LANCASHIRE, UK – The Moralee D1 title race looks set for a thrilling conclusion, with the top three sides separated by just five points heading into the last couple of weeks of the regular season.
Leaders Sheffield Steeldogs lost 6-3 at home to Hull Pirates, but bounced back with comfortable home victories over Solihull Barons and Deeside Dragons.
Hull are three points behind Sheffield with a game in hand having recorded a 4-2 defeat at Telford Tigers and an 11-2 home success against Solway Sharks.
Telford are a further two points adrift after picking up a narrow 3-2 win at Whitley Warriors – Warren Tait’s second goal of the game with a minute to go proved to be the decider.
Blackburn Hawks enjoyed a four point weekend, winning 14-1 at home to Deeside and 6-5 after overtime at Nottingham Lions.
Billingham Stars slumped to two disappointing defeats, losing 7-3 at Solway and 8-5 at home to Solihull.
In Laidler D2, Hull Jets cut the gap to Sutton Sting to four points with two victories over Coventry Blaze NIHL. Hull won 5-0 on home ice and followed up with a 5-2 success on the road.
Stanislav Lascek (2) and Ryan Johnson (2) topped the scoring for Sutton in their 8-4 home victory against Sheffield Senators.
Telford Tigers 2 boosted their hopes of securing a place in the D2 play-offs with a pair of wins. The Tigers triumphed 6-4 at Sheffield and 6-5 at home to Altrincham Aces.
The Aces had better luck at Bradford Bulldogs as they secured an 8-1 victory, while Widnes Wild won 8-2 at Blackburn Hawks 2.
Josh Stockton scored seven for Bradford in their 13-4 success at Deeside Dragons 2.
PHN’s top two talking points
Telford fan group commits major social media faux pas
Telford Tigers have one of the NIHL’s busiest unofficial fan pages on Facebook, with over 2,200 members creating a vibrant platform for people to discuss the team’s fortunes.
Administrators of the page published a new “code of conduct” over the weekend and the content wouldn’t have looked out of place in Mein Kampf.
Some of the people running these types of fan pages – and Telford are not the only organisation to head down this route – seem hell bent on doing their best to make it difficult for people to express an opinion about the clubs they support.
Managing a social media page in sport is simple. No swearing and no personal attacks allowed. Those are the only two rules you need.
Anything more than that is simply power-hungry control freaks trying to implement their will on others. Ultimately it will be the clubs that suffer because people will become disillusioned with being unable to debate with their fellow fans and walk away.
Title battles set to go to the wire
There’s been plenty of discussion about the newly structured NIHL this season, but fans in the north cannot deny that both divisions will provide an exciting end to the regular season.
It’s impossible to predict the winner of either title race heading into the final few games, while the battle for play-off positions adds another dimension to proceedings in D2.
The former EPL sides have integrated themselves nicely into the NIHL set-up. The challenge moving forward is for the other clubs to have a real go at bridging the gap.
WEEKEND RESULTS
Moralee D1
Billingham Stars 5-8 Solihull Barons
Blackburn Hawks 14-1 Deeside Dragons
Hull Pirates 11-2 Solway Sharks
Nottingham Lions 5-6 Blackburn Hawks (OT)
Sheffield Steeldogs 16-2 Deeside Dragons
Sheffield Steeldogs 3-6 Hull Pirates
Sheffield Steeldogs 6-0 Solihull Barons
Solway Sharks 7-3 Billingham Stars
Telford Tigers 4-2 Hull Pirates
Whitley Warriors 2-3 Telford Tigers
Laidler D2
Blackburn Hawks 2 2-8 Widnes Wild
Bradford Bulldogs 1-8 Altrincham Aces
Coventry Blaze NIHL 2-5 Hull Jets
Deeside Dragons 2 4-13 Bradford Bulldogs
Hull Jets 5-0 Coventry Blaze NIHL
Sheffield Senators 4-6 Telford Tigers 2
Sutton Sting 8-4 Sheffield Senators
Telford Tigers 2 6-5 Altrincham Aces
You must be logged in to post a comment.