIHL Laidler Division: Deeside Ducks 4 - Kingston Sharks 5
The Deeside Ducks put in a plucky performance in their first ever league game, only narrowly losing out 4-5 to the Kingston Sharks at Deeside Leisure Centre on Saturday.
The Ducks team has been set up this season to provide a stepping stone between the highly regarded Deeside junior set up and the senior Dragons side and comprises mainly younger players with a few older heads to offer experience and stability. As such, the game saw NIHL debuts for 12 players who had never played at this level before.
Before the face-off, there was a minute’s applause in memory of Ken Taggart - the former player, referee and long time Chairman of the English Ice Hockey Association – who died earlier in the week at the age of 78.
Once the puck had dropped, the visitors were quickest out of the blocks and took an early lead after just 42 seconds. However, the Ducks managed to settle down and their first ever league goal came on 12 minutes 32 seconds scored by Thomas Milnes, assisted by Charlie Spridgeon.
The score remained 1-1 at the first period break and although they had been outshot by almost 3 to 1, the Ducks had given a good account of themselves.
The second period saw 2 unanswered goals for the Sharks and they edged further ahead early in the third period to lead 1-5 with 15 minutes left to play.
The Ducks second goal of the game came on 50 minutes with team captain Chris Jones firing in a delayed penalty strike punishing a Sharks tripping call and this served to spark a late Deeside fightback.
Further goals for the Ducks – from Cody Ogden on 54 minutes and the same player on 57 minutes - drew the home side to within one goal of their opponents.
Both teams called timeouts in the latter stages to discuss last ditch tactics, wrenching up the tension around the rink, but there was no further scoring and the game finished 4-5 to the Kingston Sharks.
The MVP awards were donated and presented by Mr Richard Beevers, CEO of Customer Plus - who are one of the Ducks team sponsors for the season.
These went to Joe Gray for Kingston and Deeside netminder Callum Preston who managed to turn away an incredible 42 of the 47shots that he faced over the 60 minutes.
Speaking about the game afterwards, Head Coach Gary Shaw said:
“For the first competitive game for the newly formed Ducks, the team performed well together. They had to overcome not really knowing each other’s game as they have been on the ice for less than 2 months and only 1 practice game. The experienced players in the team helped the junior players at this level.”
“As the game progressed, they made a few mistakes, which we expected to happen, and we can see as a coaching team what we need to focus on to be able to build on this performance. We have a good base to build on, and as the team grows together from this strong performance, we should see that they will have a good competitive season.”
The Ducks now have two away games – away to Coventry NIHL Blaze this Saturday 21st September in a combined league and cup game and then to Kingston in Hull the following Saturday.
They are next at home on Sunday 29th September when they take on the Sheffield Titans at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5pm face off.
You
can follow the progress of the new Deeside Ducks team as they embark on their
debut season in the NIHL Laidler Division on their Facebook page. HERE
Ducks Line-Up v Kingston Sharks:
Paul Jones (NM), Charlie Spridgeon, Michael
Speare, Louis Morgan, Gary Dixon, Stewart Cutting, Henry Phillips, Thomas
Milnes, Kieran Clarkson, Heather Clarkson, Ben Roscoe, Louis Ellwood, Cody
Ogden, Callum Preston (NM), Chris Jones, Joshua Jones, George Spofforth, Kenny
Williams, Rory Sillery, Luke Wainwright, James Morgan, Jack Davies
Bench staff: Peter Bleackley (Coach), Steven Fellows (Coach), Angela Wilkes (Manager).
