Tuesday 11 February 2014

Phoenix shocked as 'Dogs Bite back!!












MANCHESTER PHOENIX         2- 3       SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS

(Kovar, Watkins)                                                (Korhon x2, Wood)



Manchester Phoenix lost their second successive home game in a row on Sunday evening as they were made to pay the price for some bad defensive lapses which led to their downfall against the Sheffield Steeldogs in the local derby clash.
Both sides faced one another last weekend and on that occasion saw the Steeldogs come out on top in a bad tempered game at Ice Sheffield where the home side came out on top 4-2 and was hoping to make it two victories in successive weekends.




The game saw the Phoenix take the game to their opponents with them outplaying and causing many problems for the Steeldogs defence, as the Manchester forwards tested Dalibor Sedlar in the 'Dogs nets early on which had Sheffield on the back foot from the off. Sheffield with their overzealous style of play are always susceptible to conceding penalties and so it wasn`t much of a surprise on both counts when the opening call of the match came against the visiting side and also on their Player-Coach and top Penalty taker at the Steeldogs in Andre Payette, as he was called for Roughing at 2-01.




Phoenix took a while to get going in their power play as Sheffield did well to stop the home side imposing their advantage on the away side for the opening minute of the penalty. Manchester didn`t make more of the extra man advantage, that despite Frantisek Bakrlik ringing the post with a laser from the blue line that saw the puck nearly fly back out towards the Czech forward from the shot.
Andre Payette is always in the thick of the action and shown he was going to be a thorn in the side of the home side after he put a big hit on Ben Wood near the boards, as Wood waited for the puck to be come loose and saw the player coach send the youngster flying backwards from the massive check. From that resulting play it saw Manchester go close, when Robin Kovar and Michal Psurny combined for Bakrlik to shoot at Sedlar and seen him make a good stop to deny the home side going ahead.
Phoenix was camped in the Steeldogs zone for a majority of the opening period and saw Manchester get another powerplay chance, when Steve Duncombe came right into the back of Kovar who wasn`t aware of the Sheffield man and was ejected into the boards and seen the referee call him for Tripping, which was a weird call.




During the power play a move by the Phoenix seen a blast from Frantisek Bakrlik on goal stopped by Sedlar and with the traffic at the front of the net, Sedlar lost his stick and with the puck falling loose towards Tony Hand just as he took possession of the puck, Sheffield Defenseman Ben Morgan then pushed the net off to get the whistled and play stopped dead. Home fans at that end wasn`t happy with what they saw, as it looked a blatant delay of game. But the referee didn`t see the incident and so he blew to stop the game dead. 
Sedlar himself was then warned over the same type of tactics, with the officials having got wise to the net coming off at a frequent rate and seen the shenanigans from the goal tender at least cease. All the play and possession was in the Sheffield zone and the pressure finally told when Robin Kovar was left all alone after a pass by Bakrlik, he then skated from round the side of the net to take it round Sedlar and slide it under him for a 1-0 lead at 15-38.




Manchester doubled their lead less than two minutes later when Lee Haywood tried a pass from out of his own zone, but his passed was knocked down into the path of Jack Watkins who skated into space and produced a lovely wrist shot that beat Sedlar up high over the shoulder in the top corner, to see the home side take a very much deserved 2-0 lead in the game at 17-11. With 41 seconds left to play in the first period an innocuous shot round the boards by Greg Chambers, then seen the puck harmlessly go into the Phoenix zone, where a upon a very poor attempted clearance by Joe Graham put his side in trouble in his own zone. Andrew Hirst was one of two Steeldogs players closing Graham down in the Phoenix zone as he plucked the lofted pass out of the air and then gave it Lubomir Korhon who tapped home at the side of the net, for a 2-1 score and was a massive goal for the Steeldogs as they weren`t in the contest at all.





In the Second period it seen another horror show for the Manchester defense, when the opening three minutes of the period seen them throw away a game that they were in full control of prior to the middle period. Sheffield tied the game up at 2-2 through the player deemed an antagonist by a majority of Phoenix fans in Greg Wood. It all came from Lewis Bell throwing the puck goal wards on Steve Fone and it seemed to catch out the netminder but not Wood, who jumped on the loose puck to put poke home and saw the "Second period syndrome" strike Manchester yet again at 22-45. Sheffield fans were still celebrating the tying goal when they were back on their feet again after a nice passing move by Lee Haywood and Andrew Hirst. Hirst quick pass towards the back post was then slammed into the Phoenix net by Lubomir Korhon for his second goal in the game for a 3-2 lead at came at 23-36 which had Manchester well and truly rocked and was just the plot too.




