ICE HOCKEY: Phoenix Bring Down The Hawks

         

MANCHESTER   PHOENIX    12   -   5   BLACKBURN HAWKS

Manchester Phoenix picked up a confidence boosting win in the English Premier League Cup on Sunday night when they beat local rivals the Blackburn Hawk 12-5, Czech Forward Frantisek Bakrlik bagging four goals for the hosts and saw youngster Jared Dickson scoring a 2nd period hat trick too in the big win.

Over the years matches between the Blackburn Hawks and the Trafford Metros or Manchester Storm, always produced physical and gruelling encounters and the start of this game saw that trend continuing. The atmosphere in the rink certainly had that feel of a derby occasion with a big crowd inside the Altrincham ice dome and had plenty of Hawks fans making the journey down the M61 to renew an old rivalry. Despite the fact the teams are separated by one league, it saw the league leaders in the National Ice Hockey League North Moralee (NIHL) division, taking on the reigning English Premier League Champions and the opening period saw them evenly matched and made a thrilling opening period.

It witnessed incredible start to the game, that saw the visitors take the lead with just 10 seconds gone in the match, after a mix up involving Phoenix Captain Luke Boothroyd and netminder Declan Ryan, that led to the puck going through the legs of the netminder as he was unaware of where the puck was and it stunned the home fans. Blackburn had a little purple patch, in which they were extremely dangerous going forward and had the nonexistent Manchester defense getting caught out on numerous occasions. Phoenix though levelled the game up at 4-36 when Frantisek Bakrlik scored his first of the night with a lazer shot that went over Daniel Brittle shoulder and pinged in off the pipe work to make it 1-1.

One soon became two, as fellow Czech forward Robin Kovar grabbed the 2nd Manchester goal at 5-01 with Shaun Thompson picking up an assist to help the hosts go in front. Blackburn though wasn't going to cave in after shipping in two quick goals and so saw the top scorer for the NIHL side in Adam Brittle, fire in an equaliser that tied the game up and saw a crazy opening to this derby clash. Manchester then seemed to use the second Hawks goal as a big wake-up call in the game, and from that point onwards they seemed to be focused more in the contest. Bakrlik then made it 3-2 to Phoenix with 7-32 gone in the game, as Bobby Chamberlain and Luke Boothroyd were credited with assists as the import forward grabbed his second goal of the game and saw him displaying his deadly finishing ability.

Blackburn much to their credit never gave up and had a couple of chance on Declan Ryan, with the netminder seemingly to be a bit rattled by the early goals conceded at the start. The Hawks had a bit of family affair in their ranks, with Daniel between the pipes and had Adam and Luke causing trouble upfront as they were connecting well and saw Ryan and his defence, having to make some defensive blocks. Jack Watkins then slipped the puck under the goalie for 4-2 to the hosts at 9-50 in the period, after a lovely pass by Adam Walker across the face of the goal saw the young British forward skate to the front of the net and push it goal wards for a nice Phoenix move, that saw them open up a two goal cushion.

Ollie Lomax of the Hawks then picked up a Hooking penalty and saw the Phoenix have a powerplay opportunity, to which Bakrlik fired into the back of the net to see the Czech man complete his hat trick with the assist on the goal going to Thompson at 16-00. In truth the score line seemed to be a tad harsh on the Blackburn side, as they weren`t getting outplayed totally by their rivals, they was punished by the EPL side who just had too much quality for them and jumped on the errors. The opening 20 minutes of the game saw a very entertaining game of hockey and had the Phoenix lead 5-2.

If there any questions about the difference in quality between the EPL and the NIHL sides, that question was answered in the second period when the Phoenix blitzed the Hawks with Six goals during the period that all but finished the Hawks off.  The period also witnessed an unlikely hat trick hero in the form of Jared Dickinson, as the young Salfordian forward bagged his first hat trick in Phoenix colours, in just under 8 minutes to see the crowd erupt for the Phoenix forward. In the remodelled EPL Cup tournament, the format is a good way to give extra ice time to the younger players in the squad that may not have been given much playing time so far, and blood junior players too. Dickinson however made full use of his ice time and grasped it with both hands, as his second goal shown he had grown in confidence a lot and saw a nice little move on Brittle that made it 7-2 to the home side .

Adam Brittle then launched a bolt from the blue line that nearly took Ryan head off in the Phoenix goals, as the puck struck the underside of the bar and bounced in to give the travelling Blackburn fans something to cheer in the middle period, as it was one a painful one to watch for the Hawks, as the strike made it 7-3 at 28-55 with Chris Arnone picking up an assist. Dickinson then scored his hat trick goal at 29-52, with Thompson picking up his third assist of the game along with James Neil, to see the hosts moving towards double figures. Manchester scored three further goals in the period, with Bakrlik, Kovar and Chamberlain all netting for the hosts, and saw the score at the end of the second period reading 11-3 to Phoenix and was very much all one way traffic in the middle stanza.  We did see a little tiny bit of needle between the players, as Adam Walker and Pavel Slowik had a little disagreement and saw Walker clearly annoyed with the Hawks import defence man as they tangled going for the puck and led to him shoving the Blackburn player on his derriere and led to both being penalised after the whistle.

With some people wondering if the Phoenix would ease up or try to aim for their club record score, it then saw the Hawks make a mini fight back as Blackburn struck back twice quickly in succession with Adam Brittle netting at 43-15 and then Jared Owen making it 11-5 to the home side at 43-27, as Luke Brittle grabbed an assisted on it. Less than a minute later, the Phoenix responded through Bobby Chamberlain who put in a excellent shift during the build up to the goal and seen him make it 12-5 to the EPL Champions. It saw also the under 18`s getting more ice time than in previous games, as it gave them gain valuable experience with Mike Gilbert going close a debut goal at the back of the second period. Richard Ravey was then called for Hooking at 47-06 and looked a very poor decision by the match official, which led to Luke Brittle talking out of line to the Steve Brown and subsequently saw him pick up a 10 minute misconduct call for Abuse of official.

Overall, a good confidence boosting win for the Phoenix saw them end the weekend on a high note, after they suffered a 4-3 loss down in Basingstoke and sees them next weekend making the trip up north to Scotland to face the Solway Sharks, before the hosting the big spending Telford Tigers at home. Man of the match went to Adam Brittle of the visiting Hawks and Jared Dickinson for the home side, as it saw the forward lead the traditional ‘Phoenix wave’ as they send their fans home happy with a win over their long time rivals.