REPORT: MATCH WEEK 5

BILLINGHAM STARS returned to winning ways on Sunday evening with a convincing National Ice Hockey League (N) Moralee Division 1 win over Sheffield Scimitars at the Forum.

Billingham were able to welcome a few more bodies back into the lineup, in stark contrast to their visitors who travelled to Teesside with just three defencemen amongst their 12 skaters. The Scimitars might have expected a long night when their hosts opened the scoring in the third minute, Michael Elder with a close range tap-in to finish a power play move and get the Stars off and running. The signs were ominous for Sheffield when Billingham moved two ahead in the eighth minute, Elder delaying his pass sufficiently to lay it on a plate for the incoming Conner McNulty to one-time past Matt Croyle in the Scimitars net, but to their credit the visitors battled to stay in the game with Croyle performing heroics to keep it at 2-0 going into the break.

The Stars were caught asleep at the wheel in the opening seconds of the second stanza, the defence missing an obvious opportunity to clear allowing Markuss Jansons to find Euan Williams free out front for an easy one-timer. Stirred back into action, Iain Brown kept up his current scoring streak by ripping one past Croyle at the near post in the 30th minute before Chris Sykes rifled into the top corner in the 37th minute. There were less than two minutes remaining when Brown was awarded a penalty shot and he made no mistake, again beating Croyle at his near post to give the home side a comfortable lead going into the final twenty.

This time there was to be no slacking off in the third period, Rolands Gritāns firing through Croyle from the blue line in the 45th minute. McNulty picked out the far corner for his second of the game in the 51st minute before Callum Wilkinson poked home a puck loose in front of the net two minutes later. There was time left for a Scimitars consolation, Aiden Dancer firing into an unguarded net in the 57th minute, but the game had been over as a contest since the first period and the Stars skated out 8-2 victors.

Man-of-the-Match for Billingham was Conner McNulty.

Stars Stats:

Conner McNulty 2+0; Iain Brown 2+0; Chris Sykes 1+2; Michael Elder 1+2; Rolands Gritāns 1+1; Callum Wilkinson 1+1; Tommy Spraggon 0+2; James Moss 0+1; Ben Greenhalgh 0+1; Joe Walls 0+1; Joe Dowdle 0+1; Shaun Galloway 0+1

SOG: Jacob Hammond 10 (6 / 4); Mark Turnbull 6

Scimitars Stats:

Euan Williams 1+0; Aiden Dancer 1+0; Samuel Keeling 0+2; Markuss Jansons 0+1

SOG: Matt Croyle 65 (19 / 28 / 18)

Weekend Results:

NIHL N1 Saturday:

🗡️ Sheffield Scimitars 1️⃣ - 4️⃣ Nottingham Lions 🦁

NIHL N1 Sunday:

🏹 Whitley Warriors 2️⃣ - 3️⃣ Hull Jets ✈️ (after overtime)

💫 Billingham Stars 8️⃣ - 2️⃣ Sheffield Scimitars 🗡️

🐾 Widnes Wild 2️⃣ - 7️⃣ Leeds Knights 2 ⚔️

🦅 Blackburn Hawks 5️⃣ - 3️⃣ Solihull Barons ⚜️