12:15pm Monday 11th January 2010
By Matt Donlan
THERE can’t have been many occasions over the past couple of decades when Blackburn Ice Arena has offered a warm salvation from the freezing temperatures of outside.
By nature, an ice arena is going to be a chilly place but with the thermometer heading towards a double-figure minus on Saturday evening the Arena seemed almost tropical as ice hockey’s Blackburn Hawks aimed to extend their own hot streak amid the big freeze against the Whitley Warriors.
In the run up to Christmas, the Hawks had gone on a six-match unbeaten run to pull clear of the English National League Division One drop zone.
But as they started 2010, the Hawks knew this was going to be a tough test. Whitley Bay is an established ice hockey area and the Warriors are challenging at the business end of the table. They are 13 points off the lead – but have seven games in hand over top side Nottingham Lions.
“They will be right up there,” said general manager Andy Slater. “They are a good team and in that part of the world they always seem to unearth player after player.”
Maybe it’s the seaside air at an always chilly Whitley Bay that does it – but maybe it is more to do with the north east resort having an ice rink since the 1950s and therefore developing the sport at a more advanced rate for years.
Ice hockey UK-style doesn’t quite offer the same glitz as the show and drama of the NHL but the game has been played in this country, albeit on and off, since 1885.
In the mid-90s when the Sky TV moneymen tried to make the British game big, Blackburn played in the first televised game when they travelled to the Manchester Phoenix in front of almost 9,000 people.
While those days are long gone and no player could match the profile of a Wayne Gretzky, the fastest sport on earth is still as brutal and exciting as it ever was as the vulcanised rubber six-ounce puck, which is kept frozen to make it even more like a missile, is sent careering around the ice at express speed.
It really is a dramatic spectacle and in a bizarre first period, Slater’s prophecy appeared to be coming true as Whitley, after a shaky start that saw Rick Hughes go close for the Hawks, took the game away as Jared Owen was serving a two-minute penalty.
Whitley’s first goal came through Karl Culley on 5mins 1sec and just 29 seconds later, the Hawks were 2-0 down when smart stick work allowed Culley to score his second.
The Hawks were shocked at the double blast – but it was to get worse for the locals as the Warriors showed their class with two more goals, both from Adam Reynolds, and just 8:08 had been played.
Four goals in just three minutes and eight seconds was a disaster – yet the Hawks were still bright.
But they were to suffer another first period blow when Anthony Kinder was forced out of the game after Adam Hendry’s high stick left him with blood gushing from over the eye. Ouch.
It needed a major turnaround in the second period if the Hawks were to pull off the remarkable comeback.
And when Hughes broke from his own ice and avoided the rugby tackle-style attempts of Dale Howey to stop him before making it 4-1, there was more than a glimmer of hope.
Home goaltender Matthew Michie then had to make two smart saves to keep Hawks in it before the locals stepped up a gear to take the game to Whitley.
But they were rocked when Paul Windridge broke to make it 5-1 with seconds of the period left – it was now almost mission impossible.
But that final period was little short of stunning as the Hawks went for it.
With Karl Downey putting his body on the line – if he was a footballer, Downey would be best described as ‘liking a tackle’ – Blackburn attacked.
And when Hughes scored his and Hawks’ second thanks to an Owen assist, there was just a possibility.
That possibility edged closer with 13:47 to play as the impressive Hughes, who still managed to frustrate a number of Hawks fans, raced on to complete his hat-trick and make it 5-3.
Whitley were rocking now and Downey saw a shot cannon to safety off the frame of the goal before the Hawks sacrificed goaltender Michie for the final 90 seconds to commit six players into attack.
But they couldn’t find that unlikely way back. Their signs are good though that ice hockey will flourish – even after the big freeze ends.
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