SOLIHULL Barons roared to two fine wins as they confirmed a third-placed finish in NIHL North One (Moralee) Division.
Both Blackburn Hawks and Nottingham Lions posed little threat to the rampant Barons, who came away from the penultimate weekend of the regular season with 12-3 and 9-0 victories respectively against their rivals.
Saturday’s trip to Planet Ice Blackburn Arena was a memorable one given the convincing margin of victory away from home.
Despite the final scoreline, it was the hosts who got proceedings up and running in a re-run of the recent Midlands Cup final, opening the scoring through Aaron Davies after 54 seconds.
Solihull responded well by racing into a 6-2 lead by the end of the first period, netting through Philip (2.56) and Daniel Mulcahy (7.08), Matthew Maurice (12.25), Adam Brittle (13.24 and 19.28) and Paul Stanley (17.16) – after Corey Lee had restored Blackburn’s lead at 3.24.
Thomas Soar was next to strike at 24.39, keeping the Barons on the front foot in the middle period and allowing team-mates Brittle – who wrapped up his hat-trick at 29.33 – and Philip Mulcahy (31.19) to add to the scoring.
Lee Pollitt scored the hosts’ final goal of the game to round off the period at 39.51.
The rout was then completed by Andrew Whitehouse (42.50), Maurice (51.42) and Soar (55.17) to dish out another humiliating scoreline to Blackburn – who were defeated by an 11-0 scoreline in the previous meeting last month.
In Sunday’s 9-0 whitewash win at Hobs Moat Road, the Barons put on a show in their final home fixture before the play-offs get under way.
While it took until the 17th minute of play for an opener to arrive, courtesy of Brittle’s tap-in (17.03), the hosts ran amok in the final two periods of the game.
Barons took advantage of a powerplay to double their lead through Niklas Ottosson (21.12), with team-mates Brittle (23.46) and Daniel Mulcahy (37.01) following his lead to round off the middle 20.
Ottosson and Daniel Mulcahy then repeated their goalscoring antics at 40.30 and 44.37 respectively to keep Solihull on the front foot, while Soar (48.36 and 56.43) and Andy Hayward (53.33) – who scored his first senior goal – wrapped up the scoring.
A trip to Billingham Stars, in fifth, brings Solihull’s regular season to an end on Sunday (6.30pm).
