(Image permission: Linda Crabtree)
BILLINGHAM, UK – With eight games featuring all ten teams we saw one upset in Moralee D1 as the resurgent Blackburn Hawks beat Solway Sharks.
Billingham Stars almost caused an upset against Hull Pirates despite losing netminder James Flavell to a fighting major. The remaining results went with form.
Team Stats
Hull leapfrogged Telford Tigers in PP% to take top spot in all three special team areas. Sheffield Steeldogs swapped with Solway after the Sharks failed to score with the man advantage against Blackburn, while the Hawks moved ahead of Whitley Warriors.
Moving onto the penalty kill, Nottingham Lions moved off bottom spot pushing Solihull Barons into 10th place, while Sutton Sting jumped above falling Solway. The Sharks dropped two places to 6th and interchanged with the Hawks who now sit 4th.
| Powerplay % | Penalty Kill % | Special Teams | |||||
| Hull | 40.54% | Hull | 91.18% | Hull | 131.72 | ||
| Telford | 39.39% | Sheffield | 87.50% | Telford | 124.39 | ||
| Sheffield | 31.58% | Telford | 85.00% | Sheffield | 119.08 | ||
| Solway | 25.49% | Whitley | 82.14% | Blackburn | 102.00 | ||
| Solihull | 21.21% | Blackburn | 82.00% | Whitley | 101.49 | ||
| Sutton | 20.34% | Sutton | 77.59% | Solway | 100.49 | ||
| Blackburn | 20.00% | Solway | 75.00% | Sutton | 97.93 | ||
| Whitley | 19.35% | Billingham | 71.70% | Billingham | 90.57 | ||
| Billingham | 18.87% | Nottingham | 65.15% | Solihull | 84.37 | ||
| Nottingham | 9.43% | Solihull | 63.16% | Nottingham | 74.58 |
Whitley Warriors’ 90 shot performance against Nottingham boosted their shots for figure massively moving them from 7th to 5th. It did however have a detrimental effect on their shooting percentage after managing only six goals meaning their shooting percentage drops.
Billingham dropped to 9th in shots for after another double header against former EPL teams. Hull again moved top of another statistical area as they swapped places with Sheffield for shots against.
Telford moved ahead of Solway in this category which, when added to shooting percentages where Sheffield moved ahead of Solihull, mean that the former EPL teams now sit 1st, 2nd and 3rd in all statistical areas bar one. The exception being Solway sitting 3rd in shots for per game.
| Shots For Per Game | Shots Against Per Game | Shot % | |||||
| Hull | 59.88 | Hull | 24.00 | Telford | 18.50% | ||
| Solway | 47.45 | Sheffield | 24.90 | Hull | 16.49% | ||
| Telford | 47.44 | Telford | 30.67 | Sheffield | 13.16% | ||
| Sheffield | 43.30 | Solway | 30.90 | Solihull | 13.10% | ||
| Whitley | 39.87 | Blackburn | 35.78 | Solway | 11.49% | ||
| Solihull | 38.71 | Billingham | 36.91 | Blackburn | 11.38% | ||
| Blackburn | 36.11 | Whitley | 38.13 | Billingham | 10.92% | ||
| Sutton | 32.29 | Sutton | 40.57 | Nottingham | 8.90% | ||
| Billingham | 31.64 | Solihull | 42.57 | Sutton | 8.63% | ||
| Nottingham | 24.14 | Nottingham | 65.31 | Whitley | 8.36% |
Billingham dropped two places to 9th in even strength goals for per game whilst Blackburn jumped two places to 6th.
Even strength goals against saw Sutton drop by two places to 9th after conceding six at even strength against the Hawks on Sunday. Blackburn moved up again by two places for eve strength differential after an eight-goal swing.
