Season 25/26: Week 8 Report

BILLINGHAM STARS home-and-home series with Solihull Barons ended pointless as the Stars extended their winless streak to four games, crashing 1-7 at the Forum on Saturday before battling hard with no reward for a 4-2 defeat at Hobs Moat Road on Sunday.

Billingham started Saturday’s game brightly enough, Callum Wilkinson seeing his shot from the high slot come back off the cross bar in the fifth minute. An evenly-matched session started to get away from the home side in the 16th minute, Niklas Ottosson given far too much space to take his shot and tap in his own rebound. Wanting to even things up before the interval, Stars were caught pushing too hard on the power play as a loose pass found Ottosson who broke from his own blue line to slot home.

Billingham were guilty of trying to force the play again in the opening seconds of the second period, Ottosson with his hat trick and the hosts looking nervy and disjointed. The Stars challenge slipping away, the visitors were finding plenty of space to play their own game and two further goals from Edgars Landsbergs took the match away from Billingham with a period remaining.

Another breakaway effort saw Ottosson bag his fourth with a tap-in in the 43rd minute. Stars finally got on the board through captain Michael Elder in the 47th minute, but the final word and all three points went to the Barons, Jacob Race getting on the score sheet in the 49th minute to round off an excellent evening for Solihull and a rare misfire from the home side.

Man-of-the-Match for Billingham was Michael Elder.

Stars Stats:

Michael Elder 1+0

SOG: Mark Turnbull 47 (18 / 12 / 17)

Barons Stats:

Niklas Ottosson 4+1; Edgars Landsbergs 2+0; Jacob Race 1+0; Dan Mulcahy 0+3; Lucas Price 0+2; Corey Goodison 0+2; Michael Riley 0+1

SOG: Graham Laverick 39 (11 / 14 / 14)

To say Sunday’s reverse fixture was eventful would be something of an understatement. A long day started for both players and fans with a journey marred by several long delays that saw Stars eventually arrive in Solihull with just 20 minutes to go before the scheduled face off time. Despite the rules dictating a minimum of 15 minutes for warm up for a late arriving team, Billingham were told they could have just ten minutes, a time clearly not communicated to Solihull’s rink staff who brought the ice resurfacer onto the playing surface after just three minutes in an attempt to force the Stars off. After six minutes it became clear the rink would not relent and the Stars left the ice before someone got hurt.

The home crowd also had no knowledge of the rules and booed the visitors on when the game finally got underway almost half an hour late. A shortened warm up and over five hours on a bus was never going to be ideal preparation so it was perhaps no surprise when Alex Whyte forced the puck home in the sixth minute to open the scoring. Matt Maurice was on hand to convert the rebound in the tenth minute before Iain Brown got one back on the power play in the 14th minute. Already light on defence, Billingham suffered a huge blow in the closing minutes as James Hellens was felled by a high hit that went unpunished and could play no further part in the game.

Stars seemed to have everything working against them but that fired them up and they took the battle to the Barons in the middle session. But for some wayward shooting and another top-drawer performance from Graham Laverick between the Solihull pipes, Billingham might have got themselves level or even in front, but the chances went begging and it was the hosts who moved further in front 90 seconds from the break as Race converted at the second time of asking.

Down to three defencemen going into the third with Ben Greenhalgh struggling with a lower body injury, Billingham once again battled for every puck, testing but not getting past Laverick. Greenhalgh was able to return to help out at the back, every player leaving it all out on the ice to try to get something out of the game. Their hopes seemed dashed when a Jake Riley effort trickled over the line in the 56th minute, but Stars would not give up and pulled Jacob Hammond for the final two minutes, James Moss finally beating Laverick with over a minute to go but a heroic comeback was not to be and the Barons skated out 4-2 winners despite a vastly improved performance from their guests.

Man-of-the-Match for Billingham was Jacob Hammond.

Barons Stats:

Alex Whyte 1+1; Matt Maurice 1+1; Michael Riley 1+0; Jacob Race 1+0; Dan Mulcahy 0+2; Brandon Anderton 0+1; Corey Goodison 0+1; Niklas Ottosson 0+1

SOG: Graham Laverick 39 (10 / 11 / 10)

Stars Stats:

James Moss 1+0; Iain Brown 1+0; Jacob Hammond 0+1; Chris Sykes 0+1; Michael Elder 0+1; Callum Wilkinson 0+1

SOG: Jacob Hammond 40 (17 / 13 / 10)

Weekend Results:

NIHL Moralee Saturday:

💫 Billingham Stars 1️⃣ - 7️⃣ Solihull Barons ⚜️

✈️ Hull Jets 4️⃣ - 3️⃣ Deeside Dragons 🐉

⚔️ Leeds Knights 2 🔟 - 2️⃣ Sheffield Scimitars 🗡️

NIHL Moralee Sunday:

🗡️ Sheffield Scimitars 2️⃣ - 5️⃣ Leeds Knights 2 ⚔️

🐉 Deeside Dragons 2️⃣ - 1️⃣ Hull Jets ✈️

⚜️ Solihull Barons 4️⃣ - 2️⃣ Billingham Stars 💫

🦅 Blackburn Hawks 4️⃣ - 1️⃣ Widnes Wild 🐾

🐯 Telford Tigers 2 🔟 - 4️⃣ Nottingham Lions 🦁