Phoenix fail to rope in Bison!

 

Manchester Phoenix 3 - 4 Basingstoke Bison

It was a controversial ending in the TOP of the table clash at the Silver Blades ice rink Sunday night, as a Wash-out goal was the talking point come full hooter went.

Manchester were coming into the game on the back of a defeat down at the Link Centre saturday night in Swindon going down 4-2 in a return of the previous weekend match against Swindon Wildcats.

The Bison however carried on there run beating the Bracknell Bees 5-2 at the Basingstoke ice rink.

Phoenix really needed to win the game not only to go level on points with their rivals but also if it came down to Head to Head, as the Bison were currently 2-0 up in games with Phoenix. Bison took an early lead at 1-22 when recent new signing Jaroslav Cesky combined with Greg Chambers to put Greg Owen through on a 1 on 1 and put it high in Fone net for a great start for the Current league leaders.

Phoenix had the Majority of possession but couldn`t find a way past Stevie Lyle in Bison goals, shots rained down on him and he was always equal to the task. Best chance for Phoenix fell to Duggan have a Bison Defensive error lead Duggan 1 on 1 with Lyle but was turned away by the ex- Great Britain Netminder.

The home side struck the bar and and base of the post and couldn`t create a decent shot.

Then at 16:53 Totally against the run of play Bison broke on a breakway and was a complete replay of the first goal, Cesky and Chambers put Owen through yet again 1 on 1 & yet again scored in the same part of the goal and send the Bison fans overjoyed with their lead as the Period ended.

END OF 1ST PERIOD  Phoenix 0 - 2 Bison

Second period was much like the 1st period, All Phoenix with the possession and trouble was they couldn`t turn it in a goal. As the well drilled Bison team coached by ex-Sheffield Steeler and Slough Jet player-coach Doug Sheppard, he has driven into his side discipline and work ethic that has worked wonders for the Basingstoke outfit and the Road game they were playing was working fantastically well and even he couldn`t believe how well it was getting when another Bison attack ghosted past a non- existent Phoenix defense, 

As Tony Redmond  passed to player coach who waited and waited for Cesky to skate back post and slid back post onto the tape stick on the ice as Jaroslav Cesky made it 3-0 at the 30 mins mark. 

Phoenix looked down and out Bison looked to be cruising at 3 up, Then finally the home side made the breakthrough as Rob Schnabel and Michel Psurny set up Flaten who fired a shot low and hard past Lyle at 36-51.

Phoenix carried on the pressure and looked to get another goal heading towards the end of the period. But still shots didn`t carry any really substance. 

END OF 2ND PERIOD  Phoenix  1 -  3 Bison

3rd period started with both sides attacking more and Manchester hoping if they could get another quick goal then it would unsettle the Bison side. End to end the game became and a bouncing puck where the Bison D lost it, it feel to Michel Psurny and scored to make a 1 goal game and had the fans believing in a unlikely comeback at 50-28. 

Phoenix fans had hardly had chance to sit down before Joe Rand jumped on a loose puck and skated unopposed to deke Fone and slide it in to regain the 2 goal cushion for the Bison at 50-43.

Time ticked down and at 54-26 after good recycling down in the Bison end Hand waited and looked for a pass and found James Archer skated towards goal as he tipped it past Lyle for 3-4 with nearly 5 and bit mins left. Then came the Controversy, Phoenix pressured looking searching for the elusive tying goal. The Phoenix thought they had tied the game with 3:54 left in the game when Flaten effort went in the goals. But referee Miller decided the goal could not stand due to the net off of the moorings. And Lyle was accused of knocking the nets off when a Phoenix player skated round the nets to try and get a good shot off. 

Phoenix fans were in no doubt of what they thought happended as "cheat, cheat cheat" chants was aimed towards Stevie Lyle in nets as he skated to the bench and back again. Play resumed to booing and did so for a few mins as the Home fans felt a injustice had befell their side.

Phoenix had a couple more chances and with 1 min left, A Time out was taken by Manchester Coach Tony Hand, And from the face-off Phoenix battled to gain control of the puck and pull Fone for the Extra Skater. Bison was all hands to the pump and Phoenix tried to find a man to score the goal, but a bad pass by Hand sent the puck over the blue line and with 10 seconds left gave the Visitors the 2 pts and extend the lead at the top of the table to 4pts and Look at this point in the season to be Champions elect already and were not even Halfway through the season yet!

Final hooter went to a chorus of Boos from the Phoenix fans at the decision to not allow the goal to stand and also vent their anger at Lyle as he skated to collect his stuff from the nets and on the way round to applaud the players Boos rang as he skated round leaving many of the Bison players why they were booing so much at them. 

Phoenix will try to put their first Pointless weekend to back of their minds as they travel to Basingstoke next Saturday and try to gain Revenge!

FINAL SCORE:  MANCHESTER PHOENIX   3  -  4  BASINGSTOKE BISON

More from other Phoenix based:

http://manchesterphoenix.podbean.com/2012/11/26/by-hook-or-by-crook/

http://theangrybudgie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/phoenix-v-basingstoke-bison-25th.html