MANCHESTER PHOENIX 2 - 0 MILTON KEYNES LIGHTNING!
Sunday night saw the visiting Milton Keynes Lightning make their 2nd visit to the ICE DOME in Altrincham this season and this time went home empty handed.
Phoenix who was playing their 3rd game in 4 nights, if you include the Great Britain u20s game last Thursday. Phoenix were missing their Number 1 Goaltender Steve Fone as he is sidelined with a lower leg injury, and also missing Import Defencemen and ex-NHLer Robert Schnabel who has a upper body injury.
MK were missing a couple themselves with Jordan Hedley, Adam Carr and long term injury victim in Adam Calder. But instead of 2 linesmen and 1 referee like normal, they were adopting the 4 man system last night, as Posladek and Kris Well were as normal skating the lines and refs for the game was Tom Pering & Dan Boardman.
So off we went with the Opening Faceoff to start the 1st Period, and Manchester completely dominated the 1st Period. As starting netminder for the MK Lightning was Stephen Wall who had an Save percentage of 97% and was going to need that percentage as he`d be facing alot of rubber in the first period.
Phoenix were on the Penalty Kill after 1:32 in as Player coach Tony Hand upended a MK player near the Phoenix crease as was given 2 mins for TRIPPING by Pering. Phoenix killed the penalty off and was the most Offensive of the 2 sides, with shots being fired in from nearly every conceivable angle on Wall.
Who as his name suggest was like a Brick Wall in goals for them, MK showed little going forward and as Phoenix was icing there back up netminder Jorge El-Hage for his 2nd Consecutive league game in a row. You`d expect the Visiting side to try and make him work and pepper him with shots and test him out.
But it never happened in the 1st period anyway,as the Phoenix defended stoutly and protected the young nettie. Was a moment of worrym when MK thought they`d scored but Pering WASHED-OUT the goal saying whistle had blown to stop play before it went in.
MK play was extremely rough as the Penalty Mins showed as Mcpherson got Psurny in the face with his stick for HIGH STICKING at 4:15, Then ridiculous play by Leigh Jamieson and Lukas Zatopek as the hits were flying in hard but either could have been sent to the box as both were BOARDING penalties but Jamieson drew the short straw. As Flaten was against the board Zatopek came in from behind and as he was falling down Flaten Jamieson Boarded him too, Stupid ill discipline!
Zatopek eventually got called for his over Zealous play as he went for Interference at 16:19, shortly followed by Lewis Christie who looked like he was trying to attempt every Penalty in the rule book, as he tripped him, butt ended him, Punched him, cross checked him, hooked him. kneed him and slashed him! But eventually Boardman decided on just giving him 2 mins for CROSS CHECKING & ROUGHING timed at 17-59. The Phoenix Powerplay was brilliant and think they`d learnt something from the GB squad as they were passing it around quickly and not moving at snails pace.
Shot upon shot upon shot, Rained down on the MK Lightning nets, but Wall with save after save after Great save, kept the score goalless and he looked absolutely unbeatable on this showing!
Period ended and the SHOTS ON GOAL read: El Hage faced 3 shots and Wall 25!!!
END OF 1ST PERIOD : PHOENIX 0 - 0 LIGHTNING
2nd period was a far more Physical and and end to end game period, The Hitting game certainly picked up as Massive hits came in from both sides. Long hit on Emersic was a great hit that sent him flying on backside, Chinn put in some heavy hits too, most of them were very fair hits. But a Zatpoek hit on Duggan that missed was a very dangerous one as he had his elbows up and luckily Duggan had the vision of side stepping at last min.
MK got going as they were more attacking with some play. But the finishing by the players was lacking as they couldn`t find the target, they probably had the most possession in that period. But El Hage with a couple of fumbles was always helped out by his team mates who seemed to be trying a bit harder for him.
Phoenix had a couple of chances but Wall was still standing on his head keeping anything that puck based out of the nets! He made a great save off one Phoenix player, when he it was played to the back post and Wall scrambled to the far post and made a diving save and then another save. Phoenix just couldn`t believe these shots weren`t going in.
