Two wins at the Ice Bowl – 8-1 over North Ayrshire Wild and 6-1 over Paisley Pirates – gave Martin Grubb’s new look squad the chance to blow the cobwebs away after a long summer and put their training camp routines into game action.
Billingham Stars provide the opposition this coming Saturday (7pm face off) in an intriguing clash where the Teessiders have two import forwards against the Sharks two import defencemen.
24 hours later, Solway are on Tyneside to take on Whitley Warriors (5pm face off) who are very much an unknown quantity after not taking part in any pre-season games.
Shortly after the final hooter on Sunday, head coach Martin Grubb paid his first visit of the year to the Vasilenko Media Suite at the Ice Bowl to review his side’s summer to date.
“We’ve had a couple of mini training camps leading up to these games, but there’s no substitute for games,” said Grubb.
“It was a conscious decision not to play anyone from our own league – we probably see enough of each other as it is – and there were a couple of conversations with EPL sides but nothing materialised, so we looked closer to home and were very grateful to North Ayr and Paisley for agreeing to come down and play us.
“The weekend was a worthwhile one – it gave an opportunity to shake the rust off, look at systems, breakouts, special teams and give all players plenty of ice time.
“We weren’t perfect by any stretch – you wouldn’t expect to be in preseason – but there were a lot of positives while still giving plenty to work on this week in training.
“We’ll have two hard practices this week before our opening weekend in the League which for a change is against Billingham and Whitley.”
Looking mainly at Saturday’s home opener, Grubb was relishing the contrast between Sharks two import defence against Stars’ two import forwards.
“When I recruited my roster I looked across the league and the likes of Billingham and Blackburn – two of the sides likely to challenge for honours – had gone down the route of two import forwards. Last year we shipped too many goals so we’ve gone with the import defence – I’m confident that there will be goals spread across our forward lines plus the likes of Juraj contributing from the back end.
“Billingham come in on Saturday – we know all about Dennis (Bostrom) from last year, we saw little bits of their new import in last week’s games with Hull plus they have a host of talented British forwards.
“We’ll look to shut down their offensive ability and take our own chances when they come. It will be a tight game, but like the games between us over the past few years, will be open exciting hockey with no doubt one or two talking points.
“Everyone is excited to get started in the competitive action and our aim on Saturday is two points to get our season up and running.”
BCD Solway Sharks host Billingham Stars this coming Saturday, 10 September. Face off at the Ice Bowl is 7pm, with doors open from 6pm –
