English Ice Hockey Association Laidler Conference Play-offs

Semi-Final 1
Bristol Street Motors Solihull Barons : 12
Widnes Wild : 3

Semi-Final 2
Telford Tigers : 5
Sheffield Senators : 1

Final
Bristol Street Motors Solihull Barons : 4
Telford NL Tigers : 3

The Bristol Street Motors Solihull Barons wound up a perfect season on Monday evening with a dramatic comeback from 3-0 down to score the game winning goal 4 seconds from the buzzer to clinch the Laidler Play-off trophy tournament and notch up a league and play-off double for the second year running.

Saturday night's Semi-final between the Barons and the Widnes Wild proved to be a highly entertaining tie. As first versus fourth in the league there was little surprise that the Barons would dominate the opening twenty minutes. Indeed the Barons outshot the Cheshire side by a factor of five in the first twenty with only heroics by Greg Ruxton limiting the Barons scoring to a goal apiece by Edward Eaton and Josh Bruce. The second period had the Barons getting further goals, a second for Eaton together with singles from Joe Henry and Rob Eley but the Wild would not give up and exploited any defensive lapses by the Barons, to give Widnes two goals of their own and keep them just about within touching distance. The large and noisy Wild travelling support sensed a comeback early in the final period as Filip Supa brought their deficit down to two goals. This was to be something of a false hope as the Barons shifted up a gear finding the net no less than seven times in the final fifteen minutes for a convincing win and a ticket for the final.

In the second semi-final a frenetic early pace saw the Sheffield Senators taking the lead over the Telford Tigers courtesy of an Arran Bell power-play effort. The game however became increasingly chippy as time went on resulting in a continuous stream of minor and misconduct penalties to both sides. Above this, however the Tigers and particularly their first line of Smith, Jets and Betteridge gradually eased out the win, while net minder Denis Bell put in an assured performance at the other end of the ice.

So with a Barons v Tigers final an expectant crowd filed into Hobs Moat Ice Rink on Monday evening for what would emerge as one of the most incredible games seen at the venue for many a year. With the Barons very much hot favourites it was a relatively cagey start by both sides until a Barons goal was washed out around the ten minute mark though this marked a shift up a gear by both sides for the remainder of the period. Despite the increase in tempo neither side could break the deadlock and the sides emerged from the dressing rooms at the start of the second period goalless.

While the Barons had held the balance of play in the first period, by the second the Tigers had started to bare their claws with a devastating six minutes spell around the half hour mark. First for the Tigers was a long range laser from James Smith which whistled past Josh Nicholls in the Solihull goal. Two minutes later and dangerous Telford youngster Brad Betteridge was left wide open in front of the Solihull net and made no mistake with the shot and within a couple more minutes a Josh Cosgrove shot trickled past Nicholls to put the Barons three down for the first time this season. Crucially the deficit was brought back within a minute to only two goals, Tom Soar finding the net for the Barons and leaving the score 3-1 in favour of the Tigers going into the last twenty minutes of the season.

The Barons sensed their chances, however with just over ten minutes to go they were still two goals down, only for Soar to get his second of the night and cut the deficit to one. Four minutes to go and Soar yet again found the net to tie things up and set-up sudden death play as the clock ticked down. With the momentum with the Barons, a frantic goal mouth scramble allowed the Barons Ryan Selwood to poke the puck netward. With four second left on the clock a mammoth roar erupted from the Barons faithful as his effort crossed the Telford goal line and the play-off trophy could be added to the league title for the second year in succession and in doing so take the Barons winning streak to an unofficial world record of 60 games.

For the Barons there will now be a bit of a break before getting the squad ready for next year in the Moralee Division 1.

versus Widnes

Barons goals : Slater (2), Soar (2), Eaton (2), Bruce, Larkin, S Harrison, Eley, Henry, Selwood Barons assists : Slater (3), Soar (2), Eaton (2), Bruce (2), Janak (2), Crowe, Henry, Rogers, Larkin, Eley, S Harrison, Whitehouse, Knight Barons MoM : Richard Slater