Junior round-up

Billingham Wolves had a successful weekend in the English Under-19 Northern championship play-offs, taking four points against Sheffield Steelhawks from their two meetings.

The first was at the Forum ice arena and brought Wolves a 5-0 victory.

Tom Griffiths got Wolves off to a fine start with this opening goal at 01.37 and it turned out to be the only goal of the first period however, it would have been a much bigger lead except for Sheffield's netminder.

The middle period brought Wolves two powerplay goals from Dale Taylor and Richie Thornton by 36.59.

A minute later Shaun Buckley received his marching orders with a match penalty for head-butting.

Griffiths and Thornton each recorded their goals of the game late in the match.

Wolves: Tom Griffiths 2+1, Richie Thornton 2+0, Dale Taylor 1+2, Stephen Wallace and David Flett 0+3.

Both Scott Ward and Andrew Wells returned from suspension for the tie at Sheffield the next night but Shaun Buckley was ruled out for the match due to suspension.

Stephen Wallace was a thorn in the side of Sheffield as he scored a double hat-trick in a 9-1 win.

He struck Wolves' first four goals with the opener coming at 03.11.

DJ Flett extended the lead on the powerplay to 5-0 before Sheffield hit their consolation effort at 49.10.

Just 19 seconds later Wallace was back on the mark for 6-1 also on the powerplay.

Sheffield were once again short-handed when Philip Pritchard, Gareth Crinnion and Wallace rounded off the scoring.

Wolves: Wallace 6+0, Gareth Crinnion 1+1, Philip Pritchard, D J Flett 1+0, Taylor 0+2.

Billingham Bears began their English Junior (Under-16) North promotion-relegation play-offs with a victory. Bradford Pirates, runners-up from North B league losing 5-1.

Bears went ahead at 03.34 from a Steven Pritchard short-handed goal.

Either side of the first interval Andrew Thornton was on target to increase the advantage to 3-0.

Bradford broke Michael Snook's shut-out in the 37th minute.

In the final minutes Andrew Bennett and Vicki Wallace scored for Bears to give their side a winning start.

Bears: Andrew Thornton 2+0, Andrew Bennett 1+1, Steven Pritchard, Vicki Wallace 1+0, Paul Harland 0+2, Peter Thomas, Robert Dowd 0+1.

The Northern Conference Under-13 squad defeated Whitley Mohawks Under-14s 7-2 in a friendly at Hillheads.

Billingham's Robert Dowd scored four assists for the Conference side.

Michael Farn (Billingham) scored one of the goals.

Andrew Wile scored both of Whitley's consolation's.

Whitley Arrows were 6-2 winners over Nottingham Tiger-Cubs at Hillheads. They cruised to victory in English Bantam (Under-12) North promotion-relegation play-offs.

Two goals in a minute from Daniel Murdy and Callum Watson sent Whitley on their way for 2-0 at 06.35.

Nottingham responded at 08.27 only to see Watson restore the two-goal lead 18 seconds later. Murdy tucked away his second for a 4-1 first period lead.

Watson and Murdy each completed their hat-tricks after Nottingham had scored a second goal.

Arrows: Callum Watson, Daniel Murdy 3+0, Callum Pattison 0+2, Gemma Rolt, Shaun Lee 0+1.