Sting in the tail as Phoenix and Bees trade thrashing`s!

               MANCHESTER PHOENIX  7   -  3    BRACKNELL BEES

 Archer, McKinney, Psurny x2,                             Rounding x2, Wiggins
 Bakrlik, Kovar x2                                                  




It was a mixed weekend for the Manchester Phoenix in their double header weekend with the Bracknell Bees, as they faced off on the Saturday Night at the Altrincham Ice Dome and saw the Phoenix come out on top with a 7-2 victory over the Berkshire club.

Manchester started out the aggressors in the game as they had Bracknell in trouble early on with some good play and good shots on the Bees netminder Tom Annetts.

Phoenix took the lead at 6:03 in the game, when a long pass up ice found James Archer who managed to control the puck from Captain Luke Boothroyd and with Tony Hand and Michal Psurny in support, he gave the goaltender the eyes and fired past Tom Annetts for the opening goal of the game.

Czech Republic forward Michal Psurny nearly made it 2-0 as couple minutes later, the forward skated up ice after Tony Hand vision spotted the man from the Czech Republic all alone and Psurny latched on to it and as tried to round the netminder, the puck came loose at the worst possible time and Lewis Turner of the Bees managed to clear the danger and let Bracknell off the hook.

Joe Graham then sat for two minutes at 8:07, when he was called for Hooking and so Phoenix went on the Penalty Kill for the first time in the game.

Psurny managed to created a play when the forward knocked a pass away and skated into the Bracknell zone and fired on the netminder which was dealt with easily.

Bracknell then against the run of play, equalised when a mistake at the back from Ben Wood saw him try to sweep the puck away only to fan on it and saw Chris Wiggins skate on goal and get a small contact on it with touch just managing to evade Steve Fone as it trickled in for a tied game at 1-1 at 16:10.

Psurny had another break way to which he then decided to blast and seen it saved and Tony Hand wasn`t best pleased with his attempt either.

Bracknell seemed to be lifted by their goal as they looked threatening from that point on when in attack, Phoenix netminder Steve Fone needed to be on his metal to withstand the Bees attacks.

Wiggins then started to send Phoenix players flying round the ice, when his hits were hard and had helped Bracknell for the second half of the period as he helped his side.

Tony Hand certainly needing to tell some stern words to his players in the period break as they they were very poor and lacked any cohesion in the final ten minutes of play after a very good opening ten minute period.

It took just 1:08 in the second period, for the continuation of the Bracknell attack to find their deserved second goal and a lovely move it was too. As Sam Oakford started the move with him skating from his own zone, over the Phoenix blue line uncontested and then a tic tac toe pass involving Bees Captain Rob Lamey.

The Captain feed it far post for Grant Rounding to put home for a 2-1 Bees lead and nothing more than the visitors deserved based on last 10 minutes of the 1st and early 2nd play too.

If the Bees goal was a good counter attacking move, then Phoenix tying goal was a brilliant team move, which started with Phoenix recycling the puck and when Frankie Bakrlik played the puck to Robert Schanbel while skating away from goal, Schnabel took over and played a pass to Andy McKinney who made a move to the front of the net and tapped it home for a 2-2 game at 22:04.

James Galazzi then went in the penalty box for Bracknell as he picked up a Roughing call at 22:21 and so from the resulting Power Play, Phoenix made it 3-2 thanks to a Michal Psurny goal after a couple of passes between himself and Player-Coach Tony Hand, Psurny then decided to drive to the front of the net and score at 22:35 for the go ahead goal.

Bracknell Bees tied the game up once more, when play behind the Phoenix net saw Rob Lamey battling it out with Schanbel by the boards for control of the puck, when Hand and Schanbel seemed to get in each other`s way, which led to Kamil Tvrdek gaining the puck and passing it out towards the front of the net where upon Grant Rounding netted the Bees 3rd goal of the game at 26:55 and really the play should have been dealt with in all honesty.

