The YKK sponsored Widnes Wild have a busy weekend ahead of them as they play the Solihull Barons in back to back matches in the Moralee Division Play Offs quarter finals, travelling to the West Midlands for the away leg of the tie on Saturday – face off 5.30pm – and then meeting again on Sunday at Planet Ice Widnes (7.15pm).
The two teams are very closely matched, with Solihull having finished 4th in the league table and Widnes 5th with 38 and 34 points respectively.
In fact, you’d be hard pushed to squeeze the metaphorical cigarette paper between the teams. as they have two wins each from the four meetings between the sides and three of the four games were won by single goal margin, so anything could happen in this first weekend of the play offs.
There is a lot at stake as the winning team over the two legs will qualify for the Moralee play off finals which will be held at Altrincham the following weekend.
The Wild have a bit of a point to prove here after crashing out at this stage of the competition last season. Having beaten opponents Billingham Stars four times out of four in their league meetings, they lost out over the two legs in the knock out round after a nightmare match away in the North East that left them with too much to make up in the home leg.
The home game on Sunday faces off at the later than usual time of 7.15pm due to the fact that the Laidler Division Play Off finals are being held at the Widnes rink over the same weekend.
Hull Jets take on Altrincham Aces in the first semi final on Saturday, facing off at 4.15pm, with Telford Tigers v Sutton Sting following on at 7.30pm.
The winners of the two semi finals will meet in the final on Sunday, 3.15pm face off.
DMUK Widnes Wild Women
The DMUK Widnes Wild women’s team will go to Hull and back on Sunday as they travel to take on the Kingston Diamonds, 6.30pm face off.
The Wild women will be keen to bounce back from last Sunday’s disappointing home defeat at the hands of Solway Sharks Ladies, which put and end to their title ambitions for the season, and need to win their remaining two games to have a chance of reaching the play offs, while Kingston are bottom of the league table with just one win to date.
Widnes won the home game against Kingston 15-2 back in February but it was quite a robust encounter with 70 penalty minutes being handed out during the game and a brawl breaking out at one point, which is quite unusual in the women’s game.
Following Sunday’s game the Wild women have their last regular season game on Sunday 23rd April when they entertain Leeds Roses at Planet Ice Widnes.
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