Shropshire Star

Telford Tigers 2 looking for consistency despite victory

Telford Tigers 2 need to find some consistency to remain in the title race, according to assistant coach Dougie Wildman.

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The Tigers’ second string overcame Bradford Bulldogs 4-2 at Telford Ice Rink on Saturday night, with Filip Supa and Rhys Howells each bagging a brace.

And Wildman said: “We’ve had success against the Bulldogs in our previous games but we knew Bradford were never going to come here and roll over.

“We started very well and in the first period the game looked comfortable for us as we had Bulldogs’ share of the puck and control of the game. We didn’t play in the second period how we know we can or how we had started and allowed Bradford back into the match.

“Not much changed for the remainder of the game and the tempo from both sides never seemed to lift back to where it should have been.

“Although we were happy with the final result which keeps us firmly in the running for the league titles we were disappointed with our lack of intensity throughout the game so we must find our consistency again if we want to remain in the title race.”

Tigers didn’t waste any time in setting the pace, marking the scoreboard first with an even-handed goal from Supa at 42 seconds.

The Bulldogs weren’t going to settle for an easy game and shortly responded with an equaliser less than 20 seconds later when Lucas Vince managed to slot the puck past Tigers’ Oli Johnson.

Tigers reset their game play and no more than five minutes later, they quickly found themselves back in the game with a one-goal lead after Rhys Howells found the back of the Bulldogs’ net.

Supa netted his second goal of the game no more than two minutes into the second period.

The Bulldogs started to become frustrated, continuously finding the puck in their zone of the ice pad and giving up power plays to Telford.

The visitors killed the first one, but midway through the second they capitalised when a pass through from Liam Bartholomew to Rhys Howells was slickly tapped into the net.

Bradford pulled one back in the final period, but Tigers managed to hold on to their two-goal advantage. Tigers return to the ice against Nottingham Lions on Sunday (6pm).