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| Phoenix Frankie Bakrlik takes down MK's Grant McPherson |
MANCHESTER PHOENIX 5 - 1 MILTON KEYNES LIGHTNING
Another
convincing home win by the Manchester Phoenix saw them overcome a frustrated MK
Lightning side 5-1 with Czech forward Robin Kovar netting twice in the win.
After a successful past week that saw them beating the Swindon Wildcats twice in
six days, it saw their second victory coming in a resounding 10-5 win in the
British Cup semi final. However it saw them unable to make it a three game sweep,
with the Wiltshire club beating their opponents at home after some unfortunate traffic
problems that hampered their preparations in a 4-2 lost at the Link Centre.
Manchester
wanted to bounce back after their disappointment and saw a fairly even start with
both teams having early attempts on goals, with both the Stephen's in Fone and
Wall keeping the puck out of their respective side’s nets. Manchester was
beginning to control the game, but when player-coach Tony Hand got caught in
possession in his own zone, it saw the Lightning man being denied by Steve Fone
who had a stunning game between the pipes for Manchester in the contest and was
deservedly man of the match.
Manchester had a couple of early power play chances going begging, to which they spent too much time passing and trying to work it around far too slowly and saw them unable to create any shooting opportunities with the extra man advantage. At 9.44 the home side took the lead through a Bobby Chamberlain goal, after good work by Adam Walker saw his pass towards the front of the goal diverted on net by Chamberlain and was stopped by Stephen Wall, but Chamberlain tapped home from his own rebound for 1-0 lead with Jacob Corson-Heron getting the extra assist on the goal.
A
Crazy passage of play saw chaos at the front of the Lightning’s goal, as James
Archer fanned on a shot, when Wall was out of position and when the netminder
was scrambling to the puck away from danger, the hosts had at least three
chances in short succession but was unable to convert with their efforts.
The
contest also witnessed a strong defensive effort by the Phoenix in the match,
as for the best part of the season the defensive aspect of the Manchester side
has seen them come under some scrutiny for their record of leaking goals this
year. That part of their game was tested,
when Ben Wood picked up a tripping call at 13.48 to see the penalty unit out on
the ice and saw them doing their job well to kill off the MK power play, with
Steve Fone making some important stops.
At
18.39 we had the first controversial moment in the game, when John Connolly was
given a match penalty for a high sticks call, with the Lightning man catching
Adam Walker in the face with his stick and drawn blood to which the referee Tom
Pering called Walker over and ejected Connolly from the game. From there the Phoenix had a five-minute power
play to use and less than a minute into it
Robin Kovar’s wrist shot from the blue line beat a screened Stephen Wall
in the visitor’s nets to see the hosts 2-0 up with Tony Hand and fellow Czech
Michal Psurny picking up assists.
With
the hooter sounding, it saw a fair few disgruntled Milton Keynes players still
not happy over the call to kicking their team-mate out of the match and after a
lengthy discussion; Pering gave a bench minor for abuse of official at 20.00,
to see the away side on a five on three penalty kill. Manchester produced a
shocking power play effort to start the second period, with no shots coming in at
all with a two man advantage, after cries from the home fans urging their side
to ‘shoot’. Shortly after, the home side
then had to defend against a five on three of their own, after Frankie Bakrlik
and Ben Wood made trips to the box for tripping and hooking offenses.
Milton
Keynes tried to get some pressure going on the home side, but the
Buckinghamshire club just struggled to make any meaningful head way on their
opponents, with Steve Fone standing on his proverbial head to keep the door
shut on the Lightning. Minutes later and
Shaun Thompson fired in goal number three for the home side, as after some
slick passing between the Czech duo in Frankie Bakrlik and Robin Kovar, it helped
set up Thompson to find the twine when in plenty of space and gave the Phoenix
a three goal lead at 37.27. Milton Keynes then had a couple of efforts on goal
with Ross Bowers being the nearest to the finding the net, as the forward just
pushed his effort wide of the post.
