(Image permission: Christopher Rastall Photography)
BILLINGHAM, UK – With Blackburn Hawks, Sheffield Steeldogs and Telford Tigers not featuring in the league this weekend, there was a chance for Hull Pirates to gain ground on Sheffield at the top of Moralee D1 this week.
However, things didn’t go to plan as they fell 3-2 at Solway Sharks who also used their double weekend to leapfrog the Pirates into second place.
Team Stats
Solihull Barons lost out in terms of Powerplay % dropping two places to 7th after going 0-8 with the man advantage over their two games. Their opponents from Sunday, Billingham Stars, dropped by one place in Powerplay % moving below the fixture-less Hawks into 9th.
The Barons’ PK made an improvement this week to move off the bottom as Nottingham Lions moved to the foot of another table. In terms of overall special team effectiveness Sutton Sting made a big jump, moving up three places to 4th behind the former EPL sides at the expense of Blackburn and Solway.
| Powerplay % | Penalty Kill % | Special Teams | |||||
| Telford | 39.39% | Hull | 92.50% | Hull | 130.00 | ||
| Hull | 37.50% | Sheffield | 88.89% | Telford | 124.39 | ||
| Sheffield | 27.91% | Telford | 85.00% | Sheffield | 116.80 | ||
| Solway | 24.56% | Blackburn | 83.05% | Sutton | 103.44 | ||
| Sutton | 23.44% | Whitley | 82.81% | Whitley | 102.21 | ||
| Whitley | 19.40% | Sutton | 80.00% | Blackburn | 101.65 | ||
| Solihull | 18.75% | Solway | 76.32% | Solway | 100.88 | ||
| Blackburn | 18.60% | Billingham | 72.88% | Billingham | 91.06 | ||
| Billingham | 18.18% | Solihull | 67.14% | Solihull | 85.89 | ||
| Nottingham | 9.38% | Nottingham | 64.47% | Nottingham | 73.85 |
Despite a pair of victories this weekend, Solway actually saw their shooting statistics take a small hit. Shots for dropped by over three shots and saw them slip to 3rd behind Telford. Despite not losing any ground the Sharks also allowed more shots than their average this week.
Shooting Percentage saw a few teams swapping positions. Solihull dropped below Sheffield, while Solway had a positive in terms of shooting percentage moving up to 5th at the expense of Billingham. The Lions dropped to 10th putting them dead last in all statistical areas covered in this blog.
| Shots For Per Game | Shots Against Per Game | Shot % | |||||
| Hull | 60.90 | Hull | 22.60 | Telford | 18.50% | ||
| Telford | 47.44 | Sheffield | 25.42 | Hull | 15.27% | ||
| Solway | 44.38 | Telford | 30.67 | Sheffield | 13.19% | ||
| Sheffield | 43.58 | Solway | 31.69 | Solihull | 13.14% | ||
| Whitley | 40.24 | Billingham | 34.62 | Solway | 11.96% | ||
| Solihull | 38.06 | Blackburn | 35.45 | Billingham | 11.69% | ||
| Blackburn | 36.18 | Whitley | 38.41 | Blackburn | 10.55% | ||
| Billingham | 35.54 | Sutton | 39.06 | Sutton | 10.29% | ||
| Sutton | 32.81 | Solihull | 42.12 | Whitley | 8.63% | ||
| Nottingham | 19.69 | Nottingham | 66.81 | Nottingham | 8.57% |
Sutton again took their reward for facing Nottingham by moving up to =6th with Billingham, while Blackburn dropped to 8th. There was no movement in terms of even strength goals against, while Sting moved ahead of Whitley Warriors in even strength differential.
