Telford Tigers stay strong to secure victory

The Tigers ended their barren run with a late, hard-fought 5-3 victory at Bristol Pitbulls.

Telford raced into the lead when Jason Silverthorn put them in front.

And that lead was doubled shortly after – Vladimir Luka adding a second to put the visitors in control.

It was a game that swung this way and that, Bristol pulled level to make it 2-2 before they came back again to make it 3-3 after Fin Howells had given the Tigers the lead for the second time in the match.

But Telford were not to be denied an important victory when Luka added his second and then third of the evening to make it 5-3.

After a demoralising run of nine straight defeats, Tom Watkins was delighted with the character his team had shown to get the all-important result.

“The whole team worked hard and I am delighted to get the win. It felt really good,” the boss said.

“The team can now enjoy that win, even though it wasn’t pretty. But it is a good win on the road.

“At 3-3 it was very tight and could have gone either way but Brad Day was seeing the puck really well and Vlad Luka was lethal in front of goal.

“I thought we showed a lot of mental strength to snap that losing streak.”

Tigers’ alarming run of defeats had seen them slip to seventh place in the league standings which is just on the edge of the play-off qualifying places.

The Shropshire side made their final road trip of the year without Jonathan Weaver and Nick Oliver but the rest of the roster were available.

After the Tigers raced into their early two-goal lead thanks to efforts from Silverthorn and Luka they would have been disappointed to only lead by one at the break.

Bristol scored with just seven seconds of the period left. Ben Solder finishing off a Bayley Harewood pass.

The hosts pushed hard for an equaliser in the second period and with five minutes remaining, they were level with Elliot Lewis scoring.

But the Tigers responded immediately with Howells scoring to put them in front again at the end of the second period.

Christian Mohr was the man to bring the Pitbulls level again putting the game in the balance heading into the final stages.

Netminder Brad Day kept the scores level on numerous occasions for Telford which gave Luka the opportunity to make it 4-3.

The hosts threw everything at it to try to draw the scores level, taking their netminder Will Kerlin from goal as they put on another attacker.

But this backfired and gave Luka the chance to secure his hat-trick by firing into an empty net and making it 5-3 in the final moments.