ENL North round-up week 21

BLACKBURN, UK – Whitley Warriors have closed the gap on Billingham Stars at the top of ENL1 North. Stars’ shock 4-2 defeat on Saturday at Trafford, meant the reigning champions could close to within three points, if they could beat the Metros on Sunday at Hillheads. Tom Revesz gave the visitors an early lead, but DJ Good levelled things up before the end of the first. Jamie Rogerson put Metros back in front after 21 minutes, before Jamie Tinsley (2) and Shaun Kippin sent Warriors ahead. Jake Nurse pulled one back for Metros, but Whitley comfortably held on to gain a deserved 4-3 win. Blackburn Hawks boosted their play-off hopes with a pair of wins to move up to third. They travelled to Telford on Saturday to face a Titans team on a six game winning run, but goals from Rick Hughes (4), Tom King and Ollie Lomax helped them to an impressive 6-2 victory. The following day

they faced struggling Solihull at Blackburn Arena and found the Barons in determined mood. Hughes’ 3^rd minute strike gave Hawks the lead, but netminder Sam Hewitt made a string of fine saves to keep the visitors in the game. Excellent work from Dave Meikle to set up Jordan Bannon for a tap-in finally gave Blackburn some breathing space after 25 minutes, before a fine individual effort from Brian Worrall made it 3-0 in the 34^th minute. With five minutes to go Hawks made it 4-0 after Tom King’s slapshot bounced back off the post and went in off the unfortunate Phil Lee. Sami Narkia sealed the win in the final minute, snapping up a rebound from a Scott Glover effort. Telford are in the final play-off place after a 4-2 win at Sheffield Spartans – Ryan Stanton, Adam Taylor, Chris Jones and Dan Taylor scored Titans’ goals. Nottingham Lions moved out of the relegation zone after a 4-0 win at home to fellow strugglers, Coventry Blaze – Joe Wightman (2), Ciaran Quinn and Gareth O’Flaherty grabbed the goals.Solway Sharks moved a step closer to claiming the ENL2 crown with an emphatic victory at Fylde Flyers. Nathan Salem (4), Adam Reynolds (2) and Bob Chalmers (2) led the scoring in a 14-3 success which saw the Sharks break the record for the number of goals scored in an ENL season (256). Reynolds also bagged two assists to move onto 102 points for the campaign so far. Sutton Sting strengthened their grip on second by beating Bradford Bulldogs 14-1 and Sheffield Senators 5-1. Fourth placed Hull Stingrays surprisingly lost 6-5 to the Senators on Saturday, but recovered on Sunday to defeat Fylde 3-1. This weekend sees Billingham looking to get back to winning ways with a trip to Solihull, while the top two in ENL2 face-off at Dumfries Ice Bowl as Solway face Sutton. Contact the author at: michael.black@prohockeynews.com