Barons open 2015 with win

Sheffield Senators : 2
Bristol Street Motors Solihull Barons : 6

The Bristol Street Motors Solihull Barons opened the second half of their season with a solid win away at the Sheffield Senators on Saturday evening.

The combination of the Barons having not had a fixture for the best part of a month, the Senators having a strong season and Solihull having sometimes struggled on the big Sheffield ice meant that a post holiday slip up was certainly possible for the league leading Barons.

Such thoughts were clearly not on the minds of the Barons who went out with a positive game plan and rocked the Senators onto their heels within moments of the puck drop. Joe Henry and Tom Soar gave the Barons a 2 goal advantage in as many minutes. The Senators regrouped and kept Solihull at bay for most of the remainder of the period but conceded a further goal, this time from the Barons Ryan Selwood with two minutes of the first twenty to go.

The second period was more evenly balanced and while Solihull would outshoot the Senators, further scoring would be elusive. By contrast Sheffield found the Barons net for the first time on the twenty sixth minute, Charles Thomson doing the damage and immediately on the restart the Senators had their second goal, this time courtesy of Josh Gent. With the Senators now very much back in the game the sides battled it out for the remainder of the period but without further scoring.

With their long unbeaten run now, if not under threat, perhaps not quite as secure as it might have been the Barons dug in and dominated the final period. Three minutes in and Rich Slater secured the Barons a crucial two goal buffer with Solihull's fourth goal of the night. The remainder of the period saw the sway of play being held by the Barons but with no further scoring. With three minutes to go however and two goals down the Senators pulled their net minder in favour of an extra forward in a move which would backfire and ultimately give the Barons their fifth goal, Andrew Whitehouse finding an easy goal through the empty Sheffield net. Barons captain Rob Eley would round of the scoring for the night to give Solihull a 6-2 result.