It's official, hockey is back and the start of the new season meant teams competed for points over the weekend. Let's have a look back at all the results as well as our Pre-Season fixtures.

NIHL2 North

Three league games went ahead over the weekend seeing six of the nine teams in action. The Sheffield Titans and the Deeside Dragons 2 opened up the season at iceSheffield on Saturday. The Titans coming up winners by four goals to two in that one, cementing their lead at the top of the table after day one.

Sunday saw the other two games being played as Billingham hosted Sutton and Bradford hosted Altrincham. A goal fest on day two as the Buccaneers sealed a home win against the Sting, that one ended eight-four in favour of the home side. Whilst Altrincham took all three points out of Bradford with a six-seven win away from home.

Billingham lead the way early on due to goal difference, with Sheffield sitting behind and Altrincham taking up third spot. And with the Buccaneers Sting game also counting towards the cup, Altrincham lead the way in Group A.

No games are yet to be played in the Challenge Cup.

NIHL Blaze Pre-Season

As we come out the back of pre-season with two games under our belt, we look straight down the barrel at two opening fixtures this weekend as we take on the Titans at home on Saturday with the first trip of three to Billingham on Sunday, in the Challenge Cup.

During pre-season, the NIHL Blaze took to the ice against NIHL2 south opponents MK Thunder, playing once at home and once away.

The home fixture on Saturday 30th of August at the Skydome saw a thrilling comeback being completed by the NIHL Blaze after being down by two goals headed into the final period. An early goal from Nick Alley set the tone for the final stanza which was followed up by two goals inside thirty seconds from Ryan James and Jodie Alderson-Smith. The home side would ride out three-two winners in the opening game.

The follow up, played over the weekend, saw six changes in the side's roster travel down to Planet Ice Milton Keynes to cap off pre-season. After all seven new players iced in game one, a further six made their season debut in game two. The script was almost copied in this game as the hosts lead by one goal to nil after period one. That was followed up by another good period for the hosts who led by four goals to nil after period two. A pushback in period three by the visitors saw them get on the board at the mid-point of the period thanks to an Ollie Dixon shot that beat the netminder low to the glove side. But the mountain was too high to climb in the end as the MK Thunder held on to split the series with a home win a piece.

Netminder Owen Chester made his senior debut as he came in at the mid-point of the game and posted a shutout in his half an hour stint pulling off some huge saves to at least give the visitors in blue a chance headed down the final stretch of that game.

Through the two opening games, twenty-seven on the twenty-eight players signed have iced in preparation for the upcoming season. Plenty to work on, with games coming thick and fast.

Home Season Opener

This Saturday sees us open the season at home as we host the Sheffield Titans. Face-off will be 18:30 at the Skydome Arena. The Titans with one game and one win under their belt look to continue their good start to the season after a busy summer of signings, whilst we look to get off to a good start with a win in our opening game.

Sunday sees us travel to Billingham to kick-start our Challenge Cup campaign against the Buccaneers.