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| New Deeside netminder Curtis Warburton (Photo by Keith & Jenny Davies) |
Saturday 5th September 2026 – Challenge Match: Telford Tigers 2 - Deeside D1 Dragons 5
Sunday 6th September 2026 – Challenge Match: Deeside D1 Dragons 4 - Telford Tigers 1
The
Deeside D1 Dragons opened their season with back to back challenge match
victories over fierce rivals Telford Tigers over the weekend, winning 2-5 away
in Shropshire on Saturday and 4-1 at home at Deeside Leisure Centre on Sunday.
The
away game on Saturday saw Dragons debuts for summer signings Curtis Warburton,
Kane Morin and Lewis Baldwin and also call-ups for D2 Dragons players Lewis Edward
and Ben Roscoe.
Deeside
took the lead with a goal from Noah Percival on 5 minutes and the score
remained 0-1 at the first period break.
Matty
Barlow edged the Dragons further ahead 2 minutes into the second period and
further goals from Damarni James, Colin Cromie and Ross Kennedy saw them
leading 0-5 at the halfway point of the game.
In
comparison to some of last year’s tempestuous meetings between the two teams,
this was a relatively tame encounter but Telford eventually got going and
scored a goal of their own on 36 minutes, leaving the score at 1-5 at the
second interval.
The
Tigers scored the only goal of the third period on 55 minutes and the game finished
2-5 to the Dragons.
Deeside outshot Telford by 48 to 32 over the 60 minutes and new netminder Warburton put in an impressive display, keeping out all 10 of the shots that he faced before handing over to Jace Gledhill half way through the game.
Sunday’s
return match started off with a goal-less first period and the deadlock was
eventually broken with a Colin Cromie goal 70 seconds into the second
period.
A
second goal from the same player 4 minutes later doubled the Dragons advantage
but Telford pressure was eventually rewarded with a goal on 27 minutes.
Summer
signing Ryan Wardell took over in goal from Curtis Warburton at the half way
stage to make his Dragons debut and went to record a half “shut out” as he turned
away all 15 shots that he faced.
Damarni
James scored for the second game in a row on 35 minutes and the Dragons led 3-1
at the second interval. The only goal of
the third period came from the stick of Dragons’ U18 GB international Theo
Malone to hand Deeside a 4-1 victory.
The
competitive league season starts this Sunday 13th September for the D1 Dragons
as they take on Sheffield Scimitars in the NIHL Moralee Division at Deeside
Leisure Centre, 5.15pm face off.
