Tigers throw away points in shootout loss

Tigers’ playoff hopes had ended the previous weekend with their defeat at Peterborough and the Shropshire side were just playing for pride in the final games of the season.

Face off for the contest was delayed due to the Tigers’ team bus collecting the players late from Telford. The late arrival didn’t seem to affect the visitors though as they took the lead in the seventeenth minute when Devon Skoleski shot past Jordan McLaughlin in the Hull to break the deadlock.

The lead lasted only a minute though as Owen Sobchak equalised for Hull from close range.

Tigers started the second period on the power play after Declan Balmer was called for a tripping penalty as the buzzer sounded for the end of the first period. Tigers’ power play unit took just fourteen seconds to restore the lead when Eric Henderson scored.

Tigers had the momentum in the game and therefore it was no surprise when Scott McKenzie extended the lead four minutes later.  But Hull hit back twice in quick succession to level the game again. Sobchak shot into the top corner of the goal with Brad Day screened and then completed his hat trick with a cool finish.

Tigers regrouped and continued to threaten the Hull goal. The pressure paid off when Harry Ferguson scored with just over a minute of the second period to play. 

Four minutes into the third period Tigers pulled further ahead when Tom Byrne broke in on goal and shot past McLaughlin for Telford’s fifth goal. That was closely followed by second goal of the game from Skoleski to put Tigers firmly in control.

As the game entered the final seven minutes, Tigers fell apart defensively and conceded three goals. Emil Svec and Jonny Corneil scored within nineteen seconds of each other to reduce the deficit to one and then Lee Bonner equalised to send the game to overtime.

The teams could not be separated in overtime sending the game to a penalty shoot out.

Tigers have not had much joy from shoot outs this season and this continued as Corneil and Jason Hewitt for Hull were the only scorers sending Telford to their fifth defeat out of five games in the playoffs.

Final Score: Hull Seahawks 7 Autocraft Telford Tigers 6 (after penalty shoot out).

Scorers: Devon Skoleski (2), Eric Henderson, Scott McKenzie, Harry Ferguson and Tom Byrne.

Man of the match: Brad Day.

After the game Head Coach Tom Watkins, commented, “I actually don’t know how we lost that game from being in a strong winning position twice to lose it three times!

"I really struggle to understand the mentality at times, there are lots of situations I could reference but with four minutes to go in the game and with us leading by one goal we give up a needless odd man rush and they score to level the game! I really don’t know what the players are thinking, but it is the story of our season! We should not be coming home without the two points and somehow we lost that game!!"