THE RTL Widnes Wild enjoyed a winning start to the new ice hockey season with back to back wins over north-west rivals Altrincham Aces over the August Bank Holiday weekend, writes Paul Breeze.

The two match challenge match series saw Widnes travel to Altrincham for the away fixture on Saturday night where a rather feisty game saw 176 penalty minutes being awarded in a game that in other sports would normally be classed as a “friendly”.

And new Wild player coach Ollie Barron was keen to see how his new look side blended together as a host of new signings from his previous club, Sheffield Spartans, took to the ice alongside the returning Widnes players for the first time.

The weekend’s games had a rather odd look to them as neither team had received their playing kits for the new season so the Wild took to the ice wearing the Widnes-based Riverside Raiders black and purple colours for the two matches.

As one might expect, the first game was a closely contested encounter with both teams icing new signings.

The Wild’s first strike of the night came from player coach Ollie Barron and another new signing - Stuart Brittle - added a second to give Widnes a 2-0 lead at the first break.

The Aces pulled two goals back early in the second period but Widnes eased back in front with goals from long term fan favourite Shaun Dipnall, Karl Niamatali - another new signing and GB international inline hockey player - and returning import Michal Fico to lead 5-2 at the 40 minute mark.

Another goal from the Aces pulled the home side back to just 2 behind but the Wild finished off the night’s scoring with a second goal for Ollie Barron to secure a hard fought 3-6 victory.

The return game on Sunday night at Silver Blades Widnes promised more fireworks but turned out to be quite a more subdued affair compared to the previous night’s 'penalty fest'.

Instead, the hockey did the talking and Widnes immediately made their mark with a goal as early as the 23rd second of the game as Stuart Brittle slotted the puck home for his second goal in successive matches.

A second goal on the night from Brittle on 12.19 put the Wild well in control with the Aces team seemingly unable to make any significant inroads past the Widnes defence.

But then, disaster struck as a fairly routine clearance deflected off netminder Greg Ruxton’s stick and ended up in the back of the net. Altrincham halved the deficit and the Wild led 2-1 going into first break.

The only flare-up of note in the whole game took place at the first buzzer with both sets of players rounding on each other on the way off the ice.

This skirmish resulted in minor penalties for Brittle and Altrincham’s former Wild player Tom Revesz while Aces’ Joe Greaves and Widnes’ Tom Jackson both got 2+2 roughing penalties for their sins.

Prior to this incident, the game had been pretty much penalty free but the rest of game was littered with minor penalty calls for both sides and it was on a resulting powerplay that Widnes scored their 3rd goal of the game through Karl Niamatali on 24.38.

He added his second goal of the night - and Wild’s 4th - shortly after the start of the 3rd period at

41.28 and, while many might have expected the floodgates to open at that point, it didn’t happen - even when Widnes were subsequently presented with a 5 on 3 powerplay opportunity.

As the game drew to a close, the Aces upped their game and began to look threatening coming forward.

But the Wild defence held out – initially surviving a 3 on 5 session and then another short-handed stint after Ruxton was forced to incur a tripping penalty.

In all, it was very well organised and disciplined performance for the Wild and the resulting 4-1 win was thoroughly deserved.

However, both teams are still very much “works in progress” at this stage of the new season and it will be interesting to see how the competitive north-west derbies between these two teams pan out once the Laidler Conference campaign proper gets underway.

Widnes Wild play their first EIHA Laidler Conference league game of the season at home to Hull Jets on Sunday, 4 September at Silver Blades Widnes – 5.30pm face off.

Admission is £6 for adults and £3 for children and doors open at 4.45pm.