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NE derby finishes all square
Billingham Stars and Whitley Warriors shared the honours in a 1 -1 draw in front of a capacity crowd at Billingham’s TFM Arena on Sunday night. With Billingham 5 points clear at the top of ENL One North, and now with a game in hand to their North East rivals the scene was set for a derby clash as Warriors battled to keep their league challenge alive. As the puck was dropped Stars Dave Thomas and Warriors Callum Pattison removed their helmets and gloves and set about resolving a long standing grudge. Both players were despatched on 2 + 2 roughing calls timed at 20 seconds and the game got underway. Billingham got off to a dream start, with only a minute and four seconds played Stars skipper Paul Windridge released a bullet that whistled past the helmet of Richie Lawson in the Warriors goal and lifted the crowd to their feet. An end to end period ensued, but Warriors seemed intent on roughing the Stars off their game as Dean Holland collected a 2 minute sit for roughing during the face off after a minute and a half of play. Warrior’s fifth minute opener went in off Stars James Udell’s leg pad as he checked back, the goal was given unassisted to Warriors DJ Good. Warriors Dean Holland picked up his second roughing call in the 13 minute for an off the puck incident on Stars Simon Hehir. The first closed all level at one goal each. A defensive second session ensued with Stars pushing forward and Whitley breaking on the counter attack. Whitley captain Shaun Kippen received a 2 + 2 along with Stars Andy Finn after the pair exchanged blows following a Kippen reaction to a hit from the young Billingham blue liner. Whitley discipline again let them down when Callum Pattison left the game on a 5 + game penalty for a slash on Stars Anthony Prices stick. Billingham thought they had the go ahead goal as James Moss knocked down a looping rebound from the Whitley goalie. Referee David Emmerson pointed to the goal as an indication of a good goal, then washed the goal out after a high sticks protest from Whitley and in consultation with his linesman. The second closed deadlocked at one goal each. A minute into the third period the home crowd held their breath as Whitley’s Dean Holland broke away one on one with the Billingham goalie, Flavell turned Holland’s shot away to deny the visitors an advantage. As the third ticked down Richie Lawson turned on some stylish saves as he scooped a Simon Hehir shot out of the air. With 3 minutes left on the clock the Stars gained a power play advantage as Warriors Shuan Kippin was called for a delay of game penalty, after he lay on the puck in front of the visitor’s goal. Although the Stars showed signs of improvement over last week’s power play performance they faced an on fire Richie Lawson who kept the home side at bay and concluded an exciting 1 – 1 draw. Man of the match for the home side went to James Flavell in the Billingham goal who allowed 1 goal form 30 shots and Richie Lawson in the Whitley goal who allowed a single marker from 48 shots. Stars coach Stephen Foster was not alarmed by tonight’s result “Whitley needed the win; we are still five points ahead, with a game in hand” “Dave Thomas and Callum Pattison settled their differences early in the game, it’s not very often you see two players fight as the game opens but it cleared the air on some issues from the past” “That was a physical end to end game, a great advert for North East Ice Hockey. Whitley’s chances were generated on rushes and the high man; they didn’t seem to set much else up” “Everyone in the team stepped up to the mark tonight, we played the body and players were prepared to put their bodies on the line” “Both goalies had superb games, Richie Lawson pulled off some top drawer saves and Flav also proved why he is the best keeper in the league, he is gives us consistently high performances week after week”. “We never made a huge impact on the power play tonight, but we did see some improvement on last week’s effort at Blackburn, not only were we generating more chances, but there was an improvement in the way we executed those chances”. “We had a goal disallowed, in all honesty we would have complained if the same goal had been scored past us, the bit that was hard to fathom was that the referee had an un-obscured view, he instantly signalled for a goal, then obviously doubted his own judgement. The Whitley goal was just bad luck, it rebounded in off James Udell’s leg pad, but because there is no such thing as an own goal in ice hockey, it gets awarded to the last opposition player to touch the puck” Stars have two games next weekend; they travel face tough road trips at Telford then return to home ice action against Solihull on Sunday night (face Off 18:30).
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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4-5 |
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2-4 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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5-2 |
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3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
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- Billingham crowned ENL North playoff champs
- Billingham ready to take the title
- New record, as Blackburn take lead
- Flavell looks for third straight title
- Stars book ENL final place
