Solihull Barons – Sheffield Scimitars

Recap

The Direct Taxis Solihull Barons secured their place at the Moralee play-off weekend in Leeds with an emphatic 6-2 victory (11-5 aggregate) over Sheffield Scimitars on Sunday evening.

After just over three minutes of Sunday’s tie gone the Scimitars cut their aggregate deficit to a single goal as Thomas Palmer slotted the puck home under Graham Laverick from six feet but this would be the closest the Yorkshire side got to over-turning the Barons 1st leg advantage. For much of the middle of the period there would be non-stop end to end to play, punctuated by after the whistle goalmouth gamesmanship but no further scoring. With two minutes left on the clock however the Barons Elliot Farrell levelled things up. Fed a breakout pass to centre ice by Paul Stanley, Farrell raced up the rink before letting loose the equalising shot from 10m out.

The second period began, mirroring the first, both sides having chances and further tussles around the goal crease. The deadlock was broken after 7 minutes as the puck came to Tom Soar high on the left hand point directly off of a face-off, his subsequent rocket of a shot fired home for Solihull’s second goal of the night. With 2.50 of the second left, James Smith added to the Barons buffer, tapping in his own rebound with a little flick behind Scim’s goalie Thomas Hovell’s leg.

With 5 minutes of the third gone, the Barons more or less put the aggregate win, if not necessarily the result on the night, out of range of the Scimitars. A Callum Bowley feed from the left hand side was steered home by Dan Mulcahy for Solihull’s fourth of the evening. By mid-period the Barons had clearly headed off well over the horizon, Rich Slater breaking away and shooting below Hovell to ease out Solihull’s margin further. This was followed up three minutes later by Paul Stanley, who had been harrying the Scimitars lines every shift, finally getting a reward for his efforts and Barons goal number 6. With three minutes to go the Scimitars got some consolation with a second goal as Thomas Palmer once more broke away and finished with a shot to defeat Laverick. By the buzzer it was the Barons who would be Leeds bound and the Scimitars who would be packing up until Spetember.

Elsewhere in the quarter-final round, 3rd seed Widnes fell to 6th seeded Billingham thanks to a dominating first-leg performance by the Teesiders at home, however more predictably, top seeds Solway and Whitley knocked out Nottingham and Blackburn respectively.

We therefore have a final four heading to Leeds over the weekend of the 23rd/24th April of :

Solway Sharks – Whitley Warriors – Solihull Barons – Billingham Stars

For more on the Leeds finals weekend and how to get your tickets, see here.

Barons man of the match, Andy Whitehouse

Scimitars Man of the match, Lloyd Gibson