Sheffield was the aggressors in the game for a short time after as Manchester seemed to be in survival mode for a ten minute period after conceding two quick goals. For once Sheffield was using their hockey sense than their fists. Manchester`s defense was not so much all at sea, more like all out in the ocean somewhere as Sheffield shown their hockey ability for a time, where they had the home side run ragged and unsure of themselves too. Then we saw as always between these two sides emotions boil over ,where Rob Schnabel was called for a Clipping penalty at 30-07 and seen Ashley Calvert skate over towards the MUCH taller Czech defenseman over the clipping on Hirst. This then seen them drop the gloves and to be fair it wasn`t much of a contest.
The reach advantage was one of the telling factors in the bout as Calvert tried to throw a couple of punches but couldn`t land any on the taller combatant. That was till Schnabel caught the Sheffield man with a couple of big punches and sent him down on the ice with the Phoenix man falling on the Steeldogs man, before Schnabel seemed to lift him up and throw one more before Calvert seemed acknowledge defeat after he collected a cut and seen Schanbel then stop.




While the players were escorted to the penalty box tempers were beginning to fray still and seen a mini scrum start up around the fight, with both collecting 2 + 2 for Roughing and Schanbel getting the extra two minutes for the Clipping that started the fight in the first place.
Bakrlik joined Schnabel in the penalty box soon after when he and Craig Elliott had a coming together at the side of the net and seen Elliott refusing to let go of the forward stick and saw the Manchester man throw a punch which saw both side come over. That situation worked out well for Sheffield, with Manchester down two Imports for 2 minutes. James Neil then had a chance for the home side but saw his shot saved by Sedlar and saw the whistle blow after the netminder helmet came off.




Phoenix thought they had managed to grab an equaliser through Andy McKinney, after a break out from the home side saw McKinney skate in from the back post to shoot but saw Sedlar come to the rescue once more for the Steeldogs, making a great stop and frustrated the forwards. We then saw Rob Schnabel have his second disagreement with a Sheffield player in the game. With Callum Pattinson trying to provoke the Manchester man into another fight and saw after a lengthy discussion, both dropping the gloves with Pattinson seemingly wanting to hug Schnabel and then them both fall to the ice with the Manchester defenseman disappointed with the lack of fight by the forward, though it was another good situation for Sheffield with Schnabel off the ice.





In the final period Manchester then led an assault on the Sheffield nets and seen a pass across the face of the net fall to Kovar, whose strike hit Sedlar and then run across the goal line and saw Sheffield hold out. Psurny then tried to find room for a shot but he was crowded out by the Steeldogs defence and Sedlar made the save. Phoenix constant threat was wearing the Dogs out and when they were penalised for a Hooking call on Greg Wood, it seemed it was only a matter of time before the goal came for the home side. Bakrlik then tried to be inventive as his slow shot on goal struck the cross bar for Manchester and was the third time they had hit the pipe work in the game and second time in the period. In the dying minutes Phoenix had another chance as the puck went along the goal line once more with the Sheffield nets living a charmed life and how the home side never managed to tie the game is beggar’s belief.




With all the good luck that Sheffield had in the game, buying a lottery ticket would be high on their agenda as they would certain have the winning ticket as they did on Sunday and picked up a big win. An interview on Manchester Phoenix TV with the man of the match for Sheffield in netminder Dalibor Sedlar, had him admit himself " I was very lucky, we were very lucky tonight but happy we won this game." It was certainly an extremely frustrating night for the Phoenix but the positives was that they created good chances in the game and on another night maybe they may have gone in. Sheffield though, used their best tactic against Manchester which is to irritate and put them off their game as that has helped them win beat Manchester and shown they struggle to deal with it too.





Things move on for Phoenix as they face a tough 2nd leg in the EPL CUP Semi-Final against the Milton Keynes Lightning, to which they produced a dramatic comeback from 5-2 down to draw 5-5 last week in Coventry and set up another cracking game with Nick Poole`s men this Thursday.  




English Premier League

GP

W

OTW

OTL

L

GF

GA

Pts

1

Manchester Phoenix

40

24

4

2

10

180

118

58

2

Basingstoke Bison

43

24

4

2

13

160

130

58

3

Guildford Flames

43

22

4

3

14

174

140

55

4

Milton Keynes Lightning

42

20

5

2

15

160

139

52

5

Telford Tigers

42

18

3

0

21

147

151

42

6

Sheffield Steeldogs

43

15

2

7

19

155

183

41

7

Swindon Wildcats

41

15

4

2

20

142

144

40

8

Bracknell Bees

44

15

3

3

23

147

174

39

9

Slough Jets

42

15

1

2

24

137

179

34

10

Peterborough Phantoms

42

13

0

7

22

142

186

33













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