Recap

Telford Tigers : 5
Airport Placement Limited Solihull Barons : 6

Airport Placement Limited Solihull Barons : 2
Telford Tigers : 6

The Airport Placements Limited Solihull Barons came out with a share of the points after a weekend of road and home ties against Midlands rivals the Telford Tigers.

On Saturday the Barons travelled the short distance to the Shropshire rink to take on the Tigers. A closely fought game ensued which saw the Barons take the lead in the first period and from then on Solihull let the home side play catch-up and while they came close the Barons would notch up their first win of 2017.

On Sunday it was the turn of the Tigers to visit Solihull and an entertaining first period promised much. The Barons now running with a full roster having been short through injury and absence for the past six weeks began to show more of their earlier season form and took the game to the Tigers with the puck never far from a Solihull stick. It would be the visitors who would however open the scoring as ex-Baron Karol Jets made the most of a busy crease to slot in from close range on eight minutes. The Barons would continue to press and on 15 minutes Ryan Selwood flicked a pass through the neutral zone to Tom Soar, steaming up the ice to collect the pass cleanly and shoot through from just over the blue line for the equaliser. The scoring would remain level heading to the dressing rooms despite a number of further chances for both sides, most notably a spell of 5 on 3 powerplay for the Barons in the last two minutes.

The second period would again see the visitors the first to find the net. Daniel Harrison deflecting in a powerplay shot from Callum Bowley which found space past a heavily screened Josh Nicholl in the Solihull net. Three minutes later and Tom Soar returned to the scoresheet for the Barons, this time with a close in effort for Solihull’s equaliser.

The remainder of the period would not be so good for the Barons as the visitors gradually began to wrest back the puck possession and offensive zone time from the home side and by the 40 minute mark the score would be 4-2 in favour of the visitors, Callum Griffin and Simon Harrison with the goals.

The final period would have the ice tilt further in favour of the visitors with goals first by Connor Gordon and then a penalty shot was converted by Karol Jets to give Barons a deficit of 4 goals with ten minutes to go as the game, pucks and discipline slid away from them. The period would end early and messily with a series of scuffles which did nothing to address the destiny of the points.

The Barons are back on home ice this Sunday when they face the challenge of the league’s second placed side, the Billingham Stars for the first meeting of the teams this season. This will be a tough test for the Barons with a high standard of hockey expected to be on show. Face-off 6:00pm.

Barons Man of the Match @ Telford : Tom Soar
Barons Man of the Match v Telford : Tom Soar

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Elsewhere in the League

Sutton Sting 0 : 1 Solway Sharks
Whitley Warriors 4 : 1 Billingham Stars
Deeside Dragons 5 : 3 Blackburn Hawks
Blackburn Hawks 7 : 6 Deeside Dragons
Solway Sharks 5 : 3 Whitley Warriors