Tough Opener for Barons

By Gareth Thomson,

The Sheldon Jewellery Centre Solihull Barons opened their 2012-13 campaign with an away loss in a closely fought fixture against title rivals the Deeside Dragons in last Sunday’s National Ice Hockey League fixture. Despite a disciplined performance and a string of goals, it was a disappointing start to the season.

The Barons opened the scoring when new captain and ex-NHL player, Chris Allen, netted in the sixth minute before the team were pegged back by Deeside a few seconds later.

The tightness in the competition continued for much of the game with the two sides matching each other goal for goal until the final ten minutes when Deeside put the puck between the pipes twice in less than a minute.

The newly named Dragons had been significantly strengthened from last season's Flintshire Freeze with a number of players defecting from the Blackburn Hawks, while they had also secured the signature of former Whitley Warriors captain Shaun Kippin.

“The Deeside Dragons were a much improved side from last year, they had bolstered their squad and the Barons knew it would be a tough game.” said Barons coach Darren Bellerby. “The Dragons already had a couple of league wins under their belt but for the Barons it was always going to be difficult to meet Deeside team in their first competitive game of the season”.

The Barons went onto the ice without last seasons top scorer, Richard Slater who was on holiday and it seemed they missed his attacking presence.

Bellerby noted, “On the ice, we had a couple of key players missing and I was disappointed that, our game rustiness meant the boys struggled to take advantage of the 5 on 3 powerplay we had toward the end of the game.”

The two sides will meet a further three times this season, in what look likely to be some of the closest fought matches in this season’s National League.

Goals: Allen, Perks, Rodger, Hammerton
Assists: Knight, Perks, Eley (2)
Man of the match : Andrew Whitehouse