Warriors 1 ambush Ice Tigers
On Saturday, 27th January, Warriors 1 took on the Sheffield Ice Tigers at Planet Ice, Leeds. This was their opening game in the "Blood, Sweat & Tears" Cup.
To commemorate the EIHA Pride Week which ran from 19th - 28th January, a lot of our players were using rainbow stick tape and the team displayed the Pride flag after the game - see the team picture at the bottom of the page.
In team news, the Warriors gave debuts to two new players - Chris Preston (F) and Chris Blaschko (D) . The starting netminder was Lewis Pickering, with Ben Briggs as back-up. The team were without several key skaters – Ollie Gannon (D), Will Gibbons (F), Nathan Clegg (D), Ash Pryce (F), Mitch White (F), Matt Gatenby (F) and Dzintars Jonuss (F) - but still felt confident they had enough strength to take the win.
The Warriors have high hopes in this competition and were keen to start the campaign with a convincing win and a good performance.
1st period
The opening period was end to end, with both teams trading chances. The Warriors knew it was going to be tough to score past Ice Tigers’ netminder Warren Hewett, who was already showing his shot-stopping qualities.
With the game entering 15 minutes of stalemate, the Warriors managed to break the deadlock. Sam Cromack (#79) was free on the right hand side of the goal and managed to elevate the puck into the top corner. 1-0 Warriors!
The Warriors felt this was a deserved goal and anticipated increasing their lead, but the Ice Tigers had other ideas. Only 2 minutes after the restart the visitors levelled the score at 1-1.
Warriors 1 Ice Tigers 1
2nd period
Going into the first interval, the Warriors knew that the middle period would be an important one and they would have to make their dominance count. The team had out-shot the Ice Tigers 15 to 6 in the opening period and needed to be more clinical in front of goal.
The opening 10 minutes were tense as both teams probed for the go-ahead goal. But then came the Warriors’ shift of the night - playmaker Andy Giles (#16) found some space and found Dylan Noonan (#96) who slotted it home to make it 2-1 Warriors. Straight from the puck-drop the same forward line were back in the offensive zone where Noonan returned the favour, feeding the puck to Giles who placed the puck in the goal with ease. 3-1 Warriors. 2 goals in 2 minutes. This gave the team the buffer they needed.
Rather than sit back on the lead, the Warriors were hungry for more. After only 3 more minutes of the restart the same forward line were on the attack and line mate Wes Nixon scored an unassisted goal to make it 4-1 Warriors on 35 minutes.
Things were looking good for the home team, but the Ice Tigers were not going to lie down. They continued to battle and got their reward with a 2nd goal on 38 minutes, reducing the deficit to two, with the period ending 4-2 to the Warriors.
This had been a far more attacking period as both teams increased their shots on goal to 18 and 10 respectively.
Warriors 4 Ice Tigers 2
3rd period
Going into the final period at 4-2, the Warriors knew the next goal was crucial. Should they concede, it would give the Ice Tigers great hope. But to score first with a 5th goal, it would start to look like an uphill climb for the visitors.
Thankfully for the Warriors, it went their way. Only 43 seconds after the restart, Captain Chris Giles (#10) scored his first ever goal for the club after a superb face-off win in the offensive zone from Cromack. 5-2 Warriors.
For the majority of the remaining time in the period, both teams traded chances. Warriors netminder Lewis Pickering (#75) was left exposed on multiple occasions, but saved the Warriors from a nerve-wracking end to the game. Equally, the Warriors missed some golden opportunities to extend their lead as the Ice Tigers goalie, Hewett, was able to keep the puck out.
It wasn’t until the final minute of the game before we saw any further goals. One for each team. The Warriors 6th came from Niku Ghaemi (#38) with the assist from Niks Kamaldins (#13) and the scoring ended with a 4th goal from the Ice Tigers in the last few seconds.
Final score:
Leeds Warriors 6 Sheffield Ice Tigers 4
Points scorers:
Sam Cromack 1+1
Andy Giles 1+1
Dylan Noonan 1+1
Niku Ghaemi 1+0
Chris Giles 1+0
Wes Nixon 1+0
Niks Kamaldins 0+1
Sam Cromack
Warriors’ player of the game
Chris Blaschko
Captain’s player of the game
The Player of the Game for the Warriors, as selected by the Ice Tigers, went to Sam Cromack for a great performance, collecting 1+1. And the Warriors’ helmet went to D man, Chris Blaschko who had an excellent debut outing.
Honourable mentions go to Chris Preston who also made his debut and put on a great display. Along with D, Chris Giles who scored his first Warriors goal.
Thanks to Sheffield Ice Tigers for a competitive game which was played in the right spirit. We’ll see you at Ice Sheffield later in the year.
Also, big thanks to our club volunteers who help to make game day run smoothly - Lisa Speed, Tim Lyndon-Belt, Corey Clough-Howard, James Way, Dean Cadman, Joe Quinn and Phil Bradley.
It was great to see some fellow Warriors in the crowd. Thanks for coming down to support us - Jacob King, Connor Brocklebank, Gary Clough and Rich Guttridge etc.
Our next game in the ‘Blood, Sweat and Beers’ Cup is away, against the Blackburn Renegades.
Game details below:
