Season 25/26: Week 29 Report
BILLINGHAM STARS rounded off their regular National Ice Hockey League Moralee Division season with a drawn series against second-placed finishers Deeside Dragons, a narrow 5-4 defeat on the road on Saturday followed up by a dominant 7-3 win in front of a packed crowd at the Forum on Sunday.
A double header against the League runners-up was perfect preparation for a Stars outfit who could move in neither direction in the table regardless of results at the weekend. Deeside – one of the favourites for the playoff title – have been tough to beat on their own ice all season, and they moved ahead in the third minute when high man Jake Witkowski won the foot race to finish his own rebound off netminder Jacob Hanmmond’s pads. The advantage was doubled in the tenth minute, Daniels Fadejevs keeping hold of the puck and weaving his way through the Billingham defence to beat Hammond down low. Stars replied immediately however, within 14 seconds Iain Brown had got the visitors on the board and an entertaining game looked in prospect.
Gradually penalties began to litter the game and much of the momentum was lost for both sides. The first of three powerplay efforts in the middle session was notched by the Stars in the 23rd minute, James Moss forcing home from close range to equalise. Ross Kennedy put the hosts back in pole position in the 29th minute, knocking a rebound high into the net from close range before Witkowski put a little daylight between the sides when he shot through traffic from the blue line in the 38th minute.
Billingham battled hard to get back into the game, Moss shovelling a rebound home on the back stick in the 50th minute, then bagging his hat trick in the 55th minute with a low shot from the right dot to tie the game. Overtime would have been just reward for the visitors but the referee had other ideas and a poor call on Brown put the home side on another powerplay on which Colin Cromie duly converted in the 58th minute. Hammond was pulled late on but the Stars could not find a way past Tyler de la Bertouche in the Dragons net and the home side breathed a huge sigh of relief at the final buzzer, 5-4 the final score.
Man-of-the-Match for Billingham was James Moss.
Dragons Stats:
Jake Witkowski 2+1; Ross Kennedy 1+2; Colin Cromie 1+0; Daniels Fadejevs 1+0; Jared Dickinson 0+2; Rhys Edwards 0+1; Ethan Mayoh 0+1; Noah Percival 0+1; Theo Malone 0+1
SOG: Tyler de la Bertouche 35 (12 / 9 / 14)
Stars Stats:
James Moss 3+0; Iain Brown 1+0; Chris Sykes 0+3; Shaun Galloway 0+1; Michael Elder 0+1; Lewis Baldwin 0+1
SOG : Jacob Hammond 35 (11 / 12 / 12)
Deeside travelled to Teesside with a shorter bench than they had been able to ice the previous evening, and from the off the Stars were in no mood to give their guests an easy ride. Brown crashed the net for a rebound goal in the second minute, as even at that early stage it looked like Billingham would run riot. As it was they had to wait until the 13th minute for their second, Moss breaking down the left wing to slot under netminder Jace Gledhill. Two minutes later and the hosts were three up, Chris Sykes tapping through the five hole from close range. A defensive error let dangerman Witkowski in to lift over Hammond in the 19th minute, but that aside the period belonged to the Stars.
Dragons threatened to make a game of it when Rhys Edwards scored on the powerplay from a tight angle in the 22nd minute, but two late goals within 45 seconds of each other from Callum Wilkinson and Sykes with his second widened the gap going into the third stanza.
Gledhill made way for de la Bertouche for the final twenty, but he could not stem the tide and Moss on the charge made it six in the 44th minute. Some lovely interplay in front of the net was finished off by Sykes for his hat trick in the 48th minute, a late Kennedy consolation marker not enough to take the gloss off an excellent team performance ahead of the playoff quarterfinal series against Telford Tigers 2 this coming weekend.
Man-of-the-Match for the Stars was Jacob Hammond.
Stars Stats:
Chris Sykes 3+2; James Moss 2+1; Iain Brown 1+1; Callum Wilkinson 1+0; Rolands Gritāns 0+3; Shaun Galloway 0+1; Michael Elder 0+1
SOG: Jacob Hammond 51 (21 / 12 / 18)
Dragons Stats:
Jake Witkowski 1+1; Colin Cromie 1+1; Ross Kennedy 1+0; Rhys Edwards 0+2
SOG: Jace Gledhill 39 (13 / 26) ; Tyler de la Bertouche 9
Weekend Results
NIHL Moralee Saturday:
🐉 Deeside Dragons 5️⃣ - 4️⃣ Billingham Stars 💫
✈️ Hull Jets 2️⃣ - 5️⃣ Solihull Barons ⚜️
🐯 Telford Tigers 2 4️⃣ - 1️⃣ Blackburn Hawks 🦅
⚔️ Leeds Knights 2 6️⃣ - 2️⃣ Sheffield Scimitars 🗡️
NIHL Moralee Sunday:
💫 Billingham Stars 7️⃣ - 3️⃣ Deeside Dragons 🐉
⚜️ Solihull Barons 5️⃣ - 3️⃣ Telford Tigers 2 🐯
🐾 Widnes Wild 4️⃣ - 2️⃣ Hull Jets ✈️
🦁 Nottingham Lions 5️⃣ - 2️⃣ Leeds Knights 2 ⚔️