The Dragons came out of their two game weekend with a win and a loss, beating the Sheffield Scimitars 5-2 before losing at home to the Blackburn Hawks.
THE OPPONENTS
The last time the Dragons faced Sheffield was a 6-0 win in Sheffield. They most recently lost to the Widnes Wild in a shootout, 4-3. The Dragons most recently faced the Blackburn Hawks in Blackburn, where they lost 9-3. The Hawks came into the game off the back of a 5-1 victory over the Whitley Warriors.
SATURDAY
The Dragons started hot against the Scimitars, speeding out to the 2-0 lead with goals from Brodie Jesson and Jared Dickinson, but the Scimitars stuck with it, scoring a power play goal and then a breakaway goal in the last two minutes of the first period, tying the game at 2.
The second period was a balanced affair. The Scimitars had several good looks, but goalie Matt Croyle stood tall against them all, and Brodie Jesson got his second goal of the game to give the Dragons a 3-2 lead.
The third period was where the Dragons got lucky. Sheffield had to make a goalie change due to injury, and Deeside would put two more goals past the back-up: Jared Dickinson’s second of the game, and Andy McKinney on the power play to give the Dragons a rousing 5-2 victory.
SUNDAY
The Dragons went into Sunday hoping for revenge on the Hawks after the 9-3 game the previous weekend. They had another strong start, with a power play goal from Andy McKinney for his second of the weekend. Blackburn tied it up shortly after, but not for long, as James Parsons, making his return to home ice for the Deeside after missing 11 games due to injury, gave the Dragons a 2-1 lead with their second powerplay goal of the night. Blackburn would unfortunately equalise again, and the teams would go into the first intermission tied at 2.
The second period was a similar battle, with both teams playing hard and fast. Jared Dickinson made it 3-2, but the Hawks would equalise yet again to make it 3-3, before scoring on a delayed penalty call to make it 4-3 at the end of the second.
Blackburn added two more goals in the third period to make the final score 6-3, but the score doesn’t reflect what a close game it was right up until the very end. Special teams were the difference in this one, with three of Blackburn’s six goals being scored with the man advantage, plus one goal scored at 6 on 5.
Lots of things to take from the weekend, and some good performances from depth players like Gary Dixon, who had a two assist game vs Sheffield, and MJ Clancy, who had several great scoring chances this weekend and got unlucky.
NEXT UP
The Dragons are on the road next weekend as they head to Widnes on both Saturday and Sunday to take on the Wild. Saturday will be the Dragons’ first game in the M56 cup, and Sunday will be a league game. The puck drops at 7pm on Saturday and 5:30pm on Sunday, and it would be great to see as many Dragons’ faithful as we possibly can!
