Flynn Massie was the Wild MVP against Hull – Photo by David Tattum
Saturday 1st February 2025 – NIHL Moralee Division: Widnes Wild 2 – Hull Jets 4
The Widnes Wild NIHL team put in another gutsy performance against a team from the top half of the league table but narrowly lost out 2-4 to Hull Jets at Planet Ice Widnes on Saturday.
This game was pretty close for the first two periods and the result could have gone either way – and extra spice was added to the fixture by the presence of a number of former Widnes players – including former Wild player coach Richard Haggar - on the Hull roster this season
It took until the 14th minute for the breakthrough, which fell to Hull with one time Wild player Kieran Beach firing the Jets in front. Matty Barlow equalised for Widnes in the 18th minute but evergreen Andrew Florence fired the visitors back in front just 30 seconds later and the score remained 1-2 at the first period break.
Widnes levelled again just 2 minutes into the second period with a goal from Bailey Thomson but they weren’t able to build on this and, despite numerous chances for both sides, the score stood at a finely balanced 2-2 at the second interval.
Hull edged back into the lead on 43 minutes with a goal from their new signing – Latvian Devids Jurinenoks, recently arrived from Blackburn Hawks - and the same player doubled the advantage 5 minutes after that.
Widnes had a chance to try and salvage something from the game late on when Kohen Taylor - another former Wild player – picked up a 2+5 penalty with three minutes left to go, meaning that the Jets would have to play the remainder of the game shorthanded.
They withdrew netminder Campbell in favour of an extra attacker to try and force home the man advantage but were unable to make any headway against the stubborn Hull defence and the score finished at 2-4 to the visitors.
In the battle to avoid the wooden spoon, the Moralee Division’s bottom club Sheffield Scimitars lost to both Leeds Knights and Nottingham Lions over the weekend to leave them rooted at the foot of the table. Widnes are just 2 points ahead of them but have the luxury of 4 games in hand, so they look likely to avoid the unwanted kitchen utensil accolade.
Those weekend wins for the Lions and the Knights mean that they have both increased their advantage over the Wild in the table - to 18 and 6 points respectively. Despite having three games to come against Nottingham, Widnes are unlikely to be able to catch them in 7th place but they still have a chance of overtaking Leeds and snatching the 8th and final play off spot.
The Wild have a tough weekend coming up when they take on the top two teams in the Moralee Division. They travel to East Lancashire to play second place Blackburn Hawks on Saturday 8th February – 6pm face off – and are then at home to league leaders Billingham Stars on Sunday at Planet Ice Widnes, 5.30pm face off.