Some
frustrations were starting to come out on the MK side, with Chris Wiggins
taking the body a lot more than he had done and in Milan Kostourek, he was
always buzzing around but was lacking in anything in the way of threatening play
for the away side. It saw Kostourek showing
his displeasure moments later, after he had a whack at Fone on the whistle and
saw defenseman James Neil pushing him away to protect his goalie and the Czech
forward fell backwards on his backside and voiced his frustration over things. The
period ended with another solid defensive effort by the home side as they led
3-0 heading into the final period and was looking comfortable so far after 40
minutes of play.
In
the third period and the Phoenix was still holding their opponent’s back at arm’s
length, to which saw the Lightning showing their determination more to find a
goal from somewhere and their search proved fruitful, as when Leigh Jamieson’s
shot went in off Jacob Corson-Heron skate at the front of the Phoenix net, it
saw the Lightning ‘strike’ back and pull it back to a two goal game at 45.51
with Curtis Huppe and Grant McPherson assisting on the goal. Less than two minutes later and Tony Hand
restored the three goal lead for the home side, after the veteran managed to
bank the puck in off the legs of Stephen Wall at the near post and had the
netminder helpless to do anything to stop it going in at 47.43, with James
Archer claiming an assist.
Archer
then sat for two minutes after his attempted clearance went straight out of
play with the puck clearing the plexi glass and saw him collect a delay of game
penalty over it. Milton Keynes tried to
start up a play from behind their goal and when the puck was deflected into the
path of Robin Kovar just outside their zone, Kovar skated in on goal and fired
five-hole through the legs of Wall to make it 5-1 Phoenix and seal the win for
Manchester. Milton Keynes did have chances to bring it back closer with some chances
going begging, as Lewis Hook managed to balloon his attempt over the net when
he had an open net to aim at.
The
final eight minutes of the contest saw the teams beginning to let their frustrations
taking over, as after some dubious plays by certain MK players at the front of
the Phoenix nets, it saw a couple of players going to ground rather theatrically
and saw the referee raising his arm for a call against the hosts. With Bakrlik
picking up a call already on the play, he then collected another penalty after
he tripped up Milan Kostourek by the boards and from there saw the Lightning side
started to go after the Czech forward before a scuffle broke out and resulted
in Grant McPherson and the Phoenix man dropping the gloves. It saw a convincing
win for the Czech forward as he got the better of the Scottish forward and collected
a 2+2+2 for roughing, along with the MK man as well and a further couple of two
minute penalties with a cross check and tripping in the play prior to the
whistle going off to the hosts on the penalty kill.
As
the game seemed to just being played out by the sides, it then saw Milan
Kostourek checking Jacob Corson-Heron in the head and behind the play the two
had a good scrap. Corson-Heron who was clearly angered and aggrieved over the
hit by the Czech man, saw him land some good punches on his opponent, with
Kostourek obviously not bargaining on who he was messing with. The drama wasn’t quite over yet, as with Corson-Heron
sat in the penalty box with Bakrlik; Kostourek then attempted to spear the
Manchester man while he passing the penalty box and had Corson-Heron fuming
over the attempted spear. After a long
chat with the team captains and assistant’s, it led to the Manchester man
getting a 2+2 for roughing and a 10 minute call for incitement.
Meanwhile
in the case of Milan Kostourek, the Czech man collected a hefty 50 penalty
minutes over his actions, in which he was given a 2+10 for a check to the head,
a 2+2 for roughing as well as another 2+2 for attempted spearing and on top of
that, an extra 10 minute misconduct penalty which saw him given a Game penalty
for his second 10 misconduct call against him. Kostourek slowly left the ice
after getting hurt during the fight, but still had enough energy to shout some
comments from the locker room towards the penalty box. For the remaining thirty-seven seconds of the
game it passed off peacefully and saw the sides shake hands afterwards on what
was an entertaining game of hockey.
Man of the Match:
PHOENIX: Steve Fone
LIGHTNING: Lewis Hook
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