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BLACKBURN HAWKS 6 - 3 KINGSTON JETS |
by
Steve Mayers
A bumper crowd of over 700 fans headed to the Arena on Sunday evening, as Blackburn took on the League's basement club, the Kingston Jets. It was reminiscent of times gone by, with seating at a premium. The drummers were in full-swing throughout, ably complimented by 250 'Happy Clappers', which were handed out to the youngsters as they entered. The Hawks new signing, 'Harry the Hawk' was given the task of orchestrating the chanting, and he rose to the challenge admirably, ensuring a noisy, fun-filled evening.
The atmosphere obviously inspired the home side, and they came out with all guns blazing, keen to put on a good show. The visitors were immediately on the back foot, and only some desperate 'last-ditch' defending kept the scores level. Rick Bentham had a great chance to break the deadlock when he made space for himself in front of goal, but he clipped the post with the goalie well beaten. The first ten minutes saw Blackburn encamped in front of the Jets net, and they were eventually rewarded when Sam Dunford broke out on the right, and as he skated towards goal, he lifted a neat back-handed flick into the roof of the net. A minute later, it was 2-0, Bentham finding David Miekle with a long pass, who controlled it neatly before slipping the puck between the keeper's pads.
The start of the 2nd period saw a change of netminder for the Hawks, Nick Saxton replacing Danny Brittle, and within two minutes he had been beaten, as Kingston registered their first goal of the evening. Blackburn soon restored their two goal advantage, however, as Bentham and Miekle once again combined, the latter finishing off a fine passing move. Ollie Lomax was given a two minute minor for slashing, and as the penalty was successfully killed off, he returned to the ice, picked up a pin-point pass, and found himself one-on-one with the netminder. Unfortunately, as he closed in on goal, he fired his shot agonisingly wide. To their credit, the Jets refused to buckle, and a second goal once again reduced the arrears.
The second interval saw the presentation of the League winners trophy to Blackburn's Under 12's, who took great delight in milking the applause from the appreciative crowd.
With the game finely balanced, the next goal was going to be pivotal, and it came within 7 seconds of the restart, Dunford netting after good work by Matt Viney. A further goal for Kingston with 10 minutes remaining gave the watching fans cause for concern, setting up a tense finalé. However, two goals from Jared Owen put the match beyond the visitors. The first was set up by Rick Hughes, who brought the puck out of defence, and found Owen, and he drilled a shot across the keeper. Minutes later, the two combined for a second time, and another fine finish brought the crowd to their feet once again.
MVP was awarded to Chad Briggs, for a competent, no nonsense defensive display.
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 The poll from the game on Sunday, Harry was the most voted name for the New Hawks Mascot.
He WILL be at the game on Saturday away to Coventry and he WILL be at the game on Sunday at home against Kingston.
Your going to love him believe me.
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