Ben Mclellan away at Sheffield – photo by RDG Digital
Saturday 2nd November 2024 – NIHL Moralee Division: Sheffield Scimitars 2 - Widnes Wild 3 (OTW)
Sunday 3rd November 2024 – NIHL Moralee Division: Billingham Stars 7 - Widnes Wild 0
The Widnes Wild NIHL team had a mixed weekend on the road, winning 2-3 in overtime away to Sheffield Scimitars on Saturday and then losing 7-0 away to league leaders Billingham Stars on Sunday.
The win away in Sheffield over fellow strugglers Scimitars was the Wild’s first league win of the season and was especially welcome as it removed the spectre that had been looming of notching up 10 league defeats in a row for the first time in one season.
As you can imagine from the scoreline, the game was very closely fought throughout and the result could easily have gone either way.
The Scimitars scored first and led 1-0 at the first interval and then scored again early in the second period. A goal from Wild captain Andrew Hopkins halved the deficit and the score stood at a finely poised 2-1 at the second period break.
A first goal for the Wild from recent signing Ben Mclellan tied the score at 2-2 and sent the game into a nail-biting overtime period where Jonathan Williamson fired in the sudden death winner.
Under new regulations introduced for this season, Widnes receive 2 league points for the overtime win while Sheffield get 1 point for drawing at the end of regulation time.
The game on Sunday away to league leaders and defending champions Billingham Stars was always going to be difficult, and so it turned out. The Stars led 2-0 at the end of the first period, 4-0 at the end of the second and then a third period hat-trick from their Canadian star Iain Brown rounded off the scoring for a 7-0 shut out.
The Wild are next in action this Sunday 10th November whey they take on Whitley Warriors at Planet Ice Widnes, 5.30pm face off.
