Telford Tigers secure dramatic victory to boost play-off hopes

Tigers are in a straight fight with Solway Sharks for the final play-off berth and this victory, coupled with Sharks' defeat to Romford, means they are five points clear having played a game more.

The triumph followed a home success against Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday evening and head coach Tom Watkins was relieved to get the job done.

He said: “What a relief! Two points for the win and four points across the weekend at a crucial time of the year. 

"The team dug deep to find a way to win in overtime. We had a lot of good moments and situations, and we seemed to be comfortable for most of the game.

"We were guilty of letting them back into the contest after not taking advantage of some great opportunities that could have put the game away in the third period, but ultimately we got the job done in overtime.”

Tigers continued their goalscoring form from the previous night and opened the scoring after six minutes of the first period. 

Louie Newell sent a pass from the top of the right circle to Eric Henderson, who tapped the puck past Dimitri Zimozdra.

Telford doubled their lead six minutes later when Fin Howells scored his fourth goal of the weekend.

Hull hit back with a goal from Jamie Chilcott, but Henderson then restored Tigers’ two-goal lead.

As the first period was ending, Hull scored again through Jonny Corneil.

The second period was similar to the first, with Tigers continuing to play the better hockey while Hull tried to make it a physical game. 

Midway through the contest, Tigers netted a fourth goal when Henderson unselfishly picked out Devon Skoleski, who shot over Zimozdra.

In the final two minutes of the period, Tigers added a fifth goal. Henderson was once again involved as he picked out David Thomson, who brilliantly controlled the puck before beating Zimozdra.

All of Tigers’ bad habits came out during the third period as they gave away the puck too often and looked uneasy in defense.

With 10 minutes of the game to go, they gave away an unnecessary penalty when Adam Harding was called for slashing.

Bobby Chamberlain scored on the subsequent power play and then Emil Svec cut Telford’s lead to one.

For the final two minutes of the game, Hull pulled Zimozdra from goal and a further penalty was called against Harding for a harsh delay of game, giving Hull a two-man advantage.

With just seven seconds of regulation time left, Corneil scored to send the game to overtime.

Overtime started with Tigers maintaining control of the puck and when they broke into the Hull defensive zone, Scott McKenzie set up Skoleski, who hit a superb shot from the slot past Zimozdra to clinch the win.