MK were getting in better positions, but not being accurate with their shots as they were mainly too high over the nets hitting the plexi glass. McKinney got called for Slashing at 27:38 and Phoenix again did a great job on the Penalty Kill. MK felt aggrieved when Ciaran Long stick caught Grant McPherson in the face, though the refs deemed it not to be a Penalty by Boardman, After he had shown he drawn blood on his face.
They went mad and the next run off play, MK was penalised for TOO MANY MEN & Ross Bowers was sent to the box for ABUSE OF OFFICIAL at 31:04. Phoenix carried on the Powerplay pressure but just couldn`t way past Wall in nets.
END OF 2ND PERIOD : PHOENIX 0 - 0 LIGHTNING
3rd Stanza started with Flaten making a trip to the Penalty box for HOLDING at 41-12 and MK still struggling to find a goal themselves as they Pressured the Phoenix nets, but El-Hage made a couple of great saves one while on the ice, to keep it 0-0 and keep alive a First Shutout for him in his Maiden Home game.
Both teams had chances, Hits were getting more and more Aggressive Phoenix threw big hits as this was there last game for a couple of weeks, so they let it all hang loose and throw the checks from the hip. Both sides began to get a bit tentative as regards to whether they should be more defensive set or go for it. Both teams seem to go for a Hung- Ho approach and throw caution to the wind and made it a Fantastic game to watch. Neither side seemed to want to play it safe for the point and as time ticked on. Both side got more adventurous and felt like it had become an Overtime period in the 3rd with whoever was to score next would win.
MK had chances some whistling past the post or just going across the crease and getting blocked by the Phoenix players..THEN THE BREAKTHROUGH! Phoenix play and sticking at the task at hand (no pun intended)Finally happened. Tony Hand jumped on the puck and waited for a clear lane saw Psurny make space fed him him puck as he drawn a MK D man to him, puck went to Psurny stick and he shot it past Wall and found TWINE!
And the hard work all paid off as Manchester and the fans were Jubilant and MK seemed lose a bit of heart, Thou MK still came at Phoenix it seemed like there attacks were desperate and not the patience play they had done through the game. And so seconds ticked down and MK called a 30sec Time out and had pulled the Netminder for the Extra Attacker, the faceoff happened and was frozen by El -Hage. Then Manchester called a Time out too, Could Phoenix avoid throwing another lead slip!
Faceoff to the LEFT of the Phoenix nets was won and Flaten chased hard with Wiggins after him. Flaten saw both him and James Archer skating towards goal, so he passed it softly to Archer who put it for 2-0 and finish off the Lightning, who as Flaten passed the puck sidestepped an intended HARD CHECK by Wiggins who became a Cropper and went heavily into the board smashing his knee. So as Phoenix players celebrated he was led off with help by his team mates as he was in trouble as his knee seemed in a bad way considering the force and effort he put into the missed Hit!
But with 48 seconds left, "WE`RE GONNA WIN" by Bryan Adam rang over the PA system and Phoenix fans could enjoy a victory, now there was just the matter of getting Young Mr El-Hage his Shutout! And for the remaining seconds of the game being played out the crowd all sang "Scott McKenzie" Name as this was his Final game in a Phoenix shirt before he heads back to Telford. And as it countdown 5....4....3...2 ...1 0!! Jorge El -Hage gained his Maiden Full game SHUTOUT in only his 2nd FULL EPL game!
FINAL SCORE: MANCHESTER PHOENIX 2 - 0 MILTON KEYNES LIGHTNING
Man of the MATCH: MKL : 93# Stephen Wall PHOENIX: 35# Jorge El-Hage
And there was a emotional moment as Scott McKenzie stood centre ice tapped his stick on the Phoenix logo in Centre ice and raised his stick as he was very Emotional at the end as the Phoenix players and Phoenix Owner Neil Morris gave him a Guard of Honor as he skated off which was a Classy thing to do.
FINAL MIN OF PLAY:
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