MANCHESTER PUT THE PHANTOMS TO REST

 

 

 

 

 

MANCHESTER PHOENIX 7 - 2 PETERBOROUGH PHANTOMS

Manchester Phoenix put together a fantastic display of attacking power Saturday evening as they thrashed a sorry Peterborough Phantoms 7-2 in front of yet another Sell out a crowd in the Altrincham Ice Dome. The victory meant it was the Manchester club 5th successive win in a row and puts them in good stead for the upcoming playoffs at the back end of this month.

Phoenix were still riding on a crest of a wave after their wins last weekend over the top 2 in the league Guildford Flames  & Basingstoke Bison respectively. However Phoenix knew a slip up to a physical side in Peterboro would give the chasing Milton Keynes Lightning a chance to close the gap on Phoenix for 3rd spot as currently its 3 points difference.

sell out crowd

Peterborough have been one of the sides that have frustrated the hell out of Manchester this year as they have twice took the Phoenix to wire with penalty shots after Phoenix threw away 2 glorious leads down in Peterborough and have shared penalty shootout wins too. The last visit of Phantoms to the Ice dome resulted in a shock 4-3 victory to the East Anglian team, with them thrashing their hosts 9-4 in the last meeting between the two back on February 10th.




Phoenix started much like they had done the previous weekend as they took charge early of the game as they pressured Dan Green in the Phantoms net, peppering him from all angles. Green looked lost to be fair as the puck was coming in at all angles and his defensemen weren`t helping him either. The Phoenix forwards were looking up for it as the big crowds have certainly energised the side in recent games as they have admitted that themselves. First shot of note came from James Archer as his shot from a tight angle struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced a couple of feet away from the goal line leading to it being cleared away.


Though it didn`t take long for the ex-Phantoms forward to score against his former club as the architech of the goal was defenceman Ondrej Pozivil, The Czech D man skated round the zone breaking through attempted challenges to feed Archer and he scored from close range to give Manchester the opening goal at 4:00 with Pozivil and Tom Duggan getting assists. Peterborough were getting good chances as well ,as the defence for the hosts was forgetting its duties as the visitors had numerous break aways as both sets of defences were getting to far forward and leaving gaps at the back leading to alot of breaks outs.


Eventually it caught up with Phoenix the lapses of defending, As Tom Norton hit a pass up ice to Tom Carlon and the forward skated 1 on 1 towards Jaszczyk in the Phoenix nets. Carlon tried to beat the young nettie but his effort was saved but only as far as the trailing Ondrej Lauko who joined late on the play and tapped home the rebound to make the score 1-1 after 9:02.


Then the big crowd was treated to a good old fashioned punch up as Andy McKinney and Greg Pick dropping the gloves straight from the restart, Both combatants got a couple of punches in and then both were trying to steady themself while still swinging McKinney just seemed to push him and Pick went backwards falling down and the linesman got in to separate them both. Both received 2+2 for ROUGHING at 9:05

The game wasn`t the most prettiest to watch at times, But was bit "hung ho" as both teams seemed to play a game of bring everyone forward and forget about defending, this was never more evident than at 11:54, as Phoenix broke away with Pozivil starting the breakout with Tony Hand, Hand quick pass through the gap came to Michal Psurny and he fired the puck past Green to make it 2-1. James Neil then took a trip to the box for HOOKING at 14-17 and from that resulting power play the guests tied the game as Ondrej Lauko again scored to make it 2 - 2 at 14-38 with James Ferrara and Tom Carlon helping out on the goal. Period came to an end  after a crazy kind of period of hockey with the scores tied at 2. Second Stanza started with Phoenix going on the penalty kill early as Bari McKenzie was called for HOLDING at 20 -35 giving Peterborough the chance to take the lead, But Phoenix killed the penalty off successfully. Phoenix retook the lead as Psurny & Joachim Flaten worked well together to set up Ondrej Pozivil goal as Flaten pass cross to the back post was put home by the Czech Republic native with the goal coming at 25-54.



