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| Colin Cromie in action for the Dragons away at Hull (Photo by Vince Cowell Photography) |
Saturday 25th October 2025 – NIHL Moralee Division: Hull Jets 4 – Deeside D1 Dragons 3
Sunday 26th October 2025 – NIHL Moralee Division: Deeside D1 Dragons 2 – Hull Jets 1
The Deeside Dragons had a mixed weekend with losing 4-3 away to Hull
Jets on Saturday and then beating the same opposition 2-1 at Deeside Leisure
Centre on Sunday.
The away game on Saturday was very closely matched in terms of puck
possession and shots on goal and the first period played out goal-less.
There were quite a few niggly penalties in this game and things all went
wrong for Deeside early in the second period when they conceded three powerplay
goals within 90 seconds of each other and suddenly found themselves 3-0 down.
Rhys Edwards eventually pulled a goal back on 29 minutes but the score
remained at 3-1 at the second interval and the Dragons had some catching up to
do.
They battled valiantly to try and claw their way back into the game but went
further behind to a fourth Hull goal on 49 minutes.
The score was still 4-1 to the hosts as the final minute approached and
Deeside withdrew netminder Tyler de la Bertouche in favour of an extra
attacker.
The tactic paid off – to a certain extent - as Jake Witkowski fired in a
goal with 28 seconds left on the clock to narrow the deficit and then Colin
Cromie scored straight from an icing face off at 59.59 - but it was too late to
salvage anything from the game.
Sunday’s game saw former Dragons’ favourites Cameron Kushnirenko and
Chris Jones drafted into the team - from the Division 2 team where they have
been playing this season – as emergency cover due to injuries and other player
unavailability.
As the score suggests, this was another close game with little to choose
between the two teams.
It took until the 18th minute for the first goal and that
fell to Bailey Thomas – and saw the Dragons take a narrow 1-0 lead into the
first break.
Colin Cromie doubled the Deeside lead 7 minutes into the second period with
a powerplay goal punishing a Hull tripping call but a series of penalties prevented them further building on this. Hull pulled a goal back on
36 minutes – also on a powerplay - and the game remained on a knife edge at 2-1
at the second interval.
Despite opportunities for both teams in the third period, the rest of
the game played out goalless and the Dragons were able to hold on and celebrate
a narrow 2-1 victory.
In the Deeside net, Tyler de la Bertouche turned away 26 of the 27 shots
that he faced and was named MVP for the Dragons.
After the weekend games, the Dragons remain in third place in the
Moralee Division table with 20 points from their 10 games to date. Solihull
Barons have taken over at the top of the table following a string of impressive
results and have 25 points from 9 games and Blackburn Hawks are now in second
place on 24 points with an unbeaten record of 8 wins from 8 starts.
The Dragons have back to back matches against Telford Tigers - who are
just 2 points behinds them in the league table with three games in hand - this
coming weekend
The away game is in Shropshire on Saturday 1st November and
the home game at Deeside Leisure Centre on Sunday 2nd November,
5.15pm face off.
