After securing promotion from the Division 2 North at the end of February, the Birmingham Lions would have been brimming with confidence going into their home varsity versus the Cardiff Redhawks – and deliver on the confidence they did.
Despite going one down after a sloppy start, Cardiff pouncing on some early match complacency from the hosts, the team showed the character of champions to fight back and eventually win comfortably 4-2 at the Solihull Ice Rink.
Regardless of Brum’s slow start, it was simply a matter of time before Canadian MOTM and Brum skipper Stephen Nicholson had an impact on the match, showing superb composure to slide through the Cardiff defence and slam home into the top left of the net. However, the home crowd’s delight was short-lived as a distance effort from the Redhawks skipper Bryn Griffiths sneaked in past the otherwise solid Birmingham goaltender Trevor Sharman.
Time for captain Nicholson to shine once more, and shine he did – picking up on some sloppy Redhawks defending of their own and powering home through a mass of bodies for two-all. Both sides continued to have chances as the first period came to a close, with Sharman posing an almost impenetrable figure in the goal after the Lions’ shaky start to the match. Jack Mitchell of Brum might also have scored late on for the hosts in an action-packed first period but for some defensive steel of their own from the Redhawks.
Although the second period did not quite deliver as the first, the pendulum of the match was well and truly swinging back to the red and yellow of the Lions. Chances started to flow for the hosts who were pressing Cardiff exceptionally well, much thanks to the engine of Matt Salt to name but one. The lack of goals was certainly made up for by the ever rising levels of physicality in the match, with both sides having to be separated on increasingly frequent occasions by the match officials.
The battle between the two sides took a similar mould in the third and final period, with neither side effectively stamping their authority on the match. This all changed when Michael Beard of the hosts left the opposition goaltender helpless, crushing the puck into the proverbial top bins of the goal for 3-2 – much to the approval of the home crowd, who at this point were growing increasingly impatient for a winner.
Our young talented commentators, Josh Hannen and Jack Fantham enjoying their big day out
This was the trigger the hosts needed to explode into their stride, and once they had gone ahead in the varsity for the first time, they never looked back. Mitchell finally grabbed the goal he deserved, with the ‘assist’ largely owed to Nicholson thanks to another of his trademark mazy runs through Cardiff’s defence before setting up the last goal-scorer of the match. The semi-professional to be certainly showed his worth to the hosts in this varsity, and Birmingham will have big boots to fill next year when the Canadian graduates.
As the buzzers sounded to signal the conclusion of this year’s varsity, the ecstasy of the crowd was hard to ignore as familiar chants of “feed’em to the Lions” echoed around the jubilant Solihull Ice Rink. Whilst the day belonged to the Lion’s, credit must go to Cardiff for their role in a superb display of what will go down in the history books as a varsity classic.
Jack Fantham
