Building Craftsmen Dumfries-sponsored Solway Sharks have two games in Sheffield this weekend looking to secure the points that will help them return to the south Yorkshire venue in playoff action in April.
Last weekend Solway defeated Sheffield Spartans 6-2 at the Ice Bowl to maintain their excellent 2016 home form before going down 6-3 on Tyneside to Whitley Warriors. The Sharks find themselves fifth in the League just a point behind Billingham with games in hand on the north-east club. Only the top four sides at the end of the regular season qualify for the playoff weekend.
Saturday’s game at home to Sheffield started brightly with Sharks jumping out to a 3-0 lead by the first minute of period two – youngster Daniel Abercrombie netting twice for his first senior goals in just his third appearance. Marc Fowley had opened the scoring for the Dumfries side.
Sheffield got on the board in the 32nd minute despite the puck appearing to hit the crossbar rather than enter the net – the referee awarded the goal, which lifted the visitors, who are fighting against relegation from the NIHL Division 1. Spartans added a second on 44 minutes and it was a tense period for the Sharks – more than it should have been – before Martin Cingel, Marc Fowley and Ross Murray netted in the final ten minutes to make the scoreline a comfortable 6-2.
The following night in Whitley Bay, Sharks came undone despite battling against the second placed side with only 11 skaters. Whitley’s player-coach David Longstaff netted a brace before Martin Cingel opened the Sharks’ account at 24.07. The Sharks conceded twice more before Joe Coulter bagged their second goal at 32.07 but it was an uphill task for the Solway side, giving up two more with only Struan Tonnar’s goal at 51 minutes in reply.
Speaking after Sunday’s game, coach Martin Grubb said: “We knew going into Whitley would be tough but to go in shortbenched made it an even tougher task. I thought we started well enough and had a few chances but we lost a soft goal to go in behind after the first period.
“The disappointing things was we didn’t built on a decent start and we gifted Whitley goals by making mistakes and we need to cut that out. We scored a couple of powerplay goals and I can’t fault the boys as they battled hard till the end but when you gift teams soft goals it’s always tough to win. We will now look to regroup and get ready for a big weekend ahead on the road.”
This coming weekend, Sharks matchup again with Sheffield Spartans on Saturday (3.45pm) before a second appoinment at Ice Sheffield 24 hours later against Sutton Sting (Sunday, 4.15pm).
Grubb knows the task in hand for his team.
“We know that going to Sheffield to play the Spartans and Sting will have a huge bearing on all three teams’ seasons with playoff spots and relegation playoff spots still to be decided and we know we need to get 4 huge points if we are to keep moving forward.
“Both teams will be difficult to play against in their own rink but we know that by playing our game and taking things one period at a time we will give ourselves a chance to win. We need to be solid for 120 mins and find a way to get the job done.”
The BCD Solway Sharks return to home action on Saturday 19 March against Telford Tigers in their penultimate home League game. Face off is 7pm at Dumfries Ice Bowl.
Photographs by Mark Paterson/Skidpix.
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