Silverthorn Four-midable as Tigers Take Derby Day Honours. Hexagon Telford Tigers 1 took a short trip to Solihull for the first of back to back games against the Barons this weekend. In their previous game, Tigers had closed the gap at the top of table to one point and held a game in hand over leaders Sheffield. Tigers’ previous visit to Hobbs Moat this season had seen a 9-4 victory and a remarkable performance from Doug Clarkson, scoring a hat trick of goals and five assists.
Tigers line up was missing, Andy McKinney, Jonathan Weaver, Sam Gospel and U18 players Jed Moreland and Dan Mitchell who were playing an U18 game in Telford. Denis Bell remained absent with a long term injury. Tom Hovell started in goal with Zack Brown as back up net minder.
Solihull’s team read like a list of ex-Tigers players with Dale White, Luke Brittle, Dan Brittle, Adam Brittle, Marcus Maynard, Filip Supa, Ed Eaton, Sam Hewitt and Josh Bruce all having played at Telford in recent years.
Tigers made the perfect start to the game in the 2nd minute and with virtually the first attack of the game, Clarkson collected a rebound and tried a wrap around shot which was blocked by Hewitt in the Solihull goal. Jack Watkins was first to the rebound and slotted the puck home to open the scoring. Shortly after, Solihull’s Matthew Morris was called for charging, giving Tigers their first power play of the night. Tigers failed to make the man advantage pay and conceded a short handed goal when Corey Goodison lost a board battle against Josh Bruce, allowing Bruce to pass to the unmarked Andrew Whitehouse in front of goal. Whitehouse picked out the top corner with his wrist shot to level the score. Tigers responded five minutes later with an excellent move to retake the lead. Ricky Plant threaded a terrific pass to Silverthorn, taking out both Solihull defenders to allow Silverthorn to beat Hewitt with a neat finish. Tigers then scored a short handed goal of their own in the 13th minute. Brodie Jesson was serving a slashing penalty, but Silverthorn displayed great battling skills to win the puck and break in on the Solihull goal and showed calmness to wait out the net minder and slide the puck into the net for the third goal. As the period reached the final ten seconds, Solihull iced the puck giving Tigers an opportunity with a face off in the Solihull defensive zone. Scott McKenzie won the puck from the face off and squeezed the puck through the pads of Hewitt to seal a dominant period with a fourth goal.
The second period started badly for Tigers, McKenzie and Clarkson took penalties on the same passage of play giving Solihull a two man advantage for two minutes. On the power play Solihull worked the puck well and scored through Nicklas Ottosson to reduce Tigers’ lead to 4-2. Tigers were then reduced further when Goodison was adjudged to have hit Supa with a check to the head and assessed a game penalty and ejected from the game, giving Solihull a five minute power play. Tigers managed to kill off the penalty and saw out the period without conceding further.
The third period saw Tigers get back to their fluent passing best. Two minutes into the period Jason Silverthorn completed his hat trick with a wrist shot from the right circle whilst Tigers were on a power play. Tigers then added two quick goals to end the game as a contest. Both goals were scored by McKenzie. The first was again on the power play and saw McKenzie finish from close range after a perfect pass from behind the goal from Adam Taylor. The second goal (McKenzie’s hat trick goal) was a superb wrist shot that flew past Hewitt into the top left hand corner. Tigers finished off the scoring in the 53rd minute when Plant played an excellent first time pass to Silverthorn who tapped in from almost on the goal line to score his fourth goal and Tigers’ eighth. Tigers win maintains second place in the table ahead of their return fixture with Solihull on Sunday.
Final Score: Solihull Barons 2 Hexagon Telford Tigers 8.
Scorers: Jason Silverthorn (4), Scott McKenzie (3), Jack Watkins.
Man of the match: Jason Silverthorn
Result Details:
After the game coach Tom Watkins said, “I am always happy to beat Solihull. It’s a big two points on the road with some key players missing. I thought we really stepped up in the third period and were clinical on two key consecutive power plays. We started well and then ran into some penalty trouble in the second period. I thought we played a very disciplined and controlled third period to see the game out.”
Hexagon Telford Tigers 1 return to play at Telford Ice Rink Sunday 30th December at 18:00 in the NIHL Moralee Conference against Solihull Barons. Hexagon Telford Tigers 2 are next in home action at Telford Ice Rink on Saturday 5th January 2019 at 19:00 in the NIHL Laidler Conference against Sheffield Senators. For details of all future fixtures, check out the Tigers fixture list and www.telfordtigers.net/tickets for ticket information.
