Blackburn Buccaneers recreational ice hockey team. We are a mixed-gender non-checking team, and we train at Blackburn Arena on Friday nights. No walk-ups accepted, please get in touch on our Facebook page if you’re interested in playing for us.
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BUCCS SUFFER REVERSE AT THE HANDS OF ICE TIGERS
The last two weekends have brought back-to-back defeats for the Buccaneers in this year’s Ice Hockey Summer Classic campaign.
Firstly, the Buccs took on the Sheffield Ice Tigers on 14th May. After defeating the Yorkshire side 6-4 away from home, the Buccs were hoping to get more points on the board in this one. That’s not how it panned out though as a very close game resulted in Sheffield reversing that home defeat, leaving Blackburn with a 6-4 win of their own.
Sheffield came out of the blocks firing and Martin Bell put the visitors in front after just 3.12, sniping a shot into the top corner. The home team hit back 4 minutes later with Michael Walsh firing a slapshot past Nick Bell in the away goal.
There wouldn’t be any more action on the scoreboard until midway through the second period and it was the Ice Tigers who took the lead. Joe Hawnt took his first goal of the night on the powerplay with an assist from Henshaw. The Buccaneers hit back instantly and it was Walsh again with another solo effort to tie the game at 2-2. This seemed to kick the home side into action. With Mark Howard sat in the penalty box, Paddy Thomson broke out of the defensive zone and rounded Bell to give the Buccaneers the lead for the first time in the game. Less than one minute later, Jade Bolton set husband Adam off on a breakaway which he duly despatched to give the Buccs a two goal cushion with a minute to play in the period. However, the Ice Tigers in typical fashion did not sit back and cut that lead to one with 15 seconds left in the period, James Hague firing past Jimmy Tse with Joe Hawnt picking up the extra point.
The third period started where the second left off, neither team wanting to give an inch. 7 minutes in, Joe Hawnt tied the game with his second of the night. Despite the additional point on offer for a draw, neither team were satisfied and gave it everything to force a win. Then with 37 seconds left on the clock came heartbreak for the Buccs. Foulstone was deep in corner of the Buccs zone and fired a speculative pass across the crease that deflected off the stick of Scott Anthony-Jones and high over Jimmy Tse into the goal. The Buccs pulled Tse from the opening face-off but weren’t able to prevent Danny Glue firing into the empty net to round off the scoring and the match.
MVP for the Buccaneers was Jade Conway and for the Ice Tigers, Joe Hawnt.
Scoring Summary:
Buccaneers
- Michael Walsh 2+0
- Adam Bolton 1+0
- Patrick Thomson 1+0
- Jade Conway 0+1
Ice Tigers
- Joe Hawnt 2+1
- James Hague 1+0
- Danny Glue 1+0
- Dave Foulstone 1+0
- Martin Bell 1+0
- Rick Henshaw 0+1
Penalty Summary:
Buccaneers
- Simon Pickering 4mins
- Mark Howard 4mins
- Michael Walsh 2mins
- Scott Anthony-Jones 2mins
- Ryan Spencer 2mins
Ice Tigers
- James Hague 2mins
- Joe Hawnt 2mins
- Danny Glue 2mins
- Reece Quanbrough 2mins
- Rory Ross-Docherty 2mins
Phantoms Complete the Double Over The Buccs
Sunday saw the Buccaneers hosted Flintshire at Blackburn Arena in the return fixture from our trip to Deeside earlier in the year. That game finished 10-1 to the Phantoms so the Buccs were under no illusions that this was going to be tough. Especially with only 4 defencemen and 8 forwards facing a full Flintshire bench.
The game got underway and it was end to end from the off with both teams having chances to take the lead. It would be the Buccaneers who would break the deadlock though. Jade Bolton won a face-off deep in the Flintshire zone to Mark Jenkins. He nudged the puck back to Michael Walsh on the point who fired a quick shot on the Flintshire goal. Despite a good first save from the Flintshire netminder, Adam Bolton was on hand to force the rebound in and give the home side an unexpected lead.
Flintshire came back hard but a standout performance from Jimmy Tse in the Buccaneers goal kept them at bay and the lead stood until the break.
The message after one period was more of the same and despite best efforts, Flintshire had turned a 1-goal deficit into a 1-goal lead within 56 seconds of the second period.
The two quick-fire goals were the only tallies for the period thanks to some solid goalkeeping and a little help from the frame of the goal but there was plenty of goalmouth action to keep the bumper crowd of almost 30 entertained. The second period ended 2-1 in favour of the visitors.
The third started in the same way the second did with the Phantoms bagging an insurance goal early on. Again though, this did not deter the Buccs and they continued to throw everything they had on the opposing goal. Ultimately though, it wasn’t quite enough and Flintshire held on to the two-goal lead for a 3-1 victory.
Despite the loss, it was a solid team performance from the Buccaneers and everyone left the ice with their heads held high.
MVP for the Buccs was Mark Jenkins who threatened the Flintshire goal all night with some great speed shown down the wings.
MVP for the Phantoms was James Ashbrook who dictated play in the Buccs zone for extended periods throughout the game.
We asked Buccaneers goalscorer and alternate captain for the day, Adam Bolton for this thoughts on the game:
I thought everybody played extremely well with nobody giving up or letting their heads drop. When you consider the score a few weeks ago and being short-benched, I think we probably surprised a few people with the performance, ourselves included. Hopefully, we’ll be able to bad a dew more goals going into the Sheffield and Wyre games
Special mention to Adam Duxbury who made his debut for the club and Jimmy Tse who made his first Buccs appearance for a number of years.
The team would like to thank everyone who came down to watch and especially those that helped with off-ice duties.
We return to action on 14th May when we welcome the Sheffield Ice Tigers to Blackburn in an Ice Hockey Summer Classic league game. We took a 6-4 win on the road in Sheffield last time out and will be looking to add to our league points again here!