WHITLEY WARRIORS
V
BILLINGHAM EAGLES
ED1 CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL 2000
30TH APRIL 2000
The Billingham Eagles made the journey north of the Tyne to play the first leg of the English National Championship Final , with the return leg at the Forum on the 14th May the Eagles would have home advantage when it counted. Eagles were without Tom Griffiths , Stephen Wallace and Gary Dowd.
1st Period
The game opened with Whitley picking up a two minute elbows penalty,the Eagles were unable to gain from the power play and themselves picked up a penalty when Adam Flett was called for a tripping penalty. Simon opened the Warriors scoring with a powerplay goal at 3.27 when he combined with Lee Baxter to score. After five minutes of hectic play the Eagles needed to slow things down and settle into the game.
SIMON BURNS
A good run from Brian Perry was thwarted by Whitley n/minder.A through pass and resulting breakaway from Paul Windridge looked promising as spike held up the puck long enough for support to arrive in the form of Tom Brown who collected a pass from Spike span and released what would have been an inch perfect pass that found the back of the net. DJ Flett was unlucky to be stopped when a nice shot from the edge of the zone was saved. The eleventh minute saw the Warriors get the go ahead goal when Lonsdale fired home assisted by Lee Baxter. The first closed Warriors 2 : Eagles 1.
BRIAN PERRY FINDS HIMSELF LAST MAN
2nd Period
As the second got into swing the unsustainable pace of the first disappeared and the Tempo slowed. A nice effort from Ian Richardson as he skated into the zone to release a good shot that was again saved. A number of good defensive moves from Richie Thornton thwarted the Warriors advance. The 25th minute saw Brian Perry display some silky skating and good stick work as he cut through the Whitley defence , yet again the shutters were down and he was denied a goal. Eagles levelled it at 26:41 when they forced the puck home, Eagles found the majority of the Warriors players tied up holding , hooking etc and Simon Hehir scored assisted by Paul Windridge .Whitley were next to skate through the Eagles defence un - molested and a little drop pass was placed in front of the Eagles net for Simon Leech to tap home. Next was a controversial moment when a Martin Lewis goal rebounded out of the Whitley net, the light stayed off and the goal was not awarded , if that wasnt a goal then Whitley must have the quietest pipes in British Hockey. At 36.26 Tom Brown scored assisted by Paul Winndridge and Brian Perry the Warriors defense was again at sixes and sevens as it concentrated on wrapping up any player in sight excluding Tom. The third closed level at 3 goals each.
EAGLES CELEBRATE AS TOM BROWN LEVELS THE GAME AT 3 GOALS EACH
3rd Period
The Warriors moved ahead at 42:02 when Paul Willis broke away and finnished well as he skated onto Adam Flett and slotted it between Flettys legs. In the 45th minute Whitley again demonstrated that hey have got the art of the rebounds off the back nets mastered , with another of these rebounds returning into play over the shoulder of Adam Flett, in most rinks these rebound pases would be whistled down. Whitley savaged another power play when ref Lawler who had, had a reasonable game untill this moment , excluding his lack of metal shown over the disputed goal , awarded a high sticks and then when Martin Lewis reacted to the referres error of identity he collected a misconduct penalty on top. The penalty was played off but Eagles were punished just as they returned to full strength when an un-marked Simon Leech tapped home a pass from behind the net to make it warriors 5 :Eagles 3. Billingham collected a 2 minute power play when Warriors picked up a 2 minute holding penalty. Tom Brown collected the puck to skate the length of the ice to blast home and bring the Eagles within one goal of the Warriors. With 6:07 left on the clock Brian Perry again turned on the style to again be denied a goal by the whitley net minder who made the brave decision to lie at the skates of the oncoming Brian Perry and then reacted when there was no where left for Brian to go but into the net minder, thankfully no damage was done. Whitley again moved away from the Eagles when they scored a trickler that only just evaded the full stretch Adam Flett. With 2 minutes left on the clock the score stood at Warriors 6 : Eagles 4 .
WARRIORS MAKE IT 6 : 4
The Eagles were caught napping when with 1:37 left on the clock Lee Baxter broke away un-observed by an Eagles line that was pre-occupied with pushing forward and slotted home to give the Warriors a three goal advantage to bring to the Billingham Forum
As a damage limitation excercise the shutters should have come down when we drew level at 3 goals each and we should maybe have sat back and defended, however I think the chance to try and grab victory changed our tactics. Not detracting from the performance of the boys tonight but maybe with a full squad including Stephen , Tom and , Dowdy some more depth to the lines will help us overcome the Warriors at home.
PERIOD SCORES
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | FINAL | |
| WHITLEY | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| BILLINGHAM | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
SHOTS ON GOAL
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | TOTAL | |
| WHITLEY | 16 | 9 | 12 | 37 |
| BILLINGHAM | 10 | 13 | 6 | 29 |
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