BRAVE EFFORT SEES PHOENIX COME UP SHORT!

EPL CUP

 

 

MANCHESTER  PHOENIX  4   -   3    GUILDFORD FLAMES

Yet again the old cliché for the Manchester Phoenix and Semi finals can be used when it comes to the EPL CUP at least as it was another case of "Always the bridesmaids, never the bride", As that's is now 4 consecutive seasons Phoenix have reached the semi finals and lost out each time & also now 2 years running to the Guildford flames. Coming into the game it looked a difficult task beating the flames by 3 to take the tie outright, but by all means do-able as both sides had 3 wins a piece in the drawn league series between the 2 Pyro named sides.

The 6-4 loss to the Flames in Guildford in the 1st leg was a bit of a 2 way thing the bad side the Phoenix were short benched as they had a few players missing compared to the Flames big bench and missing your starting netminder is the biggest problem you have in the EPL unless you have 2 netminder of the equal quality and ability like some teams can afford to do. Manchester are one of the teams not in the position to able to do that and that is why the chase for the league title slipped away along time ago.

The positive way to look at it was they lacked depth in the line up and still kept it close enough for a possible turn around in the 2nd leg so with that, 3 periods played 3 left to go and the winners awaiting Slough Jets in the final.



The 1st period started off a bit cagey as neither side were doing much shooting as play was mainly in neutral ice or the defences were on top of the forwards at both ends. Guildford game plan was to play a patience waiting game and break on the counter and take the chances that fell their way.
Manchester were just hoping the Flames gameplan backfired and that they could tire them out from defending most of the game.

Eventually after the feeling out of both teams Phoenix came alive and mainly the 3rd line of James Archer, Tom Duggan and Bari McKenzie, those sparked the home side especially McKenzie as seemed a different player than the one we`ve seen since he arrived before christmas. Both him and Duggan were by far the 2 best Phoenix players on show as the two smallest players were like terriers snapping at the ankle of the Guildford players & refusing to give up lost causes.

James Archer first took aim at Mark Lee at the Flames goal as his shot was turned away and faced a few more shots as Phoenix were the team on top with a majority of possession in the period. David Savage was called at 3-57 for TRIPPING & Neil Liddiard was called for hooking down Duggan at 8-07 meaning another Phoenix powerplay which was a decent one. The puck was being rotated around by the home side & seeing some player movement which was dragging the Flames players out of position was working. So when Tony Hand skated round the net into a free position and unmarked the pass came to him from the blue line cross ice but he fanned on his shot, with it just reaching the side of the net at snails pace.




Typically against the run of play Guildford took the lead as Flames were attacking in the Phoenix end the puck came to Curtis Huppe and the sniper cut in with some good stick work as he avoided the defenseman and wristed one past Jaszczyk to make it 1-0 on the night and 7-4 on aggregate and the goal seemed to deflate the whole rink as the goal went in as the large Flames contigent celebrated the goal, assists on that goal were given to David Longstaff & Jez Lundin at 12-46. The remainder of the period was Guildford taking control abit more as Phoenix seemed certainly flat after that goal went in. Only other action of note was a INTERFERENCE call on Branislav Kvetan at 16-34.

Second period was carrying on from the first period as the game was cracking to watch as the game was competitive and with the Flames up by 3 goals on aggregate the game could have just fizzled out, But it didn`t as both team were still going for as it showed when Guildford Nathan Rempel and Phoenix Rob Schnabel dropped the gloves to face off. The fight didn`t last long at all as the build up was longer than the actually fight as Schnabel slipped when he lost his edge as he avoided Rempel hook, both of them picked up 2+2 penalties for ROUGHING at 23-36. Milo Melicherik was called shortly after for SLASHING at 25-17.


The fight seemed to slightly ignite the home side abit as Phoenix scored through a Ondrej Pozivil goal, As Duggan worked it well to Pozivil who then layed it off to James Neil who was going past him in the other direction and he picked out Pozivil who slotted home from close range to make it 1-1 at 25-36. Then a powerplay goal came quickly after as Michal Psurny scored to give Manchester the lead at 26-01 with assists going to Tony Hand and Joachim Flaten to make the overall score 7-6 to Guildford at this stage.



Melicherik was back in the box again for HOOKING at 27-54 putting the Phoenix back on the powerplay again, but they couldn`t make of it before Luke Boothroyd brought down a Flames player HOOKING him at 28-27. The Flames were then on a short powerplay and made use of it as Melicherik did something positive for the away side as his pass to Longstaff went to Rempel who quickly shot past Jaszczyk in nets as he was clueless as to where the puck was. The score was now 2-2 and 8-6 on agg with the goal coming at 30-02.

Milos Melcherik then headed back to the box for the 3rd consecutive time for HIGH STICKS as his hit on Duggan was very high as Andy McKinney was angry with the actions that at 30-27.  Phoenix powerplay produced one real effort as Hand effort at the side of the goal was aimed too high and hit the plexi behind the nets. James Archer then visited the penalty box as he was called for INTERFERENCE at 35-10. The faceoffs situations were getting ridiculous as Guildford were taking ages to get ready and causing delays and retakes after retakes, leading to the ref to take action as Huppe was messing around and Referee was sick and tired of the antics and so gave the forward 2 minutes for DELAY OF GAME at 37-59.





The 3rd period, Phoenix upped their game abit as they were a bit sloppy at times in the second period and tried to push one last time for the final 20 minutes. As it seemed Phoenix had lost there way abit in the second compared to first period. Manchester retook the lead as James Archer quick release shot beat Lee in nets to make the score 3-2 at 42-26 with Bari McKenzie & Tom Duggan who were the most effective line all game for the home side and the crowd was right behind them now as the momentum switched back to Phoenix again.


As Phoenix were defending as hard as they could and seemed to be shutting the Flames down David Savage noticed the movement of Nathan Rempel so his pass up ice was latched onto by the Flames forward and he pulled the young keeper out of position and slipped it home to tie the game again at 3-3 coming at 50-44. Then the killer for Phoenix was Andy McKinney & Richard Bentham both picking up 10 minute MISCONDUCT penalties each at 51-03 as Phoenix were short benched and now losing 2 bodies for the rest of the game was a massive problem.

Rempel then got penalized for HOOKING at 51-32, Then Guildford received a team penalty for ICING INFRACTION as they changed illegally putting the Phoenix on the Powerplay and it lasted all of 7 seconds as Hand won the faceoff, Pozivil fed Michal Psurny and he hit it high in the net for 4-3 lead with over 4 and half minutes goal timed 55-19. But sadly it wasn`t to be as the time ran out on yet another agonising EPL Cup run.

Flames played a good game while defending the 2 goal lead and made for a great advert for EPL hockey as always between the 2 sides. The Surrey based side now face Slough Jets in the final, While for Phoenix this would have to be used to start the momentum as we head towards the Playoffs at the end of the month.


STATS:

                          SHOTS ON GOAL:

PHOENIX: Andrew Jaszczyk   21

FLAMES:  Mark Lee   34

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                              PENALTY MINUTES


PHOENIX: 28   FLAMES: 22




SCHNABEL v REMPEL .."fight"

 phoenix podcast:

http://manchesterphoenix.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/checks-and-chong.html