Telford Tigers 1 took a long road trip to play Billingham Stars in an NIHL North Division One game on Saturday night. Tigers were without GB international Jonathan Weaver through suspension but iced new signing Warren Tait in his first game since returning to the Tigers.
The game started badly for Tigers with Billingham scoring the opening goal in the 5th minute through Chris Sykes and with Tigers struggling to get to grips with the game, the Stars extended their lead with a goal from Michael Elder in the 16th minute, to leave Tigers trailing at the end of the 1st period by two goals.
The second period saw Tigers pick up the pace and they finally got on the scoresheet in the 24th minute when Corey Goodison scored his first goal of the season, on the power play, to halve the deficit. Tigers continued to pressure Billingham and were rewarded a minute from the end of the period with an equaliser through Dale White, who got his shot away whilst Billingham’s defence hesitated.
Tigers started the 3rd period strongly and took their first lead of the night in the 46th minute when Captain Jason Silverthorn fired home. But the lead would only last a minute as Michael Bowman levelled for the hosts to leave the score 3-3. With both teams pushing for the win, it was the Tigers that would get the last goal of the game. In the 52nd minute Joe Miller scored from Silverthorn’s pass to give Tigers the 2 points and maintain their 100 percent league record and send Tigers to the top of the division.
Final Score Billingham Stars 3 Telford Tigers 4
Man of the match – Corey Goodison.
After the game Player Coach Tom Watkins said “After going down two goals in the first period, I thought we showed good character to come back and tie the game at 2-2. Watkins added “The guys dug deep with a short bench to take the lead in the 3rd, and with Billingham getting a fortuitous bounce of the puck in our zone to tie the game, we had to show good character and belief to win the game. It was a tough game, but we ground out a result on the road”.
