Hull Seahawks produce double sting to keep pace with NIHL National front-runners
TO say it is tight at the top of NIHL National would be something of an understatement.
Thanks in part to their own four-point weekend and in part to one of their fiercest Yorkshire rivals, Hull Seahawks find themselves sitting pretty in the standings with the regular season a quarter of the way through.
A trip to Berkshire Bees is never an easy assignment - just ask defending league champions Leeds Knights - but the Seahawks negotiated it in comfort on Saturday night, heading home boasting a 4-1 win.
The next night, they backed that up with an equally-accomplished 6-1 win against the same opponents, who now find themselves second-bottom.
Tuesday night brings another test for Matty Davies’ team, making the short dash to South Yorkshire to face a Sheffield Steeldogs’ team wounded by a 7-0 defeat at Leeds on Saturday, but instantly buoyed by their 3-2 win the following night at home to leaders Milton Keynes Lightning.
That result ensured the Lightning are only one point ahead of Leeds and Hull - locked in second and third on 19 points - but also ensured they remain very much in the picture, sat fifth, three points off their Yorkshire rivals.
Just six points separate the top seven, with Swindon Wildcats at the bottom of that leadership group on 14 points.
Seahawks’ head coach Davies is still absent from the bench as he recuperates from a serious knee operation , but his team have responded in positive fashion, winning three of the four games he has been away - the only blip being a 7-5 defeat at Telford Tigers.
On Sunday, the Seahawks stamped their authority over the game early on, getting themselves 2-0 ahead inside nine minutes through strikes from Bobby Chamberlain and Le Haywood.
The Bees halved the deficit early in the second through a power play goal from Dan Rose but that was their only respite, the hosts forging further ahead by the second intermission through a second for Chamberlain at 25.20 before James Spurr got in on the act in the 37th minute to make it 4-1.
Dave Phillips - who returned to the fray the previous night in Slough after a four-game suspension - made it 5-1 at 48.49 with his second goal of the season, leaving Emil Svec to round off the scoring in the 59th minute.
It was Chamberlain and Haywood who scored first for the Seahawks in Slough 24 hours earlier, with Owen Sobchak and Owen Bruton also getting on the scoresheet.