Vipers face crucial weekend

NEWCASTLE, UK –  Newcastle Vipers could get themselves back amongst the top teams in the Elite League if Coach Rob Wilson’s side can take all 6 points from their 3 match’s this weekend. Vipers start their busy program down in Yorkshire on Friday night taking on the Sheffield Steelers before facing the same side 24 hours later at Hillheads. Newcastle then travel up to Scotland to take on the Edinburgh Capitals on Sunday evening in a truly hectic weekend for the Tyneside based team. If Newcastle Vipers are to get themselves back into the title race then this weekends 3 fixtures against teams at the wrong end of the table are the sort of games that the club has to take maximum points from. Wilson’s side have been in erratic form of late as Vipers have suffered a number of demoralising heavy defeats, however Newcastle have also been able to secure hard fought victories over the majority of Elite League sides. Such inconsistent form has to be stamped out if the club are to go and achieve a creditable league position come the end of the campaign.

In the last few fixtures Vipers have started to give their 3^rd line a little more ice time. The club’s 3^rd forward line of Ben Campbell, Dean Holland and Jamie Tinsley or Nathan Salem, currently away on GB U20 duty, is a solid unit that can take the pressure off the top 2 lines and with such a hectic schedule over the coming few days these young forwards are likely to see quite a bit of action. Dean Holland picked up his first points of the season recently and all the young British players on the Newcastle roster must be hoping to get amongst the points against both Sheffield and Edinburgh given that they are likely to see increased ice time over the next few games.
It was announced last week that Newcastle defenceman Richie Thornton has been loaned out to the Whitley Warriors who play in the ENL and Northern League. Thornton has not featured for Vipers in the last few weeks due to the players work commitments however Thornton was not in the Whitley line up last weekend so it is unclear just what the situation is with the former Billingham Bombers blue liner. It seemed strange for Thornton to be loaned out to Whitley as even if Thornton was unable to commit to training with Newcastle it would have surely been better to have the experienced d man on the bench so that he could take the odd shift on defence when needed rather than just having the 4 import defenceman and no viable cover. On the whole Vipers have played some excellent hockey this season and if Newcastle can take 5 or 6 points from the next 3 games then both Belfast and Coventry will have to start monitoring the progress of Coach Wilson’s side over the Christmas period. Contact the author Chris.mackenzie@prohockeynews.com