Telford Tigers tame Nottingham Lions with 9-1 victory

The Lions had failed to register a single point so far this season in the Moralee Conference North.

And Tigers were able to take full advantage to close the gap on league leaders Sheffield Steeldogs, who were taking a night off after losing in the Autumn Cup final on Friday night to Peterborough Phantoms.

The hosts were able to add Warren Tait to the line-up after his return from injury, leaving only Denis Bell absent from the roster. Also added were Callum Griffin and Henry Adams from the Tigers2 side.

As expected, Tigers started the game with considerable possession and, if it hadn’t have been for the excellence of Nottingham netminder Miles Finney, would have been out of sight in the first period.

Nick Oliver hit the post early on but Tigers did break the deadlock in the seventh minute. Jonathan Weaver broke into the Nottingham defensive zone and made a perfect drop pass for Scott McKenzie to skate on to and hammer a wrist shot over Finney’s glove.

Tigers continued to pepper Finney’s goal with shots but the netminder blocked almost everything shot at him. Eventually though Tigers made the pressure pay in the 15th minute.

Weaver hitting a trademark slap shot from the right circle that beat Finney low down.

Tigers picked up where they left off in the second period when, just five minutes in, netminder Sam Gospel cleared the puck to Andy McKinney who in turn sent Griffin clear on goal.

Griffin placed an excellent wrist shot into the top corner of the goal to make it 3-0.

That goal seemed to open the floodgates as Tigers added a further three goals in just two minutes.

The fourth was the best goal of the game as Danny Rose skated from behind his own goal and the whole length of the ice before firing a low shot past Finney.

Corey Goodison then added a fifth with a shot from the centre of the Nottingham defensive zone that went through Finney into the net.

The three-goal burst was then completed when Jordan Stokes’ shot was tipped past Finney by Jed Moreland.

Nottingham showed terrific effort throughout the game and were finally rewarded in the 34th minute, Ruskin Hughes’ shot was saved by Gospel but Tyler Poole was first to the rebound and managed to squeeze his shot past the netminder to give the visitors a consolation goal.

Tigers responded with a seventh goal, Ricky Plant passing from behind the goal to the unmarked Jason Silverthorn to apply the finish from close range.

Coach Tom Watkins was allowed the luxury of resting Doug Clarkson, Plant, Weaver and Silverthorn for the final period, allowing some of the younger players to get more ice time.

Tigers scored two further goals to settle the contest. McKenzie added his second of the night with a deft deflection from Adams’s pass and McKinney rounded off the scoring with a close-range finish from a rebound off McKenzie’s shot for the ninth goal.

Watkins said: “It was a simple two points for us. The score could have been far greater having dominated possession and territory for most the game.

"We were able to rest several players at the end of the second period, giving increased ice time to some of the guys.”