Solihull Barons vs The Dragons

Recap

 

The TC Cars Solihull Barons got their pre-season off to a strong start with a convincing 10-6 victory over the Dragons of Deeside with the win largely made by a frenetic first 10 minutes which saw the home side pull out an ultimately unasailable lead.

Before the game, a minute’s applause resounded around the rink for Barbara Williams who sadly passed away recently. Barbara – and husband John – started the Solihull Juniors many, many years ago. She was a hockey mum to thousands of kids.

With both sides slightly lining up slighlty light in their rosters due to holidays it would be Deeside who would win the face-off and after 18 seconds were 1 goal up with a shot from the slot. It would not take long for the Baroms to level things up, Andy Whitehouse scoring by skating from the corner to the front of the net and stroked the puck to open the Solihull scoring.

This would set off a flurry of scoring for the Barons as the Dragons struggled to get into the game as first Richard Crowe shot from the hash marks through crowded traffic for number 2,  then Tom Soar had a 2 on 1 and passed to Ottosson who shot through the Dragons NM legs and Luke Brittle scored his first Solihull goal after 3 passes between himself Harrison and Soar from one wing to the other.

By now the Whitehouse line was all over the Deeside team giving them no time to settle on the puck. With Deeside puck watching for the last 5 minutes, coach – and good friend of the Barons – Scott McKenzie called a timeout at 7 minutes. This worked well, settling the Dragons restricting Solihull to one more goal in the period As Tom Soar scored from a flick over a D-man’s stick from Brittle.

Deeside “book-ended” the period by scoring their second goal with.6 seconds left on the clock – a great performance by Nicholls keeping hem to 2 goals.

The second period started with Solihull 5-2 up but at the end they were 7-5 up as Deeside had their best period. Barons two goals of this middle period coming off the sticks of new boy Phil Mulcahy and the ever strong sniping of Niklas Ottosson,

The third period saw both sides competing at speed until the final whistle with Solihull winning the period 3-1 To round off a good warm-up tie for the Barons.

MoM – presented by Eddie Slater – was Chris Jones for the Dragons and Andy Whitehouse for the Barons.

The Barons round off their short pre-season next weekend with road and home ties with the Blackburn Hawks. Solihull head up to Lancashire on the Saturday to take on the consistently strong Hawks with both sides then clashing once more 24 hours later at Silverblades Solihull in what will be an important final shakedown test for the 2017-18 Barons. Face-off 6:00 pm THIS SUNDAY.

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