Saturday evening, the Dublin Wolves hosted the Dundalk Bulls in the IIHL Recreational Division. It was nothing more than a Turkey shootout. The Bulls ran riot over a short benched and inexperienced Wolves team. The final score was 14 -1 to the Bulls but in fairness to the Wolves they never stopped trying. First of all they were down a goalkeeper as one of their players kitted out in the goalkeeper’s equipment. David Whelan, who has played a few games this season for the Wolves as a forward, was in net and in fairness to him he did a good job. However, his lack of experience soon showed and the Bulls took the lead after 54 seconds through Robert Grochowicz. Grochowicz was one of the top scoring players in the IIHL last season so he will always be dangerous in the IIHL Recreational Division. However, the Wolves fought back and found themselves level less than a minute later when Niall Shanahan scored off a pass from Andy Scollick. The game stayed one apiece for the next eight minutes or so with the Bulls putting enormous pressure on the Wolves defence. Whelan was particularly impressive during this spell. However, the Bulls did regain the lead through Grochowicz. He then added a third for his hat trick to make it 3 – 1 after the 1st Period.
The 2nd Period was much the same with the Bulls adding another 3 goals and again dominating the play. Nine minutes into the period, Lucas Pniewski gave the Bulls their fourth and two minutes after that; Grochowicz scored his fourth of the game. Pniewski added a sixth two minutes later and just before the second break. The score after the 2nd Period was 6 – 1. It was much the same story in the 3rd period as the Bulls scored a further eight goals. First up was Grochowicz again off a pass from Pniewski. After that, Shane Muldoon scored 2 goals four minutes apart from one another. While Liam Burke, Roman Culak and Derek Tuite all got their names on the score sheet before Grochowicz rounded off the scoring with his sixth and seventh goals of the game. The score after the 3rd Period was 14 – 1 to the Bulls.
Sat 28th Feb @ 17:30 – Dublin Wolves v Dundalk Bulls
Final Score: 1 – 14 (1 – 3, 0 – 3, 0 – 8)
SOG: 10 – 40 (3 – 8, 2 – 9, 5 – 23)
PIM: 2 – 34 (0 – 4, 0 – 30, 2 – 0,)
Saves: Whelan (26/40) – Pepper (9/10)
*Photograph courtesy of www.derektuitephotography.ie