MANCHESTER PHOENIX 4 - 3 MILTON KEYNES LIGHTNING
An entertaining encounter with goals and a line brawl late on, saw the Manchester Phoenix prevail over the Milton Keynes Lightning 4-3 at the Altrincham Ice dome on Sunday evening.
Although this may not be put in with past
classics between the Phoenix and Lightning, it was certainly action packed for
sure with the Phoenix completing a 4 point weekend and a draining weekend to
for many reasons too.
It didn`t start all that great for the
home side, as they came out a bit sluggish and slow compared to their opponents
early on after their Roses victory the night before.
Phoenix was missing the services of young
Defenceman James Neil, who was injured the night before in Sheffield as he was
shoved head first into the boards, so the Phoenix were a defenseman down for
the encounter.
Their Buckinghamshire opponents saw
them play some very good hockey in the early stages of the game as they took it
to the home side with the home side not full up and running and due to that the
Lightning struck first, when they scored after a bit of good fortune saw the
referee get in the way of the Phoenix down the right wing, giving MK possession
and from it Janne Jokila jumped on the puck passed to Blaz Emersic, who put the
puck to the back post for Leigh Jamieson to tap in at 3:23 and gave Nick
Poole`s men the 1-0 lead.
Things got worse for the home side, when
Janne Jokila turned from provider to scorer as his shot to the far side beat Steve
Fone for a 2-0 lead for the MK Lightning at 8:25, with Jordan Cownie and Ben
Russell assisting on the Finnish forward goal in want was a quick counter
attacking play by the visitors as they
made a great start to the game and shown that Lightning does indeed strike
twice.
Michal Psurny was then sent to the
penalty box by the match official for Boarding at 9:55, this then put the
visitors on a power play to which the home side successfully killed off.
Eventually the home side grabbed a goal
to start them on the comeback trail as they got pulled a goal back,when the puck
was sent round the boards by Rob Schnabel, the puck came to Tony Hand he made a
quick pass to James Archer in the slot and Archer skated towards goal and shot
while down on one knee to accuracy one time it through the legs of Stephen Wall
for a goal and make it 2-1 at 12:57, giving them a footing back in the game.
Phoenix tied the game up with a delayed
penalty goal at 15:02, as a penalty against Milton Keynes defenceman Ross Green
was going to be called for holding Frankie Bakrlik by the boards. Play
continued on and saw the Yorkshire duo of Phoenix Captain Luke Boothroyd and
James Archer combine with Robin Kovar tipping in from Archer`s blast from the
blue line to make it 2-2.
Tom Carlon then headed to the box for
the visitors, as he was called for Tripping at 16:03, that was before Psurny
was then adjudged to have Hooked down a Lightning player at 18:13 and so for
the rest of the first period, the home side was on the penalty kill.
In the Second period of play Phoenix
took control of the game without finding the goal that would put them ahead in
the match, MK had glimpse of attacking threats with the closest coming from
Blaz Emersic, whose blast pinged off the goalpost and went away for the
visitors.
Manchester Phoenix were creating the
better chances of the two sides as it seemed like the Lightning had burn`t
themselves out early on in the game, when they took a two goal lead.
Ross Green was then put in the penalty
box for a Tripping call at 24:42 which gave the home side a power play opportunity
and a chance to try to take the lead for the first time in the game. Leigh
Jamieson took one for the team, as he Hooked down Michal Psurny to give the
Phoenix another power play opportunity and one they couldn`t capitalise on either.
 |
| Schnabel fists do the talking |
Play started to get a bit chippy then, with both sides looking to grab the advantage in the tight game, a penalty then came when a loose puck down by the corner in the Phoenix zone, saw Joe Graham and Janne Jokila battle for it with Jokila throwing what looked like an elbow to the head of Graham and the Phoenix man wasn`t too happy with it, as he slashed and shoved the MK player, with the Finnish forward drawing the penalty on the Manchester man for Roughing at 33:27.
The power play for the visitors didn`t
last long at all, as seconds later Lukas Zatopek was called for Holding, which saw
the Lightning man completely disagree with the call and so he sat in the box carrying
on his arguments and included some verbal abuse towards the official and in
doing so, picked up a 10 minute misconduct penalty at 33:37 as well.
