By Frankie Notaro
This weekend is an opportunity for everyone across all leagues and teams to take time to reflect and celebrate the life of Nottingham Panthers forward Adam Johnson, who sadly lost his life last weekend during a game against the Sheffield Steelers. We welcome everybody at Saturday’s game to join us in celebrating Adam Johnson’s life.
The Pitbulls only have one game this weekend, at the Pound against the Hull Seahawks on Saturday night. The 2s are in action on Sunday if you are in need of a second hockey fix on the weekend.
The Hull Seahawks currently find themselves in 6th place within league standings going into this weekend with a total of 12 points after 5 wins, 2 losses and 2 overtime losses. So far this season the Seahawks have managed to get a total of 39 goals while allowing only 32 goals scored against them this season, in terms of points-per-game, the Seahawks sit third behind Leeds & MK Lightning, so it will be a tough test.
The power play unit at Hull will definitely be something that Matty Davies will want to improve on as this season the Seahawks have only scored on 7 out of a potential 29 power play chances. Whereas on the other side, when it comes to the Seahawks’ penalty kill they have successfully killed 33 out of 45 situations where they have found themselves down a skater. They have also been able to find the back of the net when short-handed 2 times already this season. The Seahawks are heavily outshooting teams throughout their first nine games, with them averaging over 42 per game while allowing just over 27.
A player to keep an eye on during Saturday’s game will be Finlay Ulrick, who has collected a total of 14 points this season through 7 goals and 7 assists. He has played a key role so far this season and he will be someone the Pitbulls will need to be aware of going into the game. Another player the Pitbulls will need to find a way to shut down is Emil Svec and his heavy shot as he has already stacked up a total of 18 points so far this season through 11 goals and 7 assists. He has scored 2 game winning goals so far this season as well as proving himself to be a big part of the Seahawks’ power play unit as he has scored 2 power play goals while Finley Ulrick has also scored 3 power play goals. Declan Balmer will also need to be someone the Pitbulls watch out for in terms of being able to control him and not letting him be able to get under their skins at crucial parts of the game.
