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| WAR OF THE ROSES BOWL pic via: sheffieldsteeldogs.co.uk |
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This
weekend kick starts the new Hockey season of Manchester Phoenix Hockey, as they
come up against their bitter rivals in the Sheffield Steeldogs in the
traditional curtain-raiser to the EPL season the "War of the Roses". Manchester travel
over the Pennines to the Steel city of Sheffield, where the current holders the
Steeldogs will host the 1st leg of the cup at Ice Sheffield, with the return
less than 24 hours later at the Silver Blades Ice dome in Altrincham.
Manchester
will be looking for revenge this season too, with last year`s War of the Roses
cup heading over to the white rose side of the Roses, with bragging rights going to Sheffield who won
the cup for the first time in it`s 4 year history.
Manchester
had won the first three previous WOTR cup battles and last season saw the
Steeldogs take the silverware home to Sheffield with a 2-1 aggregate win, with
the only goals coming in the away leg at Ice Sheffield where the
'dogs' won 2-1 on the Friday night and on the Sunday, the Phoenix
& Steeldogs drew a blank which resulted in Sheffield taking home the
bowl and having their name on the silverware for the first time ever.
League
meetings between the two have always been fiercely contest as well, as
Sheffield are a very chippy physical side and who love to get under the skin of
their opponents as well. As what
Sheffield lack in quality, they make up for in bagfuls in spirit and heart.
Sheffield
who are coached by ex-Manchester Phoenix player Andre Payette, Payette found
himself in a bit of trouble last season with the Phoenix enforcer`s , as in the
WOTR cup game at Sheffield Payette and Robert Schanbel dropped the gloves and
saw Schanbel edge the first encounter.
But
in the return dust up between the two a month or two after, Schanbel dismantled Payette who realised he
had come up against someone who he had bit off more than he could chew with.
The
Christmas time game between the two sides, saw one Derek Campbell make the move
over the hills from Sheffield to Manchester.
Sheffield decided to cut him for not being good enough, so he was picked up instantly
by Tony Hand and handed him his debut against his old employees to, which resulted
in him scoring 2 goals, 1 assist and get in a fight as well with Mr Payette in
a 5-3 win over the Steeldogs.
Phoenix
took the series overall winning 5-1, with an early season 9-1 win at the ice
dome wiping the memory out of the WOTR cup out of their system. However, they
suffered their worst ever defeat to the Steeldogs as they went down 8-4 in
Sheffield.
But
with both sides ready for a new season this WOTR cup should be highly
contested, especially with Sheffield getting a few games under their belt
already.
Games
against their academy teams the Spartans and Senators helped them along with fitness
ahead of tougher games against fellow Yorkshire side and an Elite League club
Hull Stingrays.
The
two games between them in the Bradfield Brewery Cup saw the Steeldogs lose 14-7
overall in the end, after a creditable 5-5 draw at home in the second leg in
Hull, the Stingrays then won 9-2 on home Ice.
Sheffield
have brought in Callum Pattison from ENL side Whitley Bay Warriors, for more
physical play and looks to be an extra enforcer to an already tough looking
side.
Greg
Wood returns to his hometown side as he looks to be the main agitator for the
Steeldogs, along with Steve Duncombe being the main antagonists in the dogs
side.
Up
front through, they have Czech forward Lubomir Korhon & Latvian Edgar
Bebris, that on their day they can cause a side a lot of damage and with the
addition of Greg Chambers to the line up from the Basingstoke Bison, they have
a very potent forward line which desperately missed Janis Ozolins goals last
seaso, with the club struggled to replace the 55 goals he scored the season
before.
Manchester
have a few new additions to their squad too, including 2 new Czech players to
go along with the other 2 Czech stars from last season in Michal Psurny and Big
Robert Schnabel.
They
are Frantisek Bakrlik from the Slough Jets, who posted 48 goals 34 assists along with 161 penalty minutes too.
The Litvinov native has also played in
the Elite League for clubs like the Hull Stingrays, Coventry Blaze and the Fife
Flyers before he moved to the EPL last season.
Second
player is Robert Kovar, who was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers back in 2002.
But despite an error somewhere along the way, he was undrafted and has spent
his hockey in Czech leagues or Slovakia.
Along
with the new signings, player-coach Tony Hand has announced this will be his
30th season on the ice and announced he won`t be playing every game this
season, as he wants to give the players a chance to progress in the youth ranks
too.
New
Brits added to the Phoenix line up are Jacob-Corson Heron from the Basingstoke
Bison, Joe Graham returns to the Phoenix ranks after spells at Guildford Flames
and Peterborough Phantoms.
Completing
the new arrivals at Manchester for the new season is Jack Watkins, who has iced
for the Fife Flyers and last term for another Scottish side in the Dundee Stars
both in the Elite League.
It
will also be interesting for him too in the opening weekend of the league
season, when he will come up against the Telford Tigers of who his brother is
the head coach of, Watkins at the meet the players night spoke of how it feel to
come up against big brother. Jack said "It will be pretty weird going up
against my brother for the first ever time, as I’ve played under him but never
against him. So I`m looking forward to it."
WAR
OF THE ROSES:
Saturday
night: Sheffield Steeldogs v Manchester Phoenix @ 7:30 1st leg
Sunday night: Manchester Phoenix v Sheffield Steeldogs @ 5:30 2nd leg
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