WIDNES Wild enjoyed a four-point weekend with two hard fought away victories that saw them secure second place in the Laidler Conference table and qualify for the end of season play offs, writes Paul Breeze.

The Wild had a smashing time at Bradford on Saturday night with a 3-8 away win that came to an abrupt end before the scheduled end of play and then saw off the Nottingham Lions 1-3 away at the National ice Centre on Sunday.

Then game at Bradford was actually abandoned with just 48.30 played of the regulation 60 minutes after a powerful shot from a Bradford player broke the plexi-glass behind Wild netminder Greg Ruxton’s goal.

Three separate panels were damaged and it was decided that it would take too long to replace them and that the game would finish at that point – with Wild leading 3-8.

The Wild were in coasting mode by that point having scored three unanswered goals in the third period so the result was never in any doubt by the time of the enforced stoppage, but the game had been very close earlier on.

After a very tense and close fought start, Widnes took the lead with a great goal from Ken Armstrong but the Bulldogs quickly countered and levelled the scores after just 8 minutes.

Bobby Caunce – recently returned to the Widnes team after a season and a half away with Blackburn – came up with a real gem of goal picking the puck up deep in defence and put the Wild ahead 1-2 going into the first break.

The second period saw much of the same with Widnes dominating for long periods of play but Bradford defending solidly and looking dangerous on the counterattack.

Stuart Brittle - who is enjoying his best scoring form of the season at present - edged Widnes a little further ahead only for Bradford to peg them back to 2-3 at the mid-point of the game.

Further goals from Wild’s Nick Manning and player coach Ollie Barron looked to finally be putting daylight between the two teams but another Bulldogs counter left plenty still the played for with the scores at 3-5 after two periods.

The Wild upped their game yet further when they came out for the third period and three goals in quick succession – from Berwyn Hughes and then two more from Stuart Brittle - pretty much killed the game off from a Bradford point of view. And then the game was killed off all together after the plexi-glass was damaged as the match officials decided to cut the game short.

The resulting 3-8 win was the Wild’s 5th unbeaten game in a row and kept them within touching distance of league leaders Blackburn Eagles who beat Sheffield Senators 6-3 the same night.

After the game, player coach Ollie Barron said: “It’s always a tricky game going into Bradford. They set up in a way difficult to play fluent hockey in their home rink, so we knew we would have to roll our sleeves up and get stuck in.

"We matched the Bulldogs for hunger and grit and I felt the team stepped up a gear in third period to secure the points, scoring some nice team goals along the way. In a way it was disappointing the game ended early due to plexi-glass issues as I felt we had just started to play some really nice hockey.”

The game on Sunday at Nottingham was a much closer encounter. The previous games between these two teams had all been tense, niggly affairs and this was no exception.

Despite having more of the overall play in the opening period, outshooting their hosts by almost 2 to 1, Widnes had to wait until the 14th minute of the game to make a breakthrough.

The opening goal was put away by Berwyn Hughes – the defenceman scoring for the second game in a row – assisted by Nick Manning, but the lead was short-lived as the Lions equalised some three minutes later to keep the scores 1-1 at the first period break.

This game was robustly contested from the outset with penalties being conceded by both teams throughout. The Lions attempted to up their game in the second period but it was the penalty count that was their ultimate undoing. With one player already in the penalty box for a hooking call, the Lions bench managed to get themselves into trouble with an abuse call that saw another Nottingham player binned for two minutes to give Widnes a two player advantage.

The Wild team had been criticised in previous games for not taking full advantage of their powerplay situations but they made this one count as Simon Offord blasted in a fierce shot with just 9 seconds left on the 5 on 3 advantage to give Widnes a 1-2 lead.

The rest of the period was disrupted by minor penalty calls on both sides – including a Wild bench penalty for abuse – but it was Widnes who benefited the most from this as Nick Manning scored an excellent short-handed goal with 3 minutes left in the second period.

Widnes were on the back foot for most of the third period - with netminder Matt Croyle making some excellent saves to keep the marauding Lions at bay. There was no further scoring in the game and the Wild came away from the Lace City with an important 1-3 victory.

The 4 points from the two weekend away games mean that Widnes Wild have qualified for the end of season playoffs at IceSheffield – where the top 4 teams in the Laidler Conference meet in semi-finals and final. More importantly, they are now guaranteed a minimum second place finish as the teams behind them in the table are no longer able to overtake them with the number of games left in the season.

The Wild now have 34 points from their 23 games and are 3 points behind league leaders Blackburn Eagles, who have played a game less.

Those two teams meet for the fourth and final time in Blackburn a week on Saturday but, before that, Widnes have another tricky away game to Coventry Blaze this Saturday 25th February, 7.30pm face off.

After the Nottingham game, Ollie Barron said: “Nottingham are a good team with some good young players coming through. They have a lot of energy and it is difficult on the larger ice pad.

"The game itself was quite chippy with a lot of penalties for each team. I was delighted in the way we played for each other and battled until the end of the game.

"Every played stood up and played their role -players blocking shots and hits to make plays was great to see. We killed some big penalties and I thought Matt Croyle in goal made some great saves.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game away at Coventry, Barron said: “We cannot afford ourselves to underestimate the Blaze. Although they haven't had much success in terms of wins this season, they work hard for each other for 60 minutes and have a number of players capable of finishing the puck.”