DERBY DELIGHT: Bulldogs’ Chris Waites (right) battles with KIngston’s Harry Moxon during Sunday’s Derby clash at The Pound.
BRADFORD BULLDOGS extended their winning streak to three games - beating Yorkshire rivals Kingston Sharks 4-2 at The Pound to boost their NIHL North Two Group B Cup hopes.
Having twice seen off Widnes Wild in league/cup action, the Bulldogs were able to keep their good form going and were good value for the points at Bradford Ice Arena.
It means they have now won four out of five Cup games, leaving them tied on 12 points with Sheffield Scimitars with seven games remaining. The top two qualify for the semi-finals.
Connor Medley led the way with two goals for the Bulldogs, both opening and closing the home team’s scoring, book-ending strikes from Kacper Andrukianiec and Josh Stockton.
Player-coach Dave Williams said: “It was another solid performance from us against a Kingston team who were determined to come here and cause us problems.
“We got off to a good start in the first period and gave ourselves a platform to build on. We got that third one early in the second but we allowed them to hit back straight away and after that it was all a bit messy.
“There were a lot of penalties in the second and it made it difficult to get any momentum going.
“We were better in the third and once we got that fourth goal there was only going to be one winner.
“It’s going well in the Cup and the next seven games all count towards those group standings, so we need to make sure we can maintain this kind of form.”
The game was only 13 seconds old when the Bulldogs got themselves ahead to leave the Sharks stunned, Stockton finding Lucas Vince driving down the right from where he turned the puck inside to the on-rushing Medley who fired past James Adamson.
The lead was doubled just before the end of the period, Andrukianiec stealing the puck in the neutral zone before being given time and space to pick his spot at 18.06.
A hooking call taken by Charlie Barker with just seconds left in the first proved costly for the visitors when the teams returned for the second, Stockton keeping the puck in at the blue line on the power play before firing home low to the goalie’s right at 21.21.
Hope arrived for the visitors quickly, though when Leo Simpson found James Hebb on his own and allowed to drive the net before back-handing past Lewis Curry just 19 seconds later to make it 3-1.
The rest of the middle period was pock-marked by too many penalties for both teams as the Yorkshire rivalry intensified and momentum became difficult to establish.
The Bulldogs created more in the third period and got their reward in the 49th minute when Jacob Brownlie’s shot from the bottom of the right circle could only be parried by replacement goalie Evan Byron-Bates straight into the path of Medley who fired home from close range for a 4-1 lead.
There was time for former Bulldogs forward Thomas Mardell to make his mark, breaking clear down centre ice before producing a smart finish to beat Curry at 53.57.
But that was as close as the Sharks could get, suffering a second defeat of the season to the Bulldogs with the two scheduled to meet in Hull on Saturday, November 7 (12pm face-off).