War of the Roses 2nd Leg: Psurny double sinks Sheffield, but Steeldogs retain Cup

WAR OF THE ROSE BOWL

MANCHESTER PHOENIX 4 - 3 SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS  

For the Manchester Phoenix in the 2nd leg of the War of the Roses cup it was a case of  "Winning the battle, but losing the War", as for the second season in a row the Sheffield Steeldogs took home the War of the Roses cup winning on aggregate, 8-6 but losing on the night 4-3 to Manchester.

Phoenix had an uphill task of having to try and pull back a 3 goal deficit from the 1st leg in Sheffield, as they were trailing by a score line of  5-2 at Ice Sheffield.

Unsurprisingly the game was played at a fast physical pace, with heavy hitting from both sides as they tried to gain an early advantage in the game. Steeldogs style of play will always draw penalties and so it did, as Greg Chambers was sent to the box  early in the game for Hooking.

Moments later, Greg Wood then went in the box for Cross Checking and this time round on the Powerplay, the Phoenix capitalised with the extra man advantage with Frankie Bakrlik blasting one from the blue line to make it 1-0 on the night 5-3 overall, with James Archer and Robin Kovar given assists on the goal.

Then fairly quickly after the goal chaos ensued not for the first time in this game, as a hard hit by Kovar on Greg Wood against the Steeldogs bench was met with fury by Wood and a few Sheffield player`s, who tried to retaliate and saw both sides getting involved as a scrum developed with the teams, before James Archer and Wood got into a heated discussion. 

Lee Haywood then caught Archer with punch and Robin Kovar wasn`t having none of that, as he grabbed Haywood and pounded on the Sheffield man as he went to Ice quickly covering up. Kovar continued to throw the punches on him as the officials struggled to stop him, this led to the Czech forward getting kicked out ofnthe match, picking up a 5 + Game for Roughing, while Wood and Archer both received 2 each minutes for Roughing at 4-49.

We then had another incident in the game, when Bakrlik gave the netminder a nudge on the whistle and Lloyd Gibson skated over and performed a Check to the Head on Bakrlik as well as throwing 4 or 5 punches on the Phoenix man while he was down on the ice, an exact replica of what Kovar had done, but the officials didn`t see it due to the Sheffield players and Phoenix player around the scene of the incident. Gibson earned himself a 2+10 minute penalty for the illegal hit to the head at 5-50 and was lucky to still be on the Ice too.

We then enjoyed some hockey that was played out, as both sides calmed down a bit with both sides having chances to score, but were denied by the opposing teams netminders. Andre Payette then boarded Robert Schnabel 11-36 which was borderline for a checking from behind call against him. 

At 12-03, Lubomir Korhor skated up ice and nearly through on goal, but the Slovakian was hooked down by Frankie Bakrik to which Korhorn took exception to and went after him and so after a scrum of players pushing and shoving some more, it was decided by referee James Ashton that it was Penalty shot and no penalty would be given against the Manchester player.

However, Korhorn found himself in the box for Roughing after he went for the Phoenix man in the lead up to the penalty shot, So responsibility fell to Greg Chambers to take it for the Steeldogs and he put it top shelf to tie the game at 1-1 and restore their 3 goal lead in the tie (6-3) overall.

Phoenix once again went ahead through an Andy McKinney goal, that was caused by a spill by Dalibor Sedlar in the Steeldogs nets and seen the puck fall to McKinney who put it home for 2-1 at 17-19, with Liam Chong added with the assist.

Sheffield then scored with under a minute to go in the first, with Korhor scoring five-hole on Steve Fone for a 2-2 scoreline at 19-03, with Korhorn stealing the puck off Schnabel to convert and bring an end to a roller coaster period of hockey with a fair few talking points and goals.

Second period of play saw was a more calmer period by the two clubs, with the game seemingly a mirror image of the 1st leg, with Manchester looking to do the attacking much like in Sheffield the night before in the period. 

Sheffield`s niggly play still continued on to a point, but not as much as earlier in the game as it seemed to be getting the pace taken out of it by Sheffield as they focused on defending and trying to hit the Phoenix on the break whenever they could again, much like in the 1st leg. The home side was pushing for this goal and were getting the luck in front of the net.

Bakrlik was then sent to the penalty box for a Boarding call which seemed harsh, as the 'Dogs' player had turned round and walked right into a hit that caused him to go backwards into the boards.

Phoenix were having to do some defending of their own now, as the Steeldogs pressed the home side back and some good work by Ben Wood in defence to cut out an attack for Sheffield saw him start off a move, with the Macclesfield-native chipping the puck to Player coach Tony Hand, who did a turn mid ice to collect the pass and from then on it was on a 2-on-1. Hand waited for Psurny to get up Ice and he eventually passed it cross ice with Sedlar comitting himself to the near post and left nearly a full net for Michal Psurny to aim at, which the Czech forward made no mistake from as he fired home for 3-2, to give the Phoenix a glimmer of hope in this cup match, with just 21 seconds left in the period and with no further action, the horn sounded for the end of the 2nd..

The third period saw both teams come out wanting to win this game, with Manchester wanting to try and set up a grandstand finish and see if they could pull another goal back. With Phoenix pressing hard and trying to get it to a one goal game in the tie, it was the visitors that scored with under 10 minutes of play left. As Greg Chambers coolly put the puck top corner of Fone left hand goal as he made it 3-3 with the Steeldogs tails wagging now.

With time ticking down and neither side wanting to make a mistake in the game now, it was going to take something good to score and it was, as with under 5 minutes of play and looking to be tied game, play from Bakrlik and Hand set up Michal Psurny, who had a small angle to work with but he somehow managed to put it high up in the Dogs goal for a 4-3 lead in the game and (6-8 in tie) at 56-41.

The goal seemed to energize the home team, so the final few minutes of the game saw the Dogs under the cosh with Manchester throwing men forward to try and find another goal.

Then with under 2 minutes left in the game, the Phoenix struck the post twice in 30 seconds as the Sheffield goals had really lived a charmed life this weekend, as it was the 5th time the pipework had pinged for the Phoenix.

Time had run out, but there was still time for some more shenanigans before the game ended, as Andre Payette tried to trip up a Phoenix player, which then led to Andy McKinney skating by and putting Payette on his backside and get called for Tripping as the referee spotted the incident, which led to Payette coming over to McKinney as he was led to the box and then as the linesman stopped him approaching the Phoenix man, Payette proceeded to celebrate the Cup victory early with 10 seconds left as the Sheffield player coach proceeded to hoist his stick across his head and celebrating like it was a trophy.

Horn sounded for a 4-3 Phoenix win, but a 6-8 aggregate lost, Greg Wood came up to receive the War of the Roses cup on behalf of the Sheffield Steeldogs and it was greeted with typical boos from their bitter rivals fans, as their side just found the three goal margain too much of a obstacle to drag back from. 

Manchester will hope to bounce back next weekend in the opening weekend of the new EPL season, with Telford Tigers away on the Saturday night at the Telford Ice Rink, followed up with a repeat home visit from the Reigning War of the Roses cup holders, the Sheffield Steeldogs in what will almost certainly be a feisty opener with league points on offer this time round.