(Image permission: Keith & Jenny Davies)
BILLINGHAM, UK – Despite there being nine teams playing over six games in Moralee D1 this weekend, the movement in the team statistics was minimal.
It could be suggested that this is because teams are in their stride now and are what they are, so movement has levelled off. That, coupled with the positive comments received on last week’s blog, has led to this week’s edition being a hybrid of the two.
We take have a brief look over the statistical areas as we usually do, as well as taking another look at those individual stats ahead of a rare weekend with all 10 teams in league action.
Team Stats
Most teams saw a slight dip in their powerplay percentages this week with the opposite effect on their penalty kill numbers.
Sheffield Steeldogs versus Billingham Stars featured zero goals with the man advantage, while the Dogs maintained a 100% record on the kill by keeping Whitley Warriors’ PP off the board on Sunday to move into second place on the PK.
They did however manage one powerplay goal for the game winner at Hillheads. Sutton Sting (6th) swapped with Whitley (7th) after the Warriors went 0-for-3.
| Powerplay % | Penalty Kill % | Special Teams | |||||
| Telford | 41.38% | Hull | 96.30% | Hull | 136.93 | ||
| Hull | 40.63% | Sheffield | 86.11% | Telford | 126.67 | ||
| Solway | 27.66% | Telford | 85.29% | Sheffield | 112.58 | ||
| Sheffield | 26.47% | Whitley | 81.82% | Solway | 104.33 | ||
| Solihull | 22.58% | Blackburn | 79.07% | Whitley | 102.51 | ||
| Sutton | 22.22% | Solway | 76.67% | Blackburn | 98.42 | ||
| Whitley | 20.69% | Sutton | 76.36% | Sutton | 98.58 | ||
| Blackburn | 19.35% | Billingham | 73.33% | Billingham | 90.00 | ||
| Billingham | 16.67% | Solihull | 66.04% | Solihull | 88.62 | ||
| Nottingham | 9.62% | Nottingham | 62.90% | Nottingham | 72.52 |
With the shooting statistics this week it was very much a case of less shots all round. Sheffield (down to 4th) and Whitley (down to 7th) were both overtaken in the shots for category.
Sutton overtook the Warriors despite their own number dropping after only mustering 11 shots against Hull Pirates on Sunday, while the fixtureless Telford Tigers leapfrogged Sheffield. As for shooting percentages we have a new team propping up the table as Whitley’s conversion rate of 8.66% sees them overtaken by Sutton.
| Shots For Per Game | Shots Against Per Game | Shot % | |||||
| Hull | 60.71 | Sheffield | 24.00 | Telford | 19.33% | ||
| Solway | 49.10 | Hull | 24.29 | Hull | 16.94% | ||
| Telford | 46.57 | Solway | 29.70 | Solihull | 13.56% | ||
| Sheffield | 44.56 | Telford | 32.71 | Sheffield | 12.47% | ||
| Solihull | 39.15 | Blackburn | 36.71 | Solway | 11.61% | ||
| Blackburn | 36.86 | Billingham | 39.11 | Billingham | 10.42% | ||
| Whitley | 36.29 | Whitley | 39.29 | Blackburn | 9.30% | ||
| Billingham | 34.11 | Sutton | 40.83 | Nottingham | 9.27% | ||
| Sutton | 32.50 | Solihull | 43.38 | Sutton | 9.23% | ||
| Nottingham | 21.58 | Nottingham | 63.25 | Whitley | 8.66% |
Even strength scoring is very much the same story. Sutton jumped three spots in terms of even strength goals for, with Billingham and Whitley dropping at their gain.
Billingham dropped into the negative for even strength goal differential for the first time this season after all eight goals in their game against Sheffield were at even strength.
| Even Strength For | Even Strength Against | Even Strength Diff | |||||
| Hull | 7.86 | Hull | 1.00 | Hull | 6.86 | ||
| Telford | 6.71 | Sheffield | 1.22 | Telford | 4.71 | ||
| Sheffield | 4.11 | Solway | 2.00 | Sheffield | 2.89 | ||
| Solihull | 3.92 | Telford | 2.00 | Solway | 1.90 | ||
| Solway | 3.90 | Blackburn | 2.86 | Solihull | 0.23 | ||
| Sutton | 2.75 | Billingham | 2.89 | Billingham | -0.33 | ||
| Billingham | 2.56 | Sutton | 3.67 | Blackburn | -0.72 | ||
| Blackburn | 2.14 | Solihull | 3.69 | Sutton | -0.92 | ||
| Whitley | 2.14 | Whitley | 3.93 | Whitley | -1.79 | ||
| Nottingham | 1.42 | Nottingham | 6.92 | Nottingham | -5.50 |
Individual Stats
Matty Davies will no doubt be rueing not being available for Sunday’s fixture against Sutton as he watched Hull bag 14 goals without him.
That opened the door for Solihull’s Niklas Ottosson to take over the scoring lead, albeit by one point in seven extra games. Davies’ coach Jason Hewitt also jumped him pushing him into third.
Luke Brittle also missed the weekend for the Barons and drops to =4th with Ben Campbell who scored the Warriors’ only goal. Bobby Chamberlain scored 4+1 and Lee Bonner 1+5 against Sting to move into 5th and =6th respectively.
Sharing 6th spot with Bonner is Sheffield’s Milan Kolena despite what could be considered a lean weekend for the free-scoring Slovakian with just two assists in two games.
Rounding out the top 10 are Jason Silverthorn who didn’t play for Telford and Solway’s Ric Bentham who took sole possession of 10th.
Top scorers for the four teams not featured are Sutton’s Stan Lascek (=12th), Billingham’s Chris Sykes (21st), Nottingham Lions’ duo Ruskin Hughes and Cam Pywell (=25th) and Blackburn Hawks’ Adam Barnes (=32nd).
| Name | Team | GP | G | A | P | PPG |
| N Ottosson | Solihull | 13 | 7 | 23 | 30 | 2.31 |
| J Hewitt | Hull | 7 | 15 | 14 | 29 | 4.14 |
| M Davies | Hull | 6 | 6 | 22 | 28 | 4.67 |
| L Brittle | Solihull | 11 | 18 | 9 | 27 | 2.45 |
| B Campbell | Whitley | 13 | 17 | 10 | 27 | 2.08 |
| B Chamberlain | Hull | 7 | 13 | 12 | 25 | 3.57 |
| L Bonner | Hull | 7 | 10 | 14 | 24 | 3.43 |
| M Kolena | Sheffield | 9 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 2.67 |
| J Silverthorn | Telford | 7 | 12 | 11 | 23 | 3.29 |
| R Bentham | Solway | 9 | 11 | 9 | 20 | 2.22 |
Top 5 Netminders
The only change in the top five netminders this week sees Dima Zimozdra knock Denis Bell from the list after only him and teammate Brandon Stones played this weekend.
Tomas Fucik left the Pirates this week to play a higher standard, while Nicholls, Hovell and Bell didn’t feature.
| Name | Team | SAG | GA | SAVE % |
| T Fucik | Hull | 133 | 5 | 96.24% |
| J Nicholls | Solihull | 61 | 4 | 93.44% |
| B Stones | Sheffield | 91 | 7 | 92.31% |
| D Zimozdra | Sheffield | 120 | 10 | 91.67% |
| T Hovell | Telford | 59 | 5 | 91.53% |
| Min 50 shots |