Tom Duggan then sat 2 minutes for HOLDING timed at 29-58. Phantoms had a mini patch of pressure on the Manchester goals as Ziedens and Glowa had chances, Will Weldon tried his best to score when there was a scramble in front of Jasczcyk ,But his effort was him kicking it goalwards and being stopped by the defencemen and netminder too. Manchester held firm though on the powerplay and were tightening up significently at the back. Joe Graham was called soon after Duggan penalty as he was called for HOLDING THE STICK at 30-14.  Bari McKenzie scored for Phoenix to make it 4-2 as Archer and Duggan combined for Bari to score on the power play at 35-31. 


Joe Graham then made his 2nd trip to the box for CLIPPING as he went to block a shot but took out a Phoenix player in the process at 39-45. 3rd & final period started with Phoenix scoring a power play goal as Peterborough were still killing off the penalty on Graham from at the time, Bari McKenzie took his goal tally to 2 for night as Tom Duggan passed him the puck in the slot and it beat Green making the score 5-2 with James Archer grabbing an assist too on the goal at 41-31.

 Michal Psurny scored his 2nd of the game as well with Tony Hand assisting on the goal as Phoenix were running riot now making it 6-2 at 44-07. The heads of the Phantoms had well and truly dropped by now, As it was noticable that a few players were just skating around for the sake of it and not fully interested as the game was out of reach and they didn`t look like pulling a comeback out this time. James Archer didn`t want to be left out of the 2 goal club either , So after some great work by the 2nd line with McKenzie and Duggan all working the corners & boards and recycling the puck down low in the Phantoms zone . The puck came to Archer and his shot from the Phantoms face off circle somehow found a gap and went in past Green who was in complete disbelief over how it went in the net.






The contrasting emotions on the bench were so obvious as one side was smiles and back slapping was going on and the other was of despair and resignation of the game. Phantoms called a timeout which resulted with Phoenix making a goaltender change with 15 mins left as Jorge El-Hage came into the game to standing ovation from the home fans. The Rochdale native made some great saves and looked sharper between the pipes and made a few good saves too. Phoenix came out and played great hockey and put on a clinic as Peterborough couldn`t deal with the home side as they camped in Phantoms zone for majority of the 3rd. Peterboro had a few chances but El Hage was equal to them all. Manchester then got called for a ICING INFRACTION at 54-37 and then Ben Wood made the journey to the box also as he knocked the stick out of the Peterboro hands and so sat for SLASHING at 55-56 , Both penalties were killed off by the home side and then with only 45 seconds left in the game Greg Pick was called for SLASHING at 59-15 and time was play out with a big cheer as the Phoenix keep up their recent winning streak.

 

English Premier League		GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Guildford Flames	50	34	2	2	12	216	140	74
2	Basingstoke Bison	50	29	3	4	14	170	126	68
3	Manchester Phoenix	49	24	6	3	16	196	160	63
4	Milton Keynes Lightning	50	26	4	2	18	162	136	62
5	Slough Jets	49	20	5	4	20	177	173	54
6	Swindon Wildcats	49	20	1	10	18	184	189	52
7	Bracknell Bees	49	18	4	5	22	181	188	49
8	Peterborough Phantoms	51	18	5	3	25	173	188	49
9	Sheffield Steeldogs	50	15	5	1	29	143	199	41
10	Telford Tigers	49	8	1	2	38	117	220	20

STATS

SHOTS ON GOAL

PHOENIX Andrew Jasczcyk   Shots faced :15    86.67%    / Jorge El Hage  shots Faced: N/A

PHANTOMS Dan Green    Shots faced: 28 85.71%



PIM:

PHOENIX : 14    PHANTOMS : 10  



MAN OF THE MATCH: PHOENIX: #86 Bari McKenzie       , PHANTOMS : #23 Tom Carlon