This weekend the Building Craftsmen (Dumfries) Ltd. Solway Sharks have just the one game as they travel down to Blackburn to face the league-leading Hawks on Sunday evening. While the league may now be out of the Sharks reach points are vital in the race to make the end of season play-off weekend here in Dumfries. With just four points separating five teams vying for three places every point between now and the end of the season will be crucial. Any supporters planning to travel with the team are advised that the bus will leave Dumfries Ice Bowl at 1:30pm prompt on Sunday.
Last Saturday the Solway Sharks, sponsored by Building Craftsmen (Dumfries) Ltd, welcomed the Billingham Stars to the Shark Tank in a fixture where second in the league played third. Unfortunately the Stars caught the Sharks on a bad day and leap-frogged the Dumfries based team in the league table courtesy of an excellent five-two victory.
With new signing Pavol Melichercik making his home debut the Sharks went in search of an early goal but things didn’t go their way and they were soon behind when Michael Elder converted a James Moss pass to open the scoring in the second minute. The Sharks tried to get back on course immediately when Joe Coulter latched onto a Stevie Moore pass but netminder James Flavell was quickly down to block the Sharks forwards effort. Either side of the four minute mark Solway were again denied by Flavell as he twice spread himself well to deny first Richie Bentham and then Struan Tonnar.
For much of the first period Solway pressed for an equaliser but were constantly frustrated by the well-organised Billingham defence and when the visitors got the chance to attack they did at speed and in numbers. In fact the best chance of the session came in its closing minutes when Matthew Elder broke through the Sharks defence only to Jordan Boyle rob him of a certain goal with a superb glove save.
An altercation three minutes into the second session between Flavell and Ross Murray saw each player receive a two minute misconduct penalty with the Sharks player being awarded two minutes more as he was adjudged the instigator of the incident. With the teams playing four on four Chris Sykes and Thomas Stuart Dant combined to set up Matthew Campbell to double the Billingham lead with a crisp shot from the right-hand face-off circle. Within a minute two became three when Paul Windridge set up Jack Emerson to score from the right wing with a low shot through traffic.
Solway again dug deep to try to find a way of unlocking the Stars defence but when they did break through they found James Flavell in imperious form. To make matters worse the Sharks then fell four behind on the thirty-five minute mark when Thomas Stuart-Dant converted after good work from Michael Bowman and Chris Sykes. Try as they might Solway just couldn’t find the key to unlock the Stars defence and going back to the dressing room behind by four goals they knew that they had mountain to climb in the final period.
The final period began with the Sharks mounting a spirited attempt at a comeback but overall Billingham were too experienced to let a four goal slip as Windridge and Dowd marshalled their defence well and Stuart-Dant and Sykes always posed a goal threat at the other end. With nine minutes remaining Pavol Melichercik brought the puck out from the back boards and finding no space in the centre turned outwards before slipping a delightful back-handed shot past Flavell and into the goal.
The Sharks smelled blood and within two minute Richie Bentham had picked off a rare loose pass just outside the Stars blueline and sped forward to score from the left-hand face-off circle. Now down by just two goals a comeback was most definitely in the air until a contentious high-sticks call against Bob Chalmers gave the visitors a powerplay. This was just the respite they needed to steady themselves and it got better for them when Gary Dowd and James Moss combined to set up Richie Thornton to score with a powerful wrist shot from Richie Thornton. For the remaining six minutes the home side attacked but the visitors’ final goal had taken the heart out of them and the Stars were able4 o hold on comfortably to record a valuable five-two victory.
Scoring statistics for the Shark were as follows Pavol Melichercik and Richard Bentham both one goal and no assists. Jordan Boyle in the Solway goal saved twenty-four of the twenty-nine shots that he faced (save percentage 82.76%). The Poppy Scotland Man of the Match Awards were presented to Richard Bentham for the Sharks and to Richie Thornton for the Stars.
Last Sunday the Solway Sharks, sponsored by Building Craftsmen (Dumfries) Ltd, were on the road with a tricky away game against the vastly improved Sheffield Spartans at Ice Sheffield but on the day they failed to start well and despite improving as the game went on they eventually lost by six goals to one.
Perhaps the Solway travelling support got the feeling that this just wasn’t going to be their day when Will Barron set up Stuart Brittle to open the scoring with just forty-eight seconds on the clock but by the time coach Grubb called a time out with 7:33 on the clock they must have been pretty nervous. By that time the Spartans had added to their tally when Elliott Knell netted in the fifth minute and Ollie Barron had made the score three-nil. Whatever the Solway gaffer had said to his charges obviously not going the way he wanted and he swapped netminders in the tenth minute with Jordan Boyle replacing Andrew Little between the pipes.
Unfortunately Sheffield took advantage of this and before the Sharks youngster could get settled Jonathan Kirk converted a Brittle pass to put the home side four ahead. The Spartans top line of Ollie Barron, Stuart Brittle & Elliott Knell were causing Solway all sorts of problems and while they did have spells of pressure the Spartans were generally in control.
Sheffield started strongly again in the second period and while the Sharks had their moments few could say that the home side were undeserving when Ollie Barron complete his hat truck with goals in the twenty-seventh and thirty-third minutes. The Sharks could point to a modicum of bad luck when the officials chalked off three potential goals. One was ruled out controversially when the officials decided that the puck had been palmed into the net, one quite rightly ruled out after it hit the netminders facemask but how they missed the third hitting the back of the net before returning into play will remain a mystery.
The Sharks cause wasn’t helped when top scorer Richard Bentham received his second ten minute misconduct on the thirty-four minute mark which automatically ruled him out of the remainder of the match. The Sharks did finally get onto the score sheet with just over two minutes remaining in the period when the industrious Stevie Moore set up Pavol Melichercik to score.
The final period saw possession and territory pretty throughout with neither team really able to gain the upper hand despite having some good chances to add to their scores. The home side defended their five goal advantage well playing an intelligent game as they ran down the clock with the onus on the Sharks to attack and in the end neither team troubled the scorers and the game ended with Sheffield’s six-one advantage intact.
Scoring Statistics for Solway were as follows: Pavol Melichercik one goal and no assists, Stevie Moore and Struan Tonnar both 0+1. Andrew Little in the Sharks goal saved six out of the nine shots that he faced (save percentage 66.66%) before being replaced after ten minutes by Jordan Boyle who saved twenty-one of the twenty four shots that he faced (save percentage 87.50%). The Man of the Match Award was presented to Stevie Moore for the Sharks.
