Watkins praises Telford Tigers after an opening triumph

Tigers, the league champions, travelled to Slough to take on the Bees on Saturday.

And they ran out convincing winners with Scott McKenzie finding the target twice and Andy McKinney, Ricky Plant, Austin Mitchell-King and Fin Howells also on the scoresheet in the comfortable win.

“It was a good, solid start on the road with a professional performance,” Watkins said. “We did the little things well, made good decisions with our puck management and did a good job to shut the game down through the third period. I felt we were in control all night.”

Tigers made a strong start to the game and opened the scoring in the third minute when Sam Watkins sent the puck towards goal where McKinney was perfectly placed to guide it past Adam Goss.

Watkins’ men continued to dominate for much of the period with Bayley Harewood hitting the post with a wrist shot from the slot.

And they soon had a second when Vladimir Luka sent a pass from behind the goal to Howells.

He then saw a shot blocked by Goss but McKenzie was on hand to bury the rebound.

Tigers started the second period with a power play.

And just as that power play was about to expire, Danny Rose sent a shot from the blue line in on goal and Howells managed to tip the puck past Goss for a third.

Less than a minute later, the visitors had a fourth. Harewood sent a pass out of the Tigers’ defensive zone which put Mitchell-King clear on goal.

And he shot high over Goss’ glove into the top corner of the net.

Bees pulled a goal back through Juha Lindgren.

But Tigers continued to dominate the contest and scored a fifth goal in the closing stages of the period.

Ricky Plant took possession of the puck at centre ice with just five seconds remaining on the clock.

And he managed to beat a Bees’ defender and send a back-handed shot over Goss and into the net before the buzzer to signal the end of the period sounded.

Tigers grabbed their final goal of the contest after six minutes of the third period with Harewood playing a terrific pass to set McKenzie up for his second.