BILLINGHAM EAGLES V
BLACKBURN HAWKS
ED1 NORTH
18TH DECEMBER 1999
Saturday 18th December saw the Eagles playing hosts to the Players, fans and officials of the Blackburn Hawks, Blackburn in their first ED1 seaeson had pulled off a victory against the Eagles on their own ice, so tonight the Eagles were after levvelling things a little.
1st Period
The first opened at a cracking pace at 2:24 Eagles Tom Brown broke away on the left wing to find himself one on one with the Blackburn netminder, his goal (assist Martin Lewis) was contested however referee Wardell judged the goal should stand and Hawks Danny Mckreil picked up a 10 minute misconduct penalty. 32 seconds later saw a nice pass across the Blackburn slot from Ste Wallace connect with Eagles captain Paul Winndridge hit home (second assist to Andy Fletcher) to make it Eagles 2 : Hawks 0. At 4:07 Gary Dowd after skating around or through every Blackburn outfield player before picking his moment to shoot the puck home unassisted. Eagles fourth for the night was hit by Martin Lewis assisted by Tom Brown when he found the Hawks net at 4:51. Eagles made it 5 when Ste Wallace fired the puck between the legs of the Blackburn netminder. assisted by Paul Winndridge and Andy Fletcher at 6:17. The sixth goal for the Eagles came at 8:08 when Ste Wallace got his second for the night again assisted by Paul Winndridge. Eagles found themselves short handed at 10:08 when Gary Dowd sat for a 2 minute elbowing penalty. The Hawks broke their duck when they took advantage of the power play when veteran Bobby Haig collected his own close range rebound and lifted it over Adam Flett who had spread himself well to block the original shot.The first closed Eagles 6 : Hawks 1.
2nd Period
The Eagles commenced their second period scoring at 24:31 when the prodoctive Martin Lewis and Tom Brown partnership combined well as Martin Lewis returned a quick pass to Tom from behind the Hawks net to allow Tom to hit the Eagles seventh. The Eagles went short handed when Simon Burns picked up a 2 minute interference penalty at 27:01. The Hawks again capitalised on the power play allowing Bobby Haig to hit his second of the night to make it Eagles 7 : Hawks 2. Under a minute later the Hawks clipped the Eagles wings with a goal from Mcdonald scored at 29:21. The Hawks were still flying when Mcdonald netted again at 32:10 to cut the Eagles lead to 3 goals. The Eagles hit back at 33:39 when Paul Winndridge pulled off a 360 degree turn under some heavy pressure from the Hawks and released an inch perfect pass to Tom Brown who had found some space at the foot of the Hawks goal post to tap home his hat-trick goal (double assist Gary Dowd) to make it Eagles 8 : Hawks 4. Eagles flew higher at 36:02 when Ste Wallace exhibited some classy stick work to pull a pass out of the air and hit home the falling puck into the Hawks net to complete his hat-trick. Just under a minute later saw Hawks Bobby Haig complete his hat-trick in classical Scott Morrisson blue line poaching style. The second closed Eagles 9 : Hawks 5.
3rd Period
Eagles Martin Lewis scored after some nice skating from Gary Dowd to take the Eagles tally into double figures. Under a minute later saw Tom Brown score when he connected with a rink long high lobbed pass from Ian Richardson with only the space for one or two touches Tom showed some good finishing to net the Eagles eleventh. With the Eagles having discovered the free scoring form exhibited in the first period Paul Winndridge powered home a slap shot from the point into the top left corner of the Hawks net. Gary Dowd took an early shower when he collected a 2+10 roughing / misconduct penalty following his retaliation following a hooking incident. Tom Brown closed the Eagles account when he scored assisted by Paul Winndridge and Ian Richardson to settle the game Eagles 13 : Hawks 5.
This was one of the best team performanceswitnessed this season at the Forum, in the last few minutes of the third people started to speculate as to who would collect Eagles man of the match, there were about 10 suggestions by various people, I dont think the bench can be criticised tonight for not allowing the younger players ice time, it was a welcome exhibition of three line hockey.
PERIOD SCORES
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | FINAL | |
| BILLINGHAM | 6 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
| BLACKBURN | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
PENALTIES
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | TOTAL | |
| BILLINGHAM | 2 | 2 | 24 | 28 |
| BLACKBURN | 12 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
MAN OF THE MATCH AWARDS
EAGLES - SIMON BURNS
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