PREVIEW: MATCH WEEK 10

BILLINGHAM STARS take on the National Ice Hockey League (N) Moralee Division 1’s basement side at the Forum tomorrow evening as Widnes Wild make the trip to Teesside in search of their first points of the season.

Widnes have endured a torrid start to their campaign, sitting as they do with no points at the foot of the table and some pretty horrible scorelines to reflect on. Perhaps a settling-in period should have been expected after so much change during the summer, however with two months of the season already gone, the Wild need to start putting some results together to avoid the ignominy of the wooden spoon. There were certainly signs of recovery last weekend when Widnes pushed visiting Hull Jets all the way before finally losing out 1-3, a vast improvement on their previous game which saw them lose 2-16 to Blackburn Hawks. The Wild do have an opportunity this evening to claw back some ground as they face Sheffield Scimitars in Yorkshire, Scims sitting just three points ahead in ninth place.

🔗 Widnes Wild on Elite Prospects: https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/14039/widnes-wild

An incident-packed game against Nottingham Lions last Sunday has resulted in suspensions for James Moss and Darren Stattersfield, who will miss the next four and six matches respectively. Billingham have become used to playing different lines and systems for much of this season due to players missing, but even so, the loss of two such influential players will be tricky to cover. The Stars are in a rich vein of form that they will be keen to maintain regardless of circumstances, and a home fixture against the League’s bottom side on paper looks like a relatively straightforward game, but as results elsewhere have shown various times already this season, ‘on paper’ has been the undoing of several teams and Billingham must approach tomorrow’s game as any other.

🔗 England Ice Hockey disciplinary: https://englandicehockey.com/disciplinary-saturday-2-november/

The Stars face Widnes Wild in National Ice Hockey League (N) Moralee Division 1 at the Forum tomorrow, face off 5.30pm. Tickets are priced at £14 adults, £10 concessions, £46 family [2+2].

Weekend Fixtures:

NIHL N1 Saturday:

🗡️ Sheffield Scimitars 🆚 Widnes Wild 🐾

⚔️ Leeds Knights 2 🆚 Whitley Warriors 🏹

NIHL N1 Sunday:

🏹 Whitley Warriors 🆚 Solihull Barons ⚜️

💫 Billingham Stars 🆚 Widnes Wild 🐾

🦅 Blackburn Hawks 🆚 Hull Jets ✈️

🦁 Nottingham Lions 🆚 Deeside Dragons 🐉