| Even Strength For | Even Strength Against | Even Strength Diff | |||||
| Hull | 7.38 | Hull | 1.13 | Hull | 6.25 | ||
| Telford | 6.78 | Sheffield | 1.30 | Telford | 5.00 | ||
| Sheffield | 4.10 | Telford | 1.78 | Sheffield | 2.80 | ||
| Solway | 3.82 | Solway | 2.36 | Solway | 1.45 | ||
| Solihull | 3.79 | Blackburn | 2.67 | Blackburn | 0.33 | ||
| Blackburn | 3.00 | Billingham | 3.27 | Solihull | 0.07 | ||
| Sutton | 2.57 | Solihull | 3.71 | Billingham | -1.00 | ||
| Whitley | 2.33 | Whitley | 3.73 | Whitley | -1.40 | ||
| Billingham | 2.27 | Sutton | 4.14 | Sutton | -1.57 | ||
| Nottingham | 1.38 | Nottingham | 6.77 | Nottingham | -5.38 |
Individual Stats
Hull player/coach Jason Hewitt leads the league in points with 32 in just eight games. He is joined by Lee Bonner and Matty Davies (who missed this weekend) in =4th and Bobby Chamberlain in 6th.
Solihull import Niklas Ottosson scored one point against Sheffield to keep sole possession of 2nd place, while teammate Luke Brittle dropped from 4th to 8th after a pointless weekend. Ben Campbell had another three point game to move into 3rd for the Warriors.
Milan Kolena (7th) is Sheffield’s sole representative, while Telford’s Andrew McKinney (9th) is joined by Doug Clarkson (10th) who, as predicted last week, has entered the top 10.
The remaining five teams are represented as follows. Sutton Sting have Stan Lascek in =12th place with 21 points. Ric Bentham dropped out of the top 10 into =14th after a pointless game against his former club Blackburn whose highest scorer is Adam Barnes (18th) with 18 points in just six games.
Chris Sykes moved up to =19th with 17 points for Billingham, while Nottingham’s Ruskin Hughes (=29th) continues to be a bright spot for the bottom side with 14 points in 13 games.
| Name | Team | GP | G | A | P | PPG |
| J Hewitt | Hull | 8 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 4.00 |
| N Ottosson | Solihull | 14 | 7 | 24 | 31 | 2.21 |
| B Campbell | Whitley | 14 | 19 | 11 | 30 | 2.14 |
| M Davies | Hull | 6 | 6 | 22 | 28 | 4.67 |
| L Bonner | Hull | 8 | 13 | 15 | 28 | 3.50 |
| B Chamberlain | Hull | 8 | 14 | 13 | 27 | 3.38 |
| M Kolena | Sheffield | 10 | 9 | 18 | 27 | 2.70 |
| L Brittle | Solihull | 12 | 18 | 9 | 27 | 2.25 |
| A McKinney | Telford | 9 | 6 | 19 | 25 | 2.78 |
| D Clarkson | Telford | 5 | 14 | 9 | 23 | 4.60 |
Top 5 Netminders
Miles Finney (3rd) of Nottingham entered the top 5 netminders after his 84 save performance in Whitley Bay, with Dima Zimozdra dropping out. Tom Hovell (4th) jumped ahead of Brandon Stones (5th) in the only other change this week.
| Name | Team | SAG | GA | SAVE % |
| T Fucik | Hull | 133 | 5 | 96.24% |
| J Nicholls | Solihull | 61 | 4 | 93.44% |
| M Finney | Nottingham | 90 | 6 | 93.33% |
| T Hovell | Telford | 106 | 8 | 92.45% |
| B Stones | Sheffield | 91 | 7 | 92.31% |
| Min 50 shots |
A Final Thought
Before the season started this blog produced a pre-season preview. In that preview it was predicted that Hull would win the league as they had addressed their only need by bringing in netminder Tomas Fucik.
Fast forward two months into the season and Fucik, after doing what it said on the tin, has moved onto pastures new and they have gone back to the goalie they had last year when they won nothing.
All the numbers above suggest that Hull should walk the league. They sit first in every statistical category that is outlined bar one. And yet, with Ashley Smith as starter, this blog predicts they will again come away with nothing.
Coach Hewitt is building something excellent in Hull with hungry, young, local players with excellent systems. And yet he has an owner who wants to blow the whole thing up because they didn’t progress in the Autumn Cup!
As such he put out a ludicrous statement that has since been rescinded and brought back his son to keep nets despite a save percentage that is 7.27% worse than any of their realistic title rivals.
If the Pirates are to win anything with the superb roster and systems they have then this needs sorting and fast.
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