This Saturday the Magnox Ltd. Solway Sharks welcome the form team of the league to Dumfries Ice Bowl when third placed Blackburn Hawks roll into town. The Hawks are currently on a nine game winning streak which includes two wins over fellow title contenders the Billingham Stars and another last weekend over another form team Sutton Sting. Currently Blackburn sit just five points behind the Sharks having played one game more but a victory for the visitors would put themselves firmly in contention for the league title not just the end of season play-offs. Games against the Hawks always tend to be close, hard-fought encounters and this game promises nothing less. Face-off at the Ice Bowl is at the usual time of 7pm.
Last Saturday the Solway Sharks welcomed the Manchester Minotaurs to the Shark Tank and after a slow start that saw the Dumfries side trail by two goals as the first interval they raised their game and eventually ran out victors by eleven goals to two.
From the opening puck drop the Sharks immediately went on the on the offensive but to be truthful there was a crispness lacking in their passing and their lack of movement failed to pull their opponents defence out of position. With three minutes on the clock a Sean Day pass sent “danger man” Lukas Zemen free down the middle as he approached the last defender he neatly slipped a pass right to Brian Worrall who in turn played the perfect return pass for Zeman to fire home the opener from close range. The Sharks tried to reply immediately and for the next six minutes they swarmed around the Manchester goal but found it difficult to pull the well organised defence out of position. When the home forwards did manage to create shooting opportunities they found netminder Nichole Jackson in terrific form with a string of excellent saves.
On the thirteen minute mark the Minotaurs made one of their rare attacking breaks count when another move down the right wing saw Tomas Hnilica and Philip Proudlove combine to send a dangerous pass into the low slot area. Sheldon Cassidy went for power but topped his shot which, unfortunately for the Sharks, saw the puck trickle below Kieran Hobbins’ pads and into the net. Play continues much as it had previously with Solway unable to find a way through the Manchester defence or past the excellent Jackson and the first interval arrived with the visitors two goals to the good.
After the break the Sharks upped their work rate and the tempo of the game and it wasn’t long before the goals began to flow. A minute into the session Bob Chalmers came around the Manchester goal and forced a good pad save from Jackson at the near post. The rebound fell to Struan Tonnar in the low slot but with his back to goal he chose to pass square to Mark Gallagher who fired joyfully into the net. With their tails up Solway went in search of the equaliser and the only surprise was that it took a further four minutes to come. From defence the Sharks broke down the left and Pavol Melichercik sent Craig Thurston around behind the goal from where he spotted Iain Bowie drifting into the slot and he duly fired home. Solway continued to press and with eight minutes remaining in the second period Stevie Moore and Juraj Senko combined to allow Ross Murray to put the home side ahead for the first time with a powerful drive from the high slot.
A minute later the Sharks doubled their advantage Bob Chalmers and Struan Tonnar combined to allow Juraj Senko fire in a shot which Jackson did well to get a pad on but couldn’t keep out of the net. Within sixty seconds the Manchester netminder found herself in the way of a slapshot that caught her square on the side of her helmet. After a short break Jackson decided that she was ok to carry on, which in hindsight may have been a bad idea as Solway pounced to fire home two more goals with the goalie clearly rattled. Within a minute Frazer Goldie and Juraj Senko combined to set up Craig Mitchell to score top shelf with a shot that Jackson may have seen late as it came through traffic. The sixth goal, however, few netminders would have stopped, as Juraj Senko produced one of his mazy skates through the center of the Manchester defence before shooting powerfully into the roof of the net.
Harry Greaves took over from the concussed Jackson at the second intermission but like his predecessor he found the traffic in front of him to be all one way with himself in the headlights. In the forty-eighth minute a spell of intense Solway pressure saw Craig Thurston and Stevie Moore combine to set up a Pavol Melichercik shot from the right-hand face-off circle. Greaves did well to get a glove on the Slovakian forwards shot but could only look on in frustration as it looped over his body and into the net. Three minutes later a piece of trickery from Melichercik on the right-hand boards won him the space to thread a pass across the face of the Manchester goal to the waiting Iain Bowie who calmly slotted his shot home.
Two goals in a minute then put the Sharks into double figures. Six minutes from time Juraj Senko and Mark Gallagher combined to allow Frazer Goldie to score then an Iain Bowie pass sent Pavol Melichercik across the face of goal and he pulled his shot around the keeper and into the net. With two minutes remaining Solway completed the scoring with a goal that summed up the Minotaurs night when a powerful drive from Frazer Goldie escaped the netminders’ grasp and once more looped over his body and into the goal. This was a competent display from the Sharks after a slow start but they will have to be at their best from the start this Saturday if they are to see off the Blackburn challenge and maintain their lead at the top of the table.
Scoring statistics for the Sharks were as follows: Juraj Senko two goals and three assists, Pavol Melichercik 2+2, Iain Bowie and Frazer Goldie both 2+1, Mark Gallagher 1+1, Craig Mitchell and Ross Murray both 1+0, Robert Chalmers, Struan Tonnar, Stevie Moore and Craig Thurston all 0+2. Kieran Hobbins in the Sharks goal saved eight of the ten shots that he faced (save percentage 80.00%). Pavol Melichercik was named the Sharks Man of the Match for the third time in six games while Nichole Jackson picked up that honour for Manchester.
