Manchester Phoenix 4 - 3 Basingstoke Bison
Sunday night
saw the Manchester Phoenix battle back twice in the game as Shaun Thompson
scored a vital double in the game to help take the game to an overtime period
before the home side won in a shootout 4-3, with James Archer and finally Adam
Walker netting the winning penalty to see the Phoenix yet again defeat the
Bison from a losing position. Manchester was
coming off the back of a disappointing 4-3 loss the night before in Sheffield,
in which saw the Phoenix leading on three occasions before the Steeldogs struck
back every time after two strikes by Frankie Bakrlik and a goal by Joe Graham,
that was till Janis Ozolins completed his hat trick to sink the Phoenix in
overtime.
It saw a
pretty torrid opening twelve minutes to the first period by the home side, as
they lacked any kind of edge to their play and despite two big hits by Ben Wood
the Phoenix lacked bite or anything to stir the home supporters, to which the
Bison in fairness didn`t play that well but they were just more clinical when
it came to shooting. There was a bizarre occurrence in the
first 18 seconds of the contest, when Frankie Bakrlik shot beat the netminder
and saw the puck go near the goal line and saw the red light come on and had
Bison netminder Dean Skinns fuming over the decision by the match official to
award it. After a discussion it was deemed that the puck had never crossed the
line and saw the start of the referee making poor decision making in the match.
Basingstoke
took the lead at 7.12 in the game, when some clear calls going missing on both
sides and then saw Joe Graham penalised when reaching out for the puck saw a
Bison player go to ground and had Paul Brooks who was wearing the armbands gave
a poor call for Tripping and from the resulting power play saw the Bison score. Joe Rand had a chance to score seconds prior to
the goal, but Stephen Fone in the Phoenix nets down made the initial stop from
Rand effort but when the red light flashed for a goal and went off it saw
Andrew Melachrino put home the rebound to make sure it was a goal and saw no
complaints from the Phoenix side over the goal.
Manchester had
a large majority of possession in the first period, but they just never looked
like scoring as Doug Sheppard side once again demonstrated their ability to
frustrate the opposition and was showing off how well drilled Sheppard had his
men. The Phoenix forwards looked toothless
and unable to get any type of meaningful shots off on Dean Skinns and saw the
visitors snuffing off the danger and keeping the home side to the outside. Bison then
doubled their lead at 11.56 when Doug Sheppard netted at the front of the net
to see the visitors go 2-0 up and looked on course to go onto victory. The game
did have a very similar pattern to the match earlier in the season, when the
Bison did the same scoring two early goals before being blown away later in the
game, so was history going to repeat itself.
Player-coach
for the Bison in Doug Sheppard put his side in good stead for the rest of the
game as him scoring the second so soon after the first, had the Hampshire
outfit on top in the game and saw Manchester player-coach Tony Hand calling a
time out and venting his anger towards his players and giving a few home truths
to his side in the thirty-seconds he had to force their way back into the game. Manchester
marginally improved towards the end of the period, but they hardly shown
anything that made you think they would get back into the contest at all after
the opening twenty minutes of play.
Second period
brought a better response from the home side, to which they had a bit more
purpose to their play in the middle stanza and saw calls that wasn`t going the
way in the first not getting some favourable calls for the Phoenix. It saw an
unsuccessful power play earlier in the period with Manchester given another
opportunity to score after Joe Baird was guilty of tripping up Bakrlik at mid
ice and was called weirdly given a penalty for Slashing. The power play
unit came back out soon after and saw Phoenix get back in the game after some
work from Shaun Thompson and Frankie Bakrlik, saw the Czech forward shot from
the blue line diverted in off fellow Czech mate Robin Kovar stick and so had
the hosts trailing by a single goal at 28.18. Basingstoke found themselves a man
down again, when Declan Balmer headed to the box for a Boarding call but the
better efforts came the way for the opposition as twice the Bison came close to
scoring, but Fone came up big for the Phoenix making two massive important
stops and had the Manchester netminder showing signs of him getting back to
form after injuries of late.
Bakrlik then
made the trip to the penalty box for the hosts after he collected a Interference
call that was unlucky to be called on, as a Bison player grabbed the Manchester
player stick and when Bakrlik was skating down the centre of the ice the Bison
player fell to the ice while still clutching the stick of the Czech man and the
referee penalised the Czech forward who was extremely unimpressed with the
call. At 39.56 it
saw the score line tied up with just four seconds of the period left to go, as
Ben Wood sent a pass towards Bakrlik and had Shaun Thompson then gather the
puck and make a nice little move on a Basingstoke defenseman in the Bison zone
to leave him one on one with Skinns and then the puck found it`s way in the net
for a 2-2 game and made it level for the start of the third period.
With the final
period starting off on a level keel, it had both teams creating chances and
needing the goaltenders to be focused on their game, with Skinns and Fone
playing very well indeed. Midway through the third there was a collision just outside the
Bison zone, in which Jack Watkins accidently caught Vantroba with a stray knee
and sent the Basingstoke Import down to the ice for a couple of minutes as the
player was in distress from the collision. Vantroba managed gather himself
together and had Watkins accepting his wrong doing, and had the opponents
understanding that it was purely accidental and saw the import helped to the
team bench to be checked over.
The power play
lasted just ten seconds as Tomas Karpov netted the third for the Bison, with
assists credited to Joe Greener & Joe Rand on the go ahead goal at
50.20 to see the visitors lead 3-2. Time was
running out on the home side to try and draw level in the contest and when
pushing forward towards the two minute warning, it saw Shaun Thompson at the
back post put home a loose puck at 57.31 and then took a hit from behind on the
play and left him down on the ice for a minute and was slow getting up after
contact. It saw from then on the game become an
extended overtime period in which neither side wanted to give up a late goal as
time ticked down. With 60 mins of hockey played it saw the game head into an
extra period of hockey and with both sides looking like playing for a point,
Robin Kovar was then caught out on a line change for the home side and saw the
referee penalise the hosts for Too Many Men, much to the clear annoyance of
Tony Hand as he gave Kovar both barrels from the ice towards the bench.
Manchester successfully killed off the penalty and saw the game go to a
shootout where the remaining point would be decided.
With the game
going to a shoot out, it saw Basingstoke up first and saw Steve Fone denying
Joe Rand while James Archer put home the Phoenix in front with their first
penalty to lead 1-0 after the opening round. Ciaran Long stepped for the Bison in the second
round of penalties and pulled out a few nice moves to bamboozle Fone and put it
home for 1-1. Frantisek
Bakrlik then took the second shot for the hosts, but he was denied by Dean
Skinns to leave it level heading into the final round of penalties. Tomas Karpov then took the final penalty shot for
the visitors and as he tried to go backhand on Fone, it seen Fone keep it out
with a pad save and so gave Adam Walker the chance to win the game for Phoenix
and he did just that, which his wrist shot beating Skinns stick side to win 2-1
on pens and 4-3 overall to claim the extra point on offer.
Manchester Phoenix Official match report: Listen Here
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