Hull Seahawks target Coventry end game in bid to halt NIHL National play-off frustration

Coming towards the end of their fourth season as a club, the Seahawks are yet to make it to the Final Four Weekend in Coventry. There is a growing belief, however, that this will be the year that all changes.

After a frustrating first half of the 2025-26 campaign, Davies had given up on the usual pre-season dream of winning the most-coveted trophy of them all in British hockey, the regular season league title.

That went to Swindon Wildcats some time ago but, in a stunning turnaround in form, it was the Seahawks who came home in second place - posting their best-ever league finish and highest-ever points total on the back of a run of 15 wins in their last 16 games.

It still didn’t make up for missing out on the main prize that every NIHL National team targets at the beginning of every season, but it will have offered Davies, co-owner Joe Lamplough and all those associated with the team great satisfaction.

It will also have fuelled the belief that the organisation’s first-ever trophy is just around the corner.

“Winning the league is the hardest thing to do, everyone knows that in this country, the league is the biggest trophy,” said Davies after his team finished 12 points adrift of champions Swindon Wildcats. “And so it is another disappointment that we haven’t been able to fight for it again.

“But it was about knowing that that was finished and moving on to the next thing and the next thing is the play-offs.

“I think there was also a bit of looking at myself and going ‘right, what is it that we need to do?what is the thing that will change us?’

“And obviously changes happened and needed to happen and then it was about the group that we had for the rest of the reason and getting them to a point where they can play the right way, the way that I believe can win games.

“And so that’s what a lot of the focus has been on during these past few weeks.”

After a first season that was never expected to herald any kind of success as the Seahawks simply tried to survive as an organisation on and off the ice, the following two years came heavy with expectation, particularly when it came to the post-season.

There was therefore intense disappointment at not being able to make it out of the play-off group stages on either occasion.

Given the hours that Davies, Lamplough, plus countless others have put in over the past four years at Hull Ice Arena, making it to the SkyDome Arena would mean everything, particularly on the back of those two previous crushing play-off failures.

“I think most people probably know how much it would mean to me,” added Davies, ahead of Saturday’s visit from Milton Keynes Lightning. “I really do want this, not only for me, but for the club, for the players - I want this for the fans.

“This is our fourth year back, but this club has a lot of history, going back even to the Pirates days when we’ve been there, done it and won.

“These fans remember those things and I do and it matters to us all. It matters to me because obviously it has been my life now for four years, the driving force of everything is about us winning and it consumes you, to be honest.

“It consumes every part of you - sort of ruins your life if I’m honest, I’ll admit that! But I want this a lot and I want this for the club and I think we’ve got a very good chance this year.

“But a chance is just that, a chance. We’ve now got to show everybody how much we want to get there.”