Billingham Stars crossed a snow bound Pennines to take on Trafford Metros on Saturday night. The Stars beat the weather, but were unable to beat the Metros, and came home on the wrong end of a 4 -2 defeat.
In the first period the Metros took the game to the Stars who were struggling to find a foot hold into the game.
An early 2 minute high sticks call against Stars Martyn Davies saw the Metros convert their power play in the 5th minute.
Two minutes later Trafford’s Joe Grieves moved the home side further ahead. Billingham struggled to establish any rythm and Trafford circumvented the no change on icing rule.
After icing the puck the Metros appeared to be deliberately infringing the following face off, in order to gain a line change between the face-offs, following loud protests from the Billingham bench Referee Blaine Evans handed out a 2 minute face off infringement penalty to the Metros the third time they did it.
With Billingham struggling to get into the game the first closed with the Metros 2 goals the better.
An improving second period saw the Stars making some better plays and much improved passing, as the second went on Billingham grew in both confidence and creativity, and put the Metros under pressure. With five minutes to play in the second, the Metros were called for an icing infringement as they attempted to change players after dumping the puck out of their zone.
Bilingham responded on the resulting power play, as James Udell collected an Adam Robinson pass and brought the puck tight around the back of the Trafford goal to tuck it in tight to the bottom of the post and put Billingham’s first on the scoreboard.
After only 36 seconds an uplifted Stars won the face off and a combination of Thomas and Windridge delivered a rebound of the Metros goalie for Cal Davies to fire home, bringing it all level.
Billingham looked to have turned the corner and the momentum had swung their way, however the clock counted down too fast for the Stars who piled the pressure on their hosts outshooting the Metros 17 shots to 7 in a second period that closed level at 2 goals each.
Trafford pushed ahead 7 minutes into the third session and Billingham did not have an answer with under a minute and a half to play they removed their goalie James Flavell to gain an outfield advantage, unable to turn the extra pressure into a goal, whilst Billingham were passing around in the Trafford zone, they lost possession and John Murray fired down the ice into the empty net to seal a 4 – 3 win for Trafford.
Speaking after the game a disappointed Terry Ward was blunt about his squads finishing
“We out shot Trafford tonight, we put 39 shots on their goal and to only get two goals just isn't good enough. We are not getting enough traffic up the middle of the ice and creating viable angles”.
“Earlier in the season we were hitting 7 goals, for 7 different players, we need to get back to that form”.
“We have lost our quality finish; we out shot Blackburn, we out shot Telford ,and again tonight, it's no good out shooting everyone in the league, but not winning the games”.
Stephen Foster admitted the Stars have hit a slump since Christmas and they need to rekindle the confidence that put them at the top;
“In the first we made too many mistakes, we were putting cross ice passes along the blue line, Trafford were intercepting them and breaking”.
“Some gamesmanship from Trafford also afforded them the advantage of fresh legs after icing the puck in the first, however once the referee realised what they were doing it earned them a 2 minute face off penalty”.
“In the second we were strong we pulled level with 2 quick confident goals, and we looked like the team that would go on to win, but Trafford came out very strong in the third”.
“Other teams have stepped up their game as the season has unfolded, and we need to lift ours to stay at the top”.
“We need to find our belief; we are making things too hard by chasing games, especially on the road”.
“We shouldn't be in the position that we are looking at other teams to do us favours, we are better than that, we should be winning these games on our own strengths”.
Stars miserable weekend continued on Sunday night when the Trafford Metros travelled to face second in the league Whitley Warriors. With the Warriors 5 points behind the Stars the Tynesider’s knew a win would close the gap to three points. The first closed all level at 1 goal each. Metros went ahead early in the second, Whitley pulled back level then added a further 2 strikes to gain a 4 -2 advantage. Metros cut the Warriors lead to a single goal, with neither side scoring the third ran out to a 4 – 3 Whitley win, and the top of ENL One North looks a lot tighter with Billingham’s lead at the top, cut to 3 points.
