Telford Tigers gain early edge over Barons

The two teams will meet again this weekend in the first round of the NIHL Moralee Conference North play-offs as a result of Tigers ending the campaign third in the table and Barons sixth.

Watkins said: “Two points to finish our league season off was a priority and with us facing the Barons again in the first round of play-offs the result was important to us.

“We started well with a strong first period and from there were able to take our foot off the gas. We’ve had some very intense and important games of late so to remove some guys out of the line up and rest them was hopefully a big plus for us down the play-off stretch.”

Tigers went into the game with their title hopes already over having lost 6-3 at eventual champions Hull Pirates on Saturday night.

They added Alex Blake, Dan Mitchell, Jed Moreland, Henry Adams and Ryan Lewis as back-up netminder to the line-up, with Tom Hovell starting in goal.

And the hosts opened the scoring in just the third minute when Jack Watkins’ shot was saved by Sam Hewitt but Brodie Jesson tapped in the rebound.

Tigers scored again a minute later when Mitchell passed to the unmarked Moreland in front of goal and he fired in from close range.

Tigers were threatening with every attack and scored a third goal when Jesson’s shot from the right circle was saved by Hewitt but, with the keeper prone on the ice Jason Silverthorn was able to collect the puck, skate round him and apply the finish.

In the 10th minute Mitchell made a big hit behind the goal on Solihull’s Marcus Maynard that caused him to turn the puck over to Jack Watkins, who fed the puck for Warren Tait to fire in a fourth goal.

Watkins then scored the fifth of the night with a shot through the legs of Hewitt. As the period reached the final minute, there was still time for one more goal as Jonathan Weaver got the final touch to a Jack Watkins pass across goal.

Just 30 three seconds into the second period, Solihull got on the scoreboard with a goal from Niklas Ottosson.

Tigers responded with a seventh goal as Mitchell tapped in from Joe Aston’s pass and quickly added two more by under-18s player Fin Howells. First he applied the finish to a pass from Ricky Plant and then scored shortly after with a shot into an empty net after being set up by Scott McKenzie.

The final goal of the period was scored by Solihull’s Adam Brittle to leave the score 9-2.

Coach Watkins made a number of changes to the lines in the third period, giving extended ice time to some of the younger and less experienced players.

Lewis was given the last 10 minutes of the contest in goal and the period was a scrappy one with Solihull’s David Rogers grabbing the only goal.

Hull Pirates beat Sheffield Steeldogs 8-3 in Sheffield to win the title leaving Tigers tied with Sheffield on 64 points but finishing in third place for the second successive season due to Sheffield having a better head to head record.