| Even Strength For | Even Strength Against | Even Strength Diff | |||||
| Hull | 7.30 | Hull | 1.30 | Hull | 6.00 | ||
| Telford | 6.78 | Sheffield | 1.50 | Telford | 5.00 | ||
| Sheffield | 4.42 | Telford | 1.78 | Sheffield | 2.92 | ||
| Solway | 3.85 | Solway | 2.38 | Solway | 1.46 | ||
| Solihull | 3.82 | Billingham | 3.00 | Solihull | 0.24 | ||
| Billingham | 3.00 | Blackburn | 3.18 | Billingham | 0.00 | ||
| Sutton | 3.00 | Solihull | 3.59 | Blackburn | -0.45 | ||
| Blackburn | 2.73 | Whitley | 3.88 | Sutton | -0.94 | ||
| Whitley | 2.53 | Sutton | 3.94 | Whitley | -1.35 | ||
| Nottingham | 1.19 | Nottingham | 7.50 | Nottingham | -6.31 |
Individual Stats
For the third week in a row Hull’s Jason Hewitt maintains the league lead in points, although Niklas Ottosson and Ben Campbell (=2nd) used their extra game to close the gap to just two points. Hewitt is joined by fellow Pirates Matty Davies and Bobby Chamberlain (=5th) and Lee Bonner (6th).
Ottosson has company in the form of the league’s leading goal scorer Luke Brittle (4th). Sheffield’s Milan Kolena (8th), Sutton’s Stan Lascek (9th) and Telford’s Andrew McKinney (10th) round out the top 10, with the Sting import making his first appearance on the list.
Points leaders for the remaining teams are Chris Sykes (=12th) of Billingham with 24 points in 13 games, Ric Bentham (=17th) of Solway with 21 points in 12 games, Adam Barnes (=24th) of Blackburn with 18 points in six games and Ruskin Hughes (=36th) of Nottingham with 15 points in 16 games.
| Name | Team | GP | G | A | P | PPG |
| J Hewitt | Hull | 10 | 20 | 18 | 38 | 3.80 |
| B Campbell | Whitley | 16 | 23 | 13 | 36 | 2.25 |
| N Ottosson | Solihull | 17 | 9 | 27 | 36 | 2.12 |
| L Brittle | Solihull | 15 | 21 | 12 | 33 | 2.20 |
| M Davies | Hull | 8 | 6 | 26 | 32 | 4.00 |
| B Chamberlain | Hull | 10 | 15 | 17 | 32 | 3.20 |
| L Bonner | Hull | 10 | 15 | 15 | 30 | 3.00 |
| M Kolena | Sheffield | 12 | 10 | 19 | 29 | 2.42 |
| S Lascek | Sutton | 16 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 1.69 |
| A McKinney | Telford | 9 | 6 | 19 | 25 | 2.78 |
Top 5 Netminders
Tomas Fucik remains at the top of this list as he no doubt will until the minimum shots faced total moves above his 133 faced. Telford Tigers Tom Hovell Keeps his grip on 2nd place after taking on the starting role for the injured Denis Bell who drops out of the top 5 this week.
The Sheffield duo of Dima Zimozdra and Brandon Stones sit 3rd and 4th respectively for the second week in a row, while Solway youngster Jordan McLaughlin takes Bell’s place in 5th after allowing six goals on 81 shots.
| Name | Team | SAG | GA | SAVE % |
| T Fucik | Hull | 133 | 5 | 96.24% |
| T Hovell | Telford | 106 | 8 | 92.45% |
| D Zimozdra | Sheffield | 153 | 12 | 92.16% |
| B Stones | Sheffield | 147 | 12 | 91.84% |
| J McLaughlin | Solway | 215 | 19 | 91.16% |
| Min 100 shots |
A Final Thought
Telford continued their current tear this weekend, albeit in the cup, to extend their winning streak to nine games in all competitions.
This feat has been backstopped almost entirely by Tom Hovell who has played 526.47 of 540 minutes over this stretch, Ryan Lewis playing 12.55 as well as 28 seconds with an empty net. This is a much bigger workload than Hovell was likely expecting after being brought in to “compete with Denis Bell for the netminder position”.
After Bell went down with injury, Hovell has taken the reins and has been excellent, sitting in 2nd for save percentage among goalies facing over 100 shots.
This week however the Tigers have obtained the services of Sam Gospel from the Nottingham Panthers on a 2-way contract. While Gospel is an excellent goalie at this level, it does seem a touch unfair to Hovell, who is no stranger to a big workload after facing high volumes of shots over 32 games last season with Nottingham, to lose his starting role.
It remains to be seen how much Gospel will be available as his parent club Panthers will have first dibs on his services. While it is understandable that Telford are going all out for league and cup after Hull and Sheffield have both started to falter in recent weeks, Hovell has shown that he has the tools to backstop that push.
You must be logged in to post a comment.