We’re a dark horse – Wilson

Apr 1 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

ROB Wilson thinks Elite League champions Coventry Blaze will be “licking their lips” at the prospect of taking on the Vipers in the play-off semi-finals – or at least he hopes so.

The Newcastle side reached Finals Weekend at Nottingham with Sunday’s dramatic penalty-shots victory over Belfast Giants. The Canadian player-coach felt the Giants paid the price for trying to engineer a quarter-final against his side and hopes Coventry are equally complacent.

Blaze won the Elite League title by six points and also claimed the British Knockout Cup this season. But their record against the Vipers suggests they might not take them as lightly as Wilson hopes. “I don’t think anybody touted us to win the Belfast series,” claimed 39-year-old defenceman Wilson.

“I think Belfast basically planned over the last month to try and play us (by finishing fourth in the regular season) and it backfired on them. Maybe Coventry are licking their lips at the thought of playing us.

“I really don’t care. We’ve got to win two games and if we do we win the play-off championship.”

The sides met six times in the league and both have 100% records on the other’s ice. No team has been more successful than the Vipers against Coventry this season.

The club also won the 2006 play-offs, something Wilson believes will work to his side’s advantage.

“We’re going to try to get down to Nottingham a day early,” he revealed. “The league don’t really like that but we did that two years ago and we’ll probably try to do it again.

“We’ve got a few players who I would say are hurt – they’re not injured because they’re playing next week. I’m not going to say who. That’s what the play-offs are all about, the guys that want to battle the hardest win.”

The Vipers will be the first on the ice on Saturday facing off at 1pm, four hours before Cardiff Devils take on Sheffield Steelers. The final begins at 3pm on Sunday.

Shaun Johnson will play his last game of senior ice hockey in Nottingham after withdrawing from Great Britain’s original 34-man party for the World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria. The Durham-born centre retires from the sport at the end of the season.

Vipers David Longstaff and Colin Shields have both made the cut for the 22-man squad but youngster Jez Lundin misses out.

SQUAD: Netminders: S Lyle (Belfast), S Murphy (Stjernen, Norway), S Fone (Coventry, travelling reserve). Defencemen: K Horne (Edinburgh), L Jamieson (Belfast), S Johnson (Belfast), J Pease (Coventry), D Phillips (Hull), G Walton (Belfast), T Watkins (Coventry), J Weaver (Coventry). Forwards: G Chambers (Basingstoke), D Clarke (HC Alleghe, Italy), G Clarke (MK Lightning), R Cowley (Coventry), D Longstaff (VIPERS), M Myers (Nottingham), G Owen (Basingstoke), J Phillips (Sheffield), N Rempel (Peterborough), C Shields (VIPERS), A Tait (Sheffield), M Towe (Cardiff).