Sunday Night saw the 2nd placed, Manchester Phoenix entertain the depleted Swindon Wildcats at the Altrincham ice dome. The Wiltshire outfit were missing their complete 2nd line with Lee Richardson, Jamie Haynes, Thomas Murdy, Nicky Watt and Import forward Matias Perkkio not icing and had player coach Ryan Aldridge dressed for his 1st start of the season.
Phoenix were at Full strength and welcomed back Player Coach Tony Hand Fresh from his Fantastic efforts in Japan after he coached the Great Britain side to the next Qualifying round for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. And as the teams took to the blue line for the National Anthem, he had a tremendous ovation from the whole crowd as they applauded his achievement.
The Phoenix were coming into this game after a great 4-1 win down in Milton Keynes Saturday evening, so with that victory confidence was flowing through the team and the it showed as they came out on fire,With Flaten going close under a min and then good play by Psurny and Flaten layed it on for Pozivil who continued his Scoring exploits with a wristshot past Skinns in the net and gave a Jaromir Jagr Salute to celebrate and make it 1-0 at 1:47.
Swindon were all at sea and Phoenix punished them as Archer jumped on a loose puck, feed it Hand who steamed in put it on the stick of Psurny and used some nifty stick handling to have the Skinns in nets hypnotised and he put it high in the net for a 2-0 lead at 3:50 in the 1st. Swindon had no game plan it seemed as players were clueless on roles or what to do as Phoenix were running ring around them and Skinns was very Vulnerable in between the pipes as Phoenix were in search of another goal.
And at 11:10 gone Phoenix pressure produced another goal as work from Bentham and McKinney found Ciaran Long who hit hard and high in Swindon net for a 3-0 lead. Phoenix well and truly dominated play in the 1st period on both sides of the game ,Fantastic defensive work with the forwards back checking and the D Staying strong. Making it difficult for the Wildcats to get a foot in the game at all and as the 1st period ended a 3-0 lead you would have thought would have sewn the game up.
End of 1st Period :PHOENIX 3 - 0 WILDCATS
2nd period started where Phoenix left the 1st as at 23:36 Duggan latched onto a pass from Hand on the right wing and buried it with alow strike between Skinns legs it looked like. But then Swindon turned up and Phoenix WELL AND TRULY took their foot of the gas. Phoenix looked like they seemed to be play out the 2nd period as there was no urgency from the home side and Swindon started to play abit more like a unit and the Hitting game got going as the period went on.
And the Wildcats "Clawed" their way back into after chaos infront of Steve Fone in the Phoenix nets a mad scramble sticks prodding and slashing bodies piling in when Nell had the sense to knock it to Baird his slapshot from the blueline was pushed blocked and fell to Michal Kapicka unopposed to roof it past Fone to get them on the scoreboard at 31:58.
A penalty called by Referee Steve Wardell on Michal Psurny for Tripping sent Swindon the Powerplay and on the result Powerplay Swindon scored after Fone failed to stop the puck slowly Trickle in after he made a save from Jones shot after Kapicka and Nell assisted on the 2 Wildcats Goal timed at 37:20. Swindon had their tails up and after "Mr Reliable" normally Luke Boothroyd made Defense error passing it straight to Kapicka who Rifled it past Fone for a 4-3 scoreline at 38:29 and was very well deserved as Phoenix had just completely lost Concentration for the 2nd period on a whole.
End of 2nd period: Phoenix 4- 3 Wildcats
3rd period Phoenix seemed to gain some composure as they tried to get an Insurance goal and have a 2 goal cushion back. But they just couldn`t find Twine and the game became end to end with both sides having chances. With time winding down Swindon much to their traveling fans delight tied the game unbelivably, as at 51:07 Melichar and Hoog combined to find that man again Kapicka and he found the net for 4 - 4!
So with the final seconds of the 3rd both teams decided to settle to fight the extra point, except a misjudged line change by Manchester with 11 seconds left for "Too Many Men" left Hand venting his anger by going ballistic smashing his stick on the bench and red faced than normal. So for the first 2 mins nearly Swindon were on the POWERPLAY.
End of 3rd Period: Phoenix 4- 4 Wildcats
Overtime started with Swindon on the Powerplay and they couldn`t make the 4-on-3 man advantage count and Phoenix killed the Pen off. And with it seemingly looking like it may go to pens, Psurny pressured the Wildcats player on the boards, Hand skated across dug it out and with "Sniper" Luke Boothroyd skating into space from the bench Hand fed him the puck and he coolly Slotted it home and make up for his error earlier in the game for the Overtime Game winner, To send the Home fans delirious and the Phoenix side breathing a huge sigh of relief after knowing they got away with it tonight.
But they know next week they won`t be able to play like tonight ,as they face Swindon again down at the Link Centre and then onto the Top of the table clash at the Ice dome next sunday with Basingstoke as a win is vital, as they have lost the 2 previous games to the Bison and know they need to start winning against them if it came down to Head to Head come end of season.
MAN OF THE MATCH:
Swindon: Michal Kapicka & Manchester: James Archer
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