This sea-saw game took another twist, when Robin Kovar made it 4-3 for the home side at 28:29, when Schanbel stopped the puck leaving the Bees zone and as he tried to throw it on goal, but the puck then deflected up in the air and saw Bakrlik first to it and his effort on goal was saved by Annetts, only came only as far Kovar to scored the rebound to give Manchester the lead once again. 

Robin Kovar then picked up a Tripping call at 28:44 when he upended Lukas Smital at centre ice, before Joe Graham put a nice hip check on Harvey Stead and sent him flying up in the air. 

Frankie Bakrlik then made it 5-3 for the Phoenix, after Grant Rounding tried to do a turn just inside the Phoenix zone but he lost his footing and slid to the boards, which then gave possession back to Manchester and Kovar set Bakrlik away down the right side and while the Bees were caught in a line change, he made no mistake with his strike as he buriedit high over Annetts shoulder for a two goal cushion, timed at 31:09.

Tony Redmond then picked up a Roughing call after Schnabel and Archer were skating down the left wing and with Archer looking down waiting for the puck to be passed to him, Redmond came in with a huge hit on Archer and the referee made the call at 33:12.

It gave another chance for Phoenix to extend their lead on the PowerPlay and that was what they did, as at 33:48, Luke Boothroyd laid the puck back off to Robin Kovar along the blue line and the Czech forward blasted one in for a 6-3 score line. 

The scoring was rounded off, when Bracknell looked all at sea in their own zone and the Phoenix just out hustled the Bees. Tony Hand then miscued a shot in the slot and then managed to turn it into a pass, which saw James Archer skate round the net and pass diagonally back to Hand and that saw him pull up and throw a pass out to Psurny at back post who had all the time in the world to just skate to the front to the net and put it home for 7-3 at 35:09.

In the final period, there wasn`t much in the way of action apart from Wiggins and Foord having a coming together, as the Bees team mates skated into one another just on the edge of the Phoenix zone, which drew a massive cheer by the home fans.

The final bit of action saw Richard Bentham pick up a 2+10 minute penalty for Checking from Behind on Chris Wiggins, this led then to a scrum involving Scott Spearing and Rob Schnabel pushing and shoving, which resulted in both picking up 2 minutes for Roughing and seen Phoenix move back to the top of the EPL table with Guildford Flames losing on the road at fellow title rivals Basingstoke Bison 6-4.

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The win put Phoenix two points clear at the top of the table after Saturday night, but they would then feel the Bracknell backlash the next night down at "The Hive", as the Bees thrashed Manchester 8-2, with Swedish forward Matt Foord scoring 4 goals with Ollie Bronniman netting twice for the Bees. 

Bracknell had come back from a two goal deficit as they then inflicted the biggest defeat on the Manchester side this season and also record their biggest ever win too over the Phoenix club in the EPL.

For Manchester Phoenix it was a complete and utter disaster in defence and something they will be need to work on a lot before next weekend, with a trip down in Swindon before travelling back home for the MK Lightning game on the Sunday.





PODCAST: http://manchesterphoenix.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/psurny-miss-bee-hives.html


Official report: http://www.manchesterphoenix.co.uk/news/2388/phoenix-take-sting-bees



PHOENIX TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSMSw73ywzY&feature=share&list=PL23E7AB00900A01EF

English Premier League		GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Guildford Flames	25	18	0	2	5	120	74	38
2	Manchester Phoenix	23	15	2	2	44	112	62	36
3	Basingstoke Bison	23	14	2	2	5	92	64	34
4	Milton Keynes Lightning	22	12	2	0	8	83	72	28
5	Bracknell Bees	24	7	2	3	12	75	95	21
6	Slough Jets	24	9	1	1	13	84	96	21
7	Sheffield Steeldogs	24	8	2	1	13	78	102	21
8	Swindon Wildcats	23	6	3	1	13	66	84	19
9	Peterborough Phantoms	23	7	0	3	13	76	104	17
10	Telford Tigers	23	6	1	0	16	60	93	14