Tigers fall to defeat against Hull Pirates in feisty encounter

Telford Tigers tumbled to their first pre-season defeat at the hands of Hull Pirates on Saturday night.

The county men struggled to make the most of a string of powerplays during the opening exchanges on Humberside, as Hull took a 2-0 lead.

Game photo credit to James Shaw

And with a mass brawl marring proceedings in the third period, Telford were unable to stage a comeback, eventually losing 3-2.

Tigers head coach, Tom Watkins, believes his side paid the price for not taking advantage of those early powerplay chances.

He said: “I thought our performance was poor tonight and we never got going in the first period. We got out-skated and out-hustled by a quick team, and we allowed guys to take a couple of liberties.

“We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole by going 2-0 down in the first period and I said to the guys that I didn’t think we were mentally ready for a five on three so early on. The game started and we hadn’t started.

“At that point, if you get a five on three you’ve got to take those sort of opportunities. If you do, then it’s a totally different game, but we didn’t do that tonight.

“I thought we played a better, smarter game in the third period, and created some good scoring chances, but not enough ‘grade a’ opportunities. We were very perimeter all night and didn’t get enough net drive or sacrifice.”

Those five on three powerplays for Telford came after just five minutes of the first period, before Hull opened their account with a strike from Jaroslav Sarsok on 11 minutes.

John Bishop doubled the hosts’ advantage four minutes later, as the Tigers struggled to seriously test home netminder Jordan Marr.

The visitors noticeably picked up the pace during the second session, but they had to wait until the fourth minute of the third period before Jason Silverthorn scored with a fine close-range effort.

Doug Clarkson pulled his side level with a breakaway strike eight minutes later, but the Pirates then snatched a third goal.

The game descended into chaos with six minutes remaining, as players from both teams traded punches on the ice, leading to a lengthy delay. Over twenty minutes penalties were handed out to each team.

And despite removing netminder Ondrej Raszka in favour of an extra forward during the closing moments, Watkins was unable to steer his side towards an equalising goal.

He added: “We shot a lot of pucks straight at the goalie and that final pass was a little bit lacking in places. But it is still very early in the season.

“It’s a case of the guys out there taking the opportunity and responsibility, and managing the puck effectively, which we didn’t when we got put under pressure.