Hull Seahawks set for welcome boost ahead of Milton Keynes Lightning test
MATTY DAVIES is set to receive a timely boost as his Hull Seahawks team take on what is considered the toughest away challenge in the NIHL National calendar.
The Seahawks head to leaders Milton Keynes Lightning for the third and final time in the regular season keen to put a spanner in the works of their hosts’ regular season title hopes.
His team’s two previous visits have left Davies with contrasting emotions, frustration at the 8-3 hammering they suffered there in October and pride in taking a point in a 4-3 overtime defeat in mid-January.
Last week, the Seahawks could barely muster three lines given the combination of injury and suspension, but were still able to extend their winning streak to four games - or six games, depending on your take on the recent points deduction suffered by Hull.
This weekend sees the return of experienced defenceman Jamie Chilcott, with Davies also hoping that Tom Stubley will also return on the back end following an upper-body injury which kept him sidelined for three games.
With only one defeat in regulation all season on home ice - against Leeds Knights last month - Milton Keynes boast the best home record in the second tier.
But Davies takes plenty of confidence down to Buckinghamshire given his team’s performances, both while short-handed in recent weeks and in the two most recent clashes against the Lightning, both of which have gone to overtime.
“We’re going to be short again but we’ve just got to dig in,” said Davies, who will still be missing Dave Phillips (upper-body) and Lee Bonner (suspension) this weekend.
“When something like this happens and you lose so many players straight after the deadline there is nothing you can do and so we’ve just got to roll with it.
“But we are playing really good right now and that is the positive and we’ll go there and still be confident - obviously we played them really well at ours last time and at their place the time before - and we could have won both games.
“We know they are going for a league title and it’s going to be very tough on their ice, so we’re going to have to go there and play the right sort of game.”