WIDNES Wild made a return to winning ways with a close fought 4-3 win over Sheffield Senators at Silver Blades Widnes on Sunday night, writes Paul Breeze.

The home side actually outshot their visitors by a huge margin overall – by 71 shots to 34 – but that is not a full reflection of the game as a whole and, for much of the contest, the result could easily have gone either way.

After a tense opening phase, the first goal came after just 5 minutes when former Sheffield player Nick Manning turned in a Will Barron pass to put the Wild 1-0 ahead.

Sheffield hit back some 6 minutes later to level the score but another former Sheffield player, Mike Mawer, scored for the Wild in the 15th minute to give the home side a 2-1 lead going into the first break.

The second period was extremely tense with plenty of good plays by both sides but nothing to give the scorekeeper’s pen anything much to do – more “NHL” than “NIHL”, if you like.

A 5 on 4 powerplay opportunity for the Wild came and went and, just when the Senators had got back to full strength, they levelled the score with a fine strike by Captain Andrew McEwan.

But despite showering the Senators’ net with more shots (19 in the period compared to the Sheffield 11), the Wild suffered a goalless second period for the second game in a row and returned to the dressing room on level terms at 2-2.

The third period had more of the same with tension building as both sides battled on without making much of an impression of the opposition. Another powerplay opportunity presented itself after 47 minutes when former Wild player George Crawshaw was called for unsportsmanlike conduct but, once again, the Sheffield defence held strong – with netminder Hartley performing heroics - and the Widnes attacks were all repelled.

Then, with the frustration on the ice almost reaching fever pitch, came the breakthrough. Widnes player coach Ollie Barron battled his way through the Senators’ defence to fire the Wild back into the lead.

And less than a minute later, a great flick into top corner of the net by Tom Ratcliffe added a 4th and there was a big sigh of relief all around the Silver Blades rink. However, there was still over 6 and a half minutes to play and yet more action – and tension - to follow. Possibly caught up with the universal keenness to finish the game off, Wild’s Danny Bullock went in with a hard fore-check on a Sheffield player against the boards behind the Senators’ goal.

This provoked a large scuffle involving all the players who were on the ice – excluding, rather sensibly, Widnes netminder Matt Croyle who stayed in his goal.

The mini mélée saw Bullock penalised for the initial boarding call, Wild’s Tom Ratcliffe getting 2+2 for fighting with Sheffield’s Steve Weeks and the Senators’ netminder Hartley receiving a 2 minute penalty for leaving his crease to join in.

All of these penalties were coincidental - which meant that they cancelled each other out - and both sides were able to continue with five skaters on the ice.

However, the break in play seemed to have interrupted the Wild’s momentum and, while those players were watching the game from the penalty box, the Senators scored a dramatic breakaway goal to pull themselves back into the game at 4-3.

The remaining 5 minutes and 6 seconds seemed to pass by incredibly slowly indeed and the Wild fans held their breath as the clock ticked down.

Matt Croyle made a particularly important full stretch save to prevent what would have been an almost certain Sheffield equaliser.

However, the Widnes defence held out and there were no further mishaps or breakthroughs.

The resulting 4-3 scoreline came as a great relief to both fans and players alike but one senses that there is still work to be done to hone this new look Widnes Wild team into the finished article.

The resulting 2 points keep Widnes in touch with league leaders Blackburn Eagles - who also won at the weekend and are now four points clear at the top of the Laidler Conference, having played a game more.

In fact, the Eagles are the next Laidler Conference visitors to Silver Blades Widnes in the next Wild home game on Sunday 6th November.

Before that, Widnes have an equally tricky game away in Sheffield on Saturday 29th October against the Senators - and a weekend off in between to work on things.

There is, however, more exciting ice hockey action at Silver Blades Widnes on Sunday 23rd October as the Widnes Wild women’s team face Slough Phantoms in the Women’s Premier League. Face off is at 5.30pm and admission is free,