Despite the severe weather seeing numerous games called off over the course of the weekend, the youngest Solway Sharks team, the SK Joinery sponsored under 12s, saw the visit of Belfast Giants U12’s for a league and Scottish cup double game.
Despite going a goal behind after 10 minutes of play the young sharks kept their momentum going, more than a match for their rivals, and were rewarded for their numerous attempts on goal 2 seconds before the period buzzer when Cassie McGregor sent a Ben Armstrong pass to the back of the net to even the score at 1-1. The second period saw Belfast come out fired up, and when they scored twice in 3 minutes the young Sharks struggled to reply, and spent the rest of the period trying to contain the Belfast attack.
After some words from the coach during the period break Solway came out determined to claw back some of the 3 -1 deficit, and it took only 4 minutes of sustained attack for Tomas Vyrostek to send a Tony Ho pass over the shoulder of the keeper and make the score 3 – 2 Belfast. Keeping both the pace and their relentless attack up, Solway dominated the play, before Belfast pounced on a defensive lapse and pulled another goal ahead. Refusing to give up the youngsters kept going, and when McGregor scored again 8 seconds from the end of the game from Ajay Turner and Vyrostek the team, and their support were delighted. Unfortunately it was too late to turn the game round, and the final score saw Belfast emerge 4 – 3 victors. Samuel Wojcik was man of the match for Solway.
After the game coach Craig Jackson said, “The game today got off to a good start and we competed well. We were unfortunate to go behind early on in the first period, but we kept plugging away seeing shots going everywhere bar the back of the net. A late 1st period goal saw us tie the game at the end of the first. The second period saw us make some unexplainable mistakes that saw us lose the period 2 nil. During this period we lost all shape and appeared to forget about the basics we had discussed in the changing room prior to the game.
The third period saw us get back on track, and the same as in the first we created plenty of chances without hitting the back of the net. We eventually got a goal back to make it 3-2 but then a mistake defensively saw that gap quickly become 2 again. We kept pushing and eventually got the 3rd goal we deserved with 7.9 seconds remaining and this was how the game finished.
Some hard lessons to be learned for the young sharks this weekend. Simple basic mistakes have seen us go out of the Scottish cup at the early stage and lose out on two vital league points.”
Solway Sharks Juniors are actively recruiting new players at all age groups. Anyone interested in playing ice hockey should contact Dumfries Ice Bowl for details of Learn to Play sessions on Tuesday and Thursday at 4pm, and now Saturday mornings at 10.30am.
