Manchester Phoenix 3 Tigers Hockey 5
A nightmare weekend for the Manchester
Phoenix saw the EPL champions’ weekend consisting of losing two
players to see their bench getting even shorter. There was also some inept
officiating which led to a controversial goal being awarded but the Phoenix
battled on and went down fighting showing their true championship spirit
against the Swindon Wildcats and champions-elect in the (Telford) Tigers.
After a 4-2 loss down in Wiltshire to
their bogey side Swindon on Saturday night, we saw the Phoenix up against the Tigers
the following evening. Phoenix came into the match missing defensive duo
Captain Luke Boothroyd with a long term injury and Joe Graham, who had suffered
a shoulder injury in the Wildcats game the previous night. There was some good
news for the Phoenix as Jacob Corson-Heron dressed for the game following his
fractured jaw at Telford a couple weeks back.
The Tigers,
who have dominated the league with an iron fist this season, rolled into
Altrincham for which they probably expected a routine win due to the crippling injury
crisis that has plagued the Phoenix in recent weeks. What the Tigers hadn't
counted on was that the Phoenix hadn’t read the
script and shocked their opponents with their battling qualities and never say
die attitude, which frustrated the Tigers throughout the game.
Phoenix played
a smart game against the league leaders and saw their plan in the first half of
the period at least working out for them. With Jonathon Weaver sitting in the
penalty box for the Tigers, the home side scored the opening goal of the game
on a power play, with a Robin Kovar wrist shot beating Tom Murdy in the visitor’s goal and
gave the Phoenix a 1-0 lead at 3.31 with Frankie Bakrlik assisting on the
opener.
Tigers were knocking continually on
the Phoenix door and saw Steve Fone on top form to stop the wave of attacks on
his goal and the hosts stood firm against a strong Tigers forward line. Unfortunately for the home side they
just couldn't keep those pesky Tigers out for long. After Johan Burlin
picked up a needless interference call this gave the Tigers an extra man
advantage. They drew level through a Nathan Salem strike at 12.17 with Rick
Plant and Sam Zajac getting credited with the assists on the goal. At 14.18 the
visitors then took the lead in the match with a Biashoslav Novak effort while
unmarked to tap home at the back post to see Tigers go 2-1 up.
After one period of hockey the Phoenix
did well to subdue their opponents and stopped their rivals taking over the
game as was expected. The start of the second period saw a blow to Phoenix as
they lost the services of Czech forward Michal Psurny through illness and
another player was added to the injury list.
Phoenix came out a bit brighter at the
start of the second period and saw them have a half chance with Tigers
netminder Tom Murdy making a stop to deny an equaliser for the home side.
Phoenix did tie the game up at 2-2 and the goal came from an unlikely source in
defenceman James Neil. A pass from the side of the net by player-coach Tony
Hand saw the Nottingham-born player put in at the far side to net his first of
the season and make the game level at 25.27. With the game getting tighter and some calls on
both sides getting missed by the officials, Frankie
Bakrlik then got penalised for a Hooking call at 30-35 and gave the Tigers
another power play opportunity. Tigers then made it two from two on the power
plays, though their third goal had more
than a degree of good fortune about it.
Linesman Carrington could have had the
Phoenix supporters asking ‘if he`d been to Specsavers’ as he made an absolute howler of epic proportions
for the Tigers third. A Tiger’s player was struggling to get back
onside and tried “stretching” a skate to the blue line, but was unable to reach and ended up a
good two feet from the line. Phoenix fans were right to be
furious with the missed call as with play continuing and a scramble around the
nets, Sam Zajac threw the puck back across goal and saw Steve Fone helplessly
divert it into his own nets for a 3-2 lead at 31.48 and drew massive boos from
the Manchester crowd who were up in arms.
The home fans felt the decisions were
going more against the Phoenix and more in favour of their opponents. With the
Phoenix fans urging their team with fantastic support throughout the whole
game, there were two incidents both involving Rupert Quiney and Ben Wood.
Firstly, Quiney put in a heavy hit on Wood by the boards which looked to be a
check to the head, but Wood got on with it and proceeded to answer back emphatically
with one of the biggest centre ice hits seen for many a years at the Altrincham
Ice dome and had the building rocking. That hit got the fans going in the
stands and even drew approval from some of the Tigers players themselves on the
bench, as the check at centre ice was a good clean, heavy hit and had Quiney
returning to the bench
With the final period left to play and
the score separated by only one goal, the Phoenix seemed to draw some kind of
momentum from keeping it close. Despite Tigers missing one man from their
line-up that has scored more hat tricks against Manchester than anyone else
this season in Jason Silverthorn, Tigers didn't have the same threat as in
previous games against Phoenix.
Tigers then opened up a two goal
cushion on their hosts, when former Phoenix man Scott McKenzie was set up by
another ex Manchester player in Joe Miller and his pass found McKenzie open and
he found the twine to make it 4-2 to the visitors at 41-18, which looked like
the goal that would kill off any hint of a comeback in the match at all for
Phoenix. The hosts though battled valiantly with their short bench to keep pace
with a fresher and powerful Tigers side but it was evident that tiredness had
got to a couple of players by the third period.
Rick Plant then decided he wanted to
get to know James Archer that little bit better. After a hit on Archer by the
boards, this then led to the Phoenix man shoving him back and Plant then tried
to pull the Phoenix player’s shirt off his back. This saw him sitting
out a penalty for Roughing. Not long after the Rick Plant penalty had ended,
Phoenix then pulled a goal back through Jack Watkins after the young forward
managed to flick the puck past Murdy into the back of the net to bring them
within one goal of tying the game at 50.55 with James Archer and Shaun Thompson
assisting.
Manchester then had the momentum in
their favour and the Tigers looked rattled following the goal and it seemed
like Phoenix had gotten a second wind. However the wind was soon taken out of
their proverbial sails, as a tired clearance by James Neil saw the puck fall to
Joe Miller and the forward finished it off to see the Tigers move 5-3 ahead at
53.30 and left Neil devastated with the error and mixed in with tiredness, saw
him fall to the ice. Phoenix tried to force one more goal
scoring attempt, but the well ran dry and the victorious Tigers side took the
two points on offer but knew they had fought a tougher battle
than the previous two meetings with the Phoenix.
After the game Tony Hand gave his
thoughts about the game and said:
"I could not be more proud of the lads
tonight. They gave their all and worked so hard all evening. Credit to Tigers,
they are a good side and used their bench to good effect all game. We will take
positives from this game and put some good practice in during the week in
preparation for the Bison and Steeldogs games.
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Manchester : James Neil 1+0, Tony Hand 0+1, James Archer 0+1, Adam Walker 0+1, Robin Kovar 1+0, Shaun Thompson 0+1, Frankie Bakrlik 0+1, Jack Watkins 1+0.
Telford: Sam Zajac 1+1, Rick Plant 0+1, Jonathon Weaver 0+1, Max Birbraer 0+1, Rupert Quiney 0+1, Dan Davies 0+1, Joe Miller 1+1, Scott McKenzie 1+1, Nathan Salem 1+1
Goaltenders:
Man: Steve Fone - 52 (5) Tel: Tom Murdy 33 (3)
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