MANCHESTER PHOENIX 2 - 5 BASINGSTOKE BISON
KOVAR, ARCHER LONG,RAND,BAIRD,KARPOV, CONNOLLY
The Sunday saw Manchester Phoenix renew their rivalry with the
Basingstoke Bison as the Cup winners took on the EPL Cup champions to decide
which team would be the double winners for 2014 in the English Premier League.
Manchester from the off looked the brightest side in the early
part of the game, as they were putting the Bison side under pressure but nothing
to really make Dean Skinns in the Basingstoke nets, having to save many shots.
The Bison then managed to get themselves back into the contest with
them beginning to be the most threatening side in the opening twenty minutes of
play, with the Manchester defence putting up a good rearguard effort and also had
Steve Fone putting up a good resistance to the Basingstoke shooters as well.
Andrew Melachrino was the first player to head to the penalty box,
after he picked up a Slashing call at 10-05 and saw Phoenix unable to make any
inroads on their powerplay opportunity at all.
Richard Bentham then took a Slashing penalty at 15-30 to see the Phoenix
on the penalty kill and one that they successfully killed off too, with Fone making
some saves as well with the Phoenix defense standing firm.
Both sides headed to the locker room feeling pretty pleased with
not conceding and also at how their general play was going.
In the Second period, Phoenix found themselves shorthanded with
Frankie Bakrlik sitting for two minutes as he picked up a Tripping call and saw
Andrew Melachrino blatantly soon after commit a holding penalty on James Archer
as he held the forward while near the Bison goals and so he headed to the box. He was out shortly after though, with
Manchester taking the lead though a tap in from Robin Kovar on the powerplay at
28-47.
This saw Basingstoke come charging back into the contest as they
rocked the Manchester Phoenix as they
inflicted a couple of goals of them and they Manchester suffered a traditional
second period collapse, with them conceding two goals in as many minutes and it
proved to be the turning point in the game.
First off Ciaran Long capitalised on a big Andy McKinney mistake
in his own zone, with the former Phoenix man dispossessing the fallen McKinney
of the puck and Long made Phoenix pay and so put the puck past Fone in the
Phoenix nets to see Bison level it at 1-1 which 29-13 gone.
Things got worse for Manchester a couple minutes later, when
Miroslav Mantroba was serving a Holding penalty and during a poor powerplay by
Phoenix, it seen them sloppily caught out, with Joe Rand skating up ice before
being hooked down by Robin Kovar while through on goal, to see a penalty shot
awarded for the Bison and one that saw Rand take the penalty and slot it
through the legs of Fone for a 2-1 lead at 31-36.
Manchester switched to survival mode as the Herd were all over for
them the rest of the second, with the Phoenix much like a boxer. If it was a
boxing referee then he would have stopped the contest, with Doug Sheppard side
pounding away on the League Champions.
In the final period it saw the Bison continue to up the pressure
on their opponents with Manchester short bench counting more than ever as
players were struggling to get to the bench at times, while the Bison got
stronger as the game went on. Phoenix lacked any pace in the game with Jack
Watkins and Liam Chong speed being one factor that were missing in abundance,
which saw the Bison outplay their opponents.
Manchester scored another powerplay goal with James Archer scoring to
make it a 2-2 game and was as good as it got for the men from Manchester, with
the men from Hampshire moving up a gear or two to take the final by the scruff
of the neck and plough on.
Joe Baird put the Bison back in front at 47-53 as a face-off win
by Arron Connolly saw Joe Rand pass back towards Baird on the blue line and he
just threw the puck on goal and it beat Fone who was screened by players and
saw the Skydome Arena erupt with a large majority cheering on the Basingstoke
Bison.
Tomas Karpov then made it 4-2 as his slapshot beat Steve Fone whom
it seemed, didn`t expect the shot coming or was screened by a player. Fone got
a piece of the puck but the shot was unstoppable and so was unable to make it
stick and saw the puck fly into the net at 50-01.
With time running out for the defending Playoff champions, they
managed to pull a goal back and make it tense finale at 4-3 as Robin Kovar
netted at 56-49, it showed that they were not giving up their crown without a
fight and would fight to the end in what would be a losing effort.
James Neil who took a blast to the foot in the Semi final was rumoured
to be out of the final with a bad injury, but the youngster showed his will and
grit to play in the game. He was one of
the stand out players for the Phoenix as they relinquished their crown to the
Basingstoke Bison as Manchester played their final card in an final attempt to
draw level, with them throwing the extra attacker on and saw Bison steal the
puck and went on a 3 on 1 break. Bakrlik was last man back and guarded an empty
net and tried his hardest to block any attempt on goal by Bison but Connolly
fired into the empty net to start the celebrations off with 59-58 gone in the
game to see them win the Playoff trophy 5-3, while Bakrlik lay distraught on
the ice as did a couple of Phoenix players with the loss.
It also saw Manchester`s Czech defenseman in Rob Schnabel bow out
to as he was retiring from the game after the final, but he received an
tremendous ovation from the Manchester Phoenix supporters as he skated off one
last time before the Phoenix players performed their traditional victory celebration
for one final time this season. Basingstoke were worthy winners of the
playoffs, but Manchester with what they had left gave every drop of sweat and
energy they had to hold onto their crown and saw them finish the season with a League
title, which is a brilliant effort with one of the smallest squads in the
entire EPL.
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