The breakthrough goal came in the form of
Phoenix Captain and defenceman Luke Boothroyd at 38-42, the Phoenix Captain edged
his side ahead in this tight contest with Michal Psurny and Richard Bentham assisting
on it. Boothroyd picked up the puck just inside the MK zone and with him
waiting for the perfect shot then found the gap to light up the lamp for a 3-2
score line, giving the home side control from that point in the game.
The final period then saw an action
packed 20 minutes of hockey in a riveting game indeed, with goals and fights
all happening. Phoenix seemed to have finally taken the game away from the
Buckinghamshire club, when Tony Hand scored to give his men a 4-2 lead at 44:55
with Joe Graham helping on the goal. That should have been it for the away side
as the home side looked to have full control of the match at that point, a few minutes
later we had Phoenix forward Richard Bentham put in the box for Boarding at
48:55 as John Liptrott pointed him to the penalty box.
 |
| Line Brawl break out |
The last 10 minutes of play saw an explosive passage of play with the Lightning and Phoenix both having different tasks. Phoenix were trying to close out the game while M.K still in search of a third goal as they hoped to put pressure on the home side and their pressing paid off, with it resulting in a 3rd goal for the Lightning. Stanislav Lascek seemed to back hand it towards the back post and it hit the inside of the post and went in over the line for a one goal game with the score 4-3 to the hosts, with assists going to Lukas Zatopek and Tom Carlon at 55:22, however then it all kicked off!
At 55:44 in the game, an incident with
Frankie Bakrlik getting pushed along the boards by Ross Green, saw the Czech sniper
not happy at all and shoved Green behind the MK nets after the whistle was
blown and then we had Lukas Zatopek skate behind Bakrlik, pushing him into the
plexi glass and saw Grant McPherson get involved in as both him and Green went
after the Phoenix man.
Andy McKinney for Phoenix then came
over to equal the sides as he grabbed McPherson and then when Lascek got hold
of McKinney all three then fell to the ice, before Ben Wood injected himself to
the mayhem as he came over to pull them apart latching onto Lascek, from the
other two players.
Leigh Jamieson was holding Robin Kovar while
the Lightning captain was on the boards, which had Zatopek`s stick waving near
Kovar head and he then proceeded to punch the Czech forward in the back of his
head 4 to 6 times with no officials around to stop it, with Jamieson holding onto
Kovar.
Robert Schnabel then came over and
broke the grip of Jamieson as he outmuscled him and took him down the ice, while
an irate and angry Kovar got loose and saw the Phoenix man lose it as he looked
for Zatopek, who wanted no part at all of his fellow countryman and it showed
as he tried to go to ground avoiding the punches of Kovar, but Kovar wasn`t
letting his countryman get away without some form of revenge, as he managed to
throw a few punches on the MK player before he was separated.
 |
| Teams come towards end of Heated arguments |
Kovar threw one more punch before
heading to the box and was finger pointing towards the direction of Zatopek, while
Kovar was met by an angry Stephen Wall who came over towards him and confronted
Kovar who then gave him a mouthful back
too.
With the players in the box and gloves
and sticks lay strewn behind the nets, we then saw a ‘David v Goliath’ match up
in the form of the smaller Grant McPherson, offering to take on the huge Robert
Schnabel with the Phoenix man looking to call out Jamieson, who refused flat
out.
Credit where credit is due, McPherson
knew he wasn`t going to come out on top in the fight, but he tried to throw a
couple but couldn`t avoid the fast flying Czech fists of Schanbel, as he well
and truly pasted the young Scottish forward.
Phoenix in all the rough stuff showed
they meant business as in every battle on the ice that occured, the home side came
out on top in the encounter.
Tom Carlon and Andy McKinney nearly
dropped the gloves when words by Jamieson to McKinney wasn`t took well and saw
Carlon step in, before the officials stepped in. Rob Schanbel had disappeared to
the locker room by this point after he picked up a Game Misconduct penalty with
McPherson picking up 10 misconduct penalty for Inciting.
Both Czech players involved the line
brawl that being Robin Kovar for Phoenix and Lukas Zatopek for the MK Lightning,
both picked up 2+2 for Roughing in the brawl and a couple more penalties should
have been handed out that wasn`t called as the official had lost control it seemed of
the game.
Manchester were under the cosh for the
remaining two minutes of play, as Andy McKinney was called for Holding at 57:39
after Michal Psurny nearly made it 5 for the home side when only the pipework
deny him a goal.
Frankie Bakