Recap

TC Cars Solihull Barons : 4
Sutton Sting : 1
EIHA Moralee Conference

It was a somewhat light TC Cars Solihull Barons side who stepped onto the ice on Sunday to face the Sutton Sting with top scorers Niklas Ottosson, Adie Brittle, Tom Soar and Daniel Mulcahy all out of the line up and goalie Daniel Brittle taking off the big pads and playing as a forward to help provide cover. In a game notable for the amount of minor penalties, Solihull would emerge victorious and while Matt Maurice  and Dave Rogers got the goals it was netminder Sam Hewitt who ensured the Sting were kept at bay.

In the first five minutes the Barons had to endure a near two minute 5 on 3 but survived despite the Sting ringing the Solihull pipework a couple of times. The Sting also had the opportunity to open the scoring when a penalty shot was awarded but this was padded away by the right leg of Sam Hewitt to keep the scoresheet clean for a while at least. For the next ten minutes there would be a number of powerplay opportunities for the Barons but no sustained pressure could be put on the Sting who ensured much of the play was kept penned up in the Solihull end during these spells. On the third of these however the Barons managed to get the opener – Dave Rogers on the 14^th minute trickling the puck in through a crease area melee. The remainder of the first would see the Barons rack up a series of soft penalties, which, while the Sting powerplays were defended, did little to offer offensive chances to Solihull.

The second continued much the same as the first with referee Fusco freely blowing for penalties on both sides meaning that much of the period was played with less than the 10 skaters on the ice and did little to develop any level of flow or consistency of pressure from either side. While the Sting would have a goal disallowed after it went in off the keeper, Solihull would get the only genuine goal of the middle twenty – a nice end to end effort from Matt Maurice in what was otherwise a very stilted spell of play.

The Barons were quick to get things going in the third with a pair of early goals. The first of these was after two minutes as Matt Maurice raced up the right hand wing and fired home from 8 yards out for Solihull’s third goal of the evening. This was quickly followed by the Barons number 4  as the Barons number 4 Dave Rogers converted a slick feed from Phil Mulcahy on the powerplay. With ten minutes to go the Barons clean sheet was spoiled with a shot by Hadden Bolstridge  which went past Sam Hewitt in the Solihull goal. The Barons goalie had an outstanding game and had been key in making sure the scoreline flattered the Barons more than it might otherwise have done. The remainder of the game would remain scoreless to see Solihull bag the points as the sides work to secure their play-off seedings.

The Barons next fixture is on Sunday when they play host to league leaders the Whitley Warriors. This will be the final time the sides meet in the league and with the Warriors being the only side not to drop points against the Barons, Solihull will be keen to balance this up a little in what should be close contest. Face-off 5:30pm.

Barons Man of the Match, Sam Hewitt

Sting Man of the Match, Thomas Relf