Telford Tigers NIHL saw their winless run continue with a 4-0 defeat to Blackburn Hawks – but there were plenty of green shoots for coach Jason Parry to highlight.
Sunday night’s encounter in Lancashire was Telford’s fifth game without victory, as they 
faced a Hawks side on the verge of claiming their second league title in as many years.
Parry, who has watched his troops fail to consolidate the play-off spot they held before Christmas, believes they are taking a huge amount of experience from the season.
He said: “The younger guys in our squad have had a lot of chances to play this year, but of course you always need the senior guys when you’re chasing a play-off spot.
“I am really happy with the way those youngsters have stepped up and played over the last few months. They’ve done their best and in Blackburn they worked well for the whole 60 minutes.
“We kept it tight, stayed in the game for as long as possible, and could have nicked a goal. But the important thing is we made Blackburn work for everything. That was really pleasing.”
A Blackburn goal in the first three minutes put Telford on the back foot almost straight away, before two further strikes during the second session.
The Hawks struck once more in the final period, as they finally found another way past in-form netminder Denis Bell.
The 18-year-old turned away a remarkable 57 shots throughout the game – and Parry was delighted with his contribution.
He added: “Denis was brilliant in goal for us and he’s definitely back to his old self. To save 57 out of 61 shots is a great display of netminding. Also, two of those of those goals were scored on the powerplay.
“The whole squad put in a good display, but of course missing so many of our offensive players is going to have an effect. We had eight forwards, and two of them were defencemen.”
Telford Tigers NIHL are back in action next weekend, when they make the long trip north to face Solway Sharks (7pm).
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