ICE HOCKEY: Wasteful Phoenix get bitten by the Dogs

MANCHESTER PHOENIX  2 - 3  SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS

An overtime winner saw the Manchester Phoenix beaten by their bitter rivals the Sheffield Steeldogs at the Altrincham ice dome on Thursday Night, as the side from the white rose county had more than Lady Luck on their side in the contest. The hosts posted 63 shots on the Steeldogs goal and dominated the game, yet they still unbelievably found themselves on the losing side as they went down 3-2 in overtime.

The pre match talk was how this game was going to be played after last week penalty strewn contest at Ice Sheffield, which saw 214 penalty minutes handed out between the two sides with Sheffield taking a 138 minutes if them in the match. 

From the outset it seemed like this would be much rather a hockey game than a repeat of their last encounter, with both sides testing the netminders Dalibor Sedlar and Steve Fone in the opening couple of minutes.

A Newcomer to the Phoenix this season in British forward Bobby Chamberlain, saw him ring one of the post with and had the Steeldogs defence having to be on their toes, with Manchester very much having their tails up so to speak.  With all the pressure they were putting on their visitors, it seemed a goal would eventually come and unfortunately for the home side it did but came the way of the opposition.  Adam Walker tried to play a blind pass and produced a turnover instead, just outside the Sheffield zone and saw the Steel city side drive hard with a counter attack, which saw the Phoenix defence having a lapse in concentration and allowing Lubomir Korhon to put the puck home with Andrew Hirst and Steve Duncombe assisting on the goal at 4:41 in the game.

Manchester then had a powerplay chance, after Cam Brownley was called for Slashing and with not much in the way of shooting with the extra man advantage it then saw Czech forward Frantisek Bakrlik fire an absolute rocket by Sedlar, but the pipework yet again denied the hosts a goal as his shot hit both goal posts.

Sheffield seemed to use a tactic from the Phoenix playbook, in which they countered with a quick rush up ice and try to catch the home side out, Phoenix did also contribute to their near downfalls it has to be said, with the defence failing to clear their lines and had Hirst collect a puck in the middle of the zone and when he tried to get a shot away all he could muster was a fanned shot.

Sedlar in the Sheffield nets was making a few good saves to help his side maintain a clean sheet in the contest, as the netminder dealt with a lot of low shots coming at him and despite him facing the rubber thirty times in the opening period, the shots didn`t have much conviction on them and had the Steeldogs doing a good job keeping the Phoenix shots to the outside.

Manchester struck the goal post for the third time in the period, as a Shaun Thompson effort came back off the post and had Sedlar scrambling to clear it away from danger and the hosts must have thought they were never going score in the game. 

Walker for the hosts had a good chance for the hosts after he managed to skate round the back line, but the Scottish forward tried to go high on Sedlar and his shot struck the face mask of Sedlar and so play was stopped dead. Greg Wood then picked up a High Sticks calls when he accidently caught Robin Kovar in the face from a face off, so that put the home side on a powerplay and yet again was unable to convert, with the Steeldogs heading  1-0 up after the opening twenty minutes.

Sheffield started to throw their weight around a bit in the second period, with player-coach Andre Payette being the main advocate in that aspect of the game, but he did get some back too when Ben Wood dished out a hit on the Sheffield man to show Manchester weren`t shying away either. Phoenix was still trying hard to find this opening goal and just about everything seemed to elude them in search of it, with Sedlar producing a few good stops and getting to all incoming shots.

Sheffield doubled their lead at 30.46 as it all came from a counter attack by Phoenix, that saw Michal Psurny skate down the right wing before passing across the front of goal to Tony Hand, but the player coach try to control it instead of shooting first time and saw him dispossessed, which then led to a break out by Sheffield themselves and Tim Smith and Lee Haywood combined to send the puck up ice towards Korhon which saw the forward finish it off to see the visitors lead 2-0.

Manchester was piling the pressure on in attack so much, that they were leaving big gaps at the back and was getting caught out a few times in the period, as Korhon nearly completed a hat trick himself but luckily for the hosts, Fone got a piece of the puck stopping him scoring. Sedlar then made a double save after a Kovar pass to the front of the goals for Bakrlik saw the goalie come up big to stop him and then make another save from the rebounded shot that came off his defenseman legs.

Finally the hosts scores at 36.41, when Phoenix was throwing caution to the wind and looking out of ideas, before another shot came off the pipe work from a Bakrlik shot and had Kovar with the presence of mind to quickly collect the puck from behind the goal and put it in for 2-1. Payette seemed to cost his side the goal, with the player coach sacrificing his defensive duties as he instead persisted in trying to wind up Johan Burlin on the blue line.

We then had a bizarre call from referee Andy Miller, when the official gave a Delay of Game call against Manchester during a face off and had both sides looking confused over the call, with everyone else in the rink confused as well.

In the third period the hosts pushed hard for the tying goal, and it became like the Alamo in the Sheffield zone with the Phoenix unrelenting pressure piling up. Chamberlain once more struck the post for the home side and it was a case now of not if but when the goal would come for Manchester.

Then at 46.40 the equaliser came in the shape of Captain Luke Boothroyd, when the Phoenix defenseman skated unchallenged in the Sheffield zone and saw the captain snap a shot over the shoulder of Sedlar to make it 2-2, and all to play for the remaining 13 minutes.

Phoenix had to kill off a 5 on 3 powerplay for Sheffield, with Chamberlain sitting for a Tripping call and then Boothroyd who picked up a mystery call for Hooking.

Payette then picked up his traditional penalty as he was called for High Sticks, and that gave Phoenix another powerplay, but they weren`t able to get anything meaningful on the goaltender at all, with some defending by the Steeldogs.

Then with 58 seconds remaining in the game, a couple of soft calls went again the home side with Joe Graham called for a Tripping on Lloyd Gibson which looked dubious, then Psurny checked the same player into the boards and had referee Miller call him for Boarding. Graham when he was called was irate while in the penalty box and as he slammed his stick with disgust, the official gave him an additional 10 minute call for Abuse of Official.

As we headed to overtime, it saw the visitors start on a 5 on 3 powerplay and had the referee seemingly give a makeup call for the two previous ones, as the three penalties given in the space of a minute was poor officiating, but saw Gibson penalised for Hooking at 60.11 to see a 4 on 3 powerplay for the visitors.

All penalties got killed off and saw the end of the game come soon after, with Gibson just come out of the penalty box as his penalty expired, and when the puck was played towards him in the neutral zone it then saw Gibson skate freely to unleash a shot that beat Fone down to this right side, and give the Steeldogs a 3-2 win in overtime and the extra point too. After the game and handshakes saw a little bit of a heated discussion between a couple of players and that saw both player coaches receiving 10 minutes each, with Hand receiving a Abuse of Official and Payette a Misconduct call.

It was very much a case of Manchester not being clinical enough in front of the net and as if you get 63 shots on target, then you should be burying at least five to ten shots in the back of the net. It had gone unnoticed, but Phoenix did move to the top of the table with the one point they picked up, but it is likely to be a short stay for Manchester, with the other title contenders looking more equipped than that of Manchester so far in the season.