Manchester Phoenix 8 Sheffield Steeldogs 2
Manchester
Phoenix completed a First period demolition job on their bitter local rivals
the Sheffield Steeldogs on Thursday evening, as the English Premier League
champions stunned their foes in their 8-2 victory scoring five goals in the
opening period of play to gain sweet revenge over their rivals after their loss
in Sheffield this past weekend.
It
was only five days ago that the two sides met in Sheffield and on that occasion
the Steeldogs won 4-3 in overtime through a Janis Ozolins hat trick, which saw
the Phoenix side unable to finish off their opponents despite lead three times
in the encounter. This game was the complete opposite and from the first puck
drop it was evident and the Phoenix had a much more determined look to them, as
they looked to have a lot more bite and intent to their play and that showed
for the opening twenty minutes of hockey.
Phoenix
spent almost the entire opening five minutes camped inside the Sheffield zone
with the Steeldogs finding it extremely difficult to clear the puck from their
end of the rink. In previous games against their opponents Manchester have
dominated play but luck in front of goals have always gone against them and not
got the result they deserved. This
occasion though saw the Phoenix grind their opponents well and truly into the ice
and destroy them from the first minute to the last.
All
the great work by the home side saw them eventually break the deadlock at 6.43,
when a Johan Burlin pass to Shaun Thompson saw the forward picking out Frankie
Bakrlik and he fired through the legs of Dalibor Sedlar to give the Phoenix early
lead. One became two 33 seconds later, with James Archer and Tony Hand combining
to set up Michal Psurny and the Czech forward made it 2-0 and the Phoenix were
flying in this ‘Roses’ clash already.
Bobby
Chamberlain then made it 3-0 to the hosts at 9.52 after some fabulous team play
from James Archer and Tony Hand, led to patience build up by the Phoenix and
when Hand spotted the movement of Chamberlain towards the back post it saw the
Hull born forward skating unchallenged to bang it into the back of the Steeldogs
net and give the home fans another chance to revel in their rivals misery.
Roll
on 3 minutes later and the Phoenix added a fourth goal to the scoreboard as
this time Jack Watkins struck a one timer past Sedlar to see Manchester
embarrassing their foes with goals that was all so clinically taken, and in
which the visitors just couldn`t get to grips with their opponents at all. The game as a contest was over in reality and
led to Steeldogs player-coach Andre Payette taking a timeout and gave his side
a serious dressing down on the bench over the play.
With
the Steeldogs looking to have shored up their defence after the timeout taken,
it then saw one more moment of brilliance by the home side and in particular
Ben Wood, as the Macclesfield born utility man finished off another tremendous
move by the hosts to move the Phoenix 5-0 up. Bobby Chamberlain and Adam Walker
between themselves worked well together to see a low pass played into Wood at
the front of the net and his back handed effort found twine at 19.43 to see the
Phoenix dominant after the first.
After
what was a nightmare period for the Sheffield side, it saw them replacing their
netminders as Dalibor Sedlar made way for Brad Day and saw them opening their
account at 23.07, when Andrew Hirst managed to force the puck in by Declan Ryan
after Lloyd Gibson assisted to see them gain a small amount of pride, as that
was pretty much all that they had to play for in the game.
Incredibly
the first penalty call of the game came in the second period, where Andre
Payette got sent to the penalty box after a Roughing call on Frankie Bakrlik, and
14 seconds later saw the Phoenix forward restoring their five goal cushion as
he netted with his second goal of the game with a blast from the blue line on the
power play.
Michal
Psurny had a couple of efforts for the home side to possibly extending their
lead in the game, but the pipe work came to the Steeldogs rescue on more than two
occasions in the period an so the score remain as it was. Just short of the midway point in the game it
saw Andre Payette trying to generate a spark in his misfiring team and seen Payette
pinning James Archer by the boards and trying everything to get the former
Sheffield player engaged in a fight, but in the end he failed to do so and
incurred a 2 minute for Holding and a further 10 minute call for Incitement.
James
Archer then picked up a ludicrous penalty off Tom Pering for Tripping after Lubomir
Korhon and him collided and saw both men crashing into the boards and had both
wondering what the call was over as the referee baffled both teams by the call.
Sheffield then scored from the extra man advantage, with the hero for the
Yorkshire club five days ago in Janis Ozolins netting for the Steeldogs as they
scored another consolation goal at 30.49 with assists going to Lee Haywood and
Lubomir Korhon for the Yorkshire outfit.
In
the third it saw pretty much both sides playing out the final stanza with
neither pushing themselves and so had them reserving energy for this weekend.
However though the scoring was far from over and saw the Phoenix scoring two
fairly quick goals, as James Archer netted goal number 5 on the power play
after another Payette penalty and then Joe Graham finished off the Steeldogs
scoring from a very tight angle to see him score the 8th and see the
Phoenix victorious in their derby clash and avenge their loss.
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Manchester Phoenix: James Archer 1+4 , Tony Hand 0+3, Bobby Chamberlain 1+2, Frankie Bakrlik 2+0 ,Michal Psurny 1+1, Ben Wood 1+0, Adam Walker 0+1, Joe Graham 1+0, Johan Burlin 0+1, Robin Kovar 0+1, Shaun Thompson 0+1
Sheffield Steeldogs: Andrew Hirst 1+0, Janis Ozolins 1+0, Lloyd Gibson 0+1, Lubomir Korhon 0+1, Lee Haywood 0+1
SHOTS ON GOAL:
MAN: Declan Ryan 26 (2) SHEFF: Dalibor Sedlar 21 (5), Brad Day 39 (3)
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