Widnes Wild player-coach Richard Haggar believes his side will take a lot of lessons away from their shootout loss to the Solway Sharks on Sunday.
“For me, I’m happy with the performance,” Haggar said.
“We’re competing, we’re building, we know what we’re capable of.
“The guys are starting to believe in themselves.
“I want to emphasise that we can compete at this level.
“It’s really good to see that performance we put up even though we were on the wrong end of the result.
“We had bits and spells where we pushed them back.
“We’ll keep going, we’ll keep working and I’m sure we’ll turn those results into wins going forward.”
A double from Lithuanian Vlads Vulkanov in the third period managed to keep the score tied to 5-5 and force a penalty shootout.
Vulkanov has been Widnes’ standout player so far this season.
He has seven goals and four assists in his six league games so far this season.
“He’s a one of a kind player,” Haggar said about Vulkanov.
“He can put the puck in the net from whatever angle, wherever on the ice.
“To be able to play with someone like that makes my life a lot easier, to have that link-up play between the two of us.”
A couple of mistakes from netminder Harrison Walker allowed Solway to tie the game twice during the contest.
Haggar still has complete faith in the man looking after his goal.
“Harrison’s a guy who is full of confidence,” Haggar said.
“He knows his ability and so do we.
“You have a lot of confidence when you have someone like Harrison behind you. From the back going forward, we’ve got a good core.”
It’s Nottingham up next for Widnes.
It’s a switch-up from facing the top-of-the-table Solway to the Lions, who are sat last.
“Every team comes with a different challenge and a different way of playing,” Haggar said.
“We’ll take Nottingham the same way we’ve taken Solway.
“Just because they’re at the bottom and Solway are at the top doesn’t mean it’s going to be any easier.
“We’ll be giving it everything next week to make sure the result goes in our favour.”
Face-off on Sunday (December 5) is 17:30 at Planet Ice in Widnes.
