SOLIHULL Barons stormed to the top of the NIHL Midland Cup table after a comprehensive 9-3 victory away to Widnes Wild on Sunday night.
The Barons have been in imperious form on the road in the competition so far, following up the 13-2 thrashing of Nottingham Lions with another fine performance.
Despite missing six first-teamers, including Niklas Ottosson and Tomas Janak, Solihull started strongly.
They fired in two goals in the space of 90 seconds, the first arriving courtesy of Adie Brittle before Callum Bowley found the net himself to leave the hosts stunned.
The hosts were forced to play more conservatively following the fast start but eventually halved the deficit in the ninth minute during a powerplay, thanks to a Ryan Kemp goal.
Tom Soar restored the Barons’ two-goal cushion at the end of the opening period when lashing the puck into the net after being set-up by Brittle.
With the hosts a man down following a sin-binning, a quieter second period was livened up by Daniel Mulcahy netting Barons’ fourth goal.
The floodgates soon opened once more after a lull in the scoring, with six goals arriving in the final period of play.
Soar chalked up his second of the night five minutes after the restart, followed by Ruskin Hughes’ remarkable solo goal with five minutes to go.
Matt Maurice and Mulcahy both netted during a goal frenzy in the last five minutes, although it was the hosts who rounded off the scoring with goals from Berwyn Hughes and Jakub Hajak.
Barons return to Hobs Moat Road in their first home fixture in the cup, playing host to Nottingham Lions on Sunday (5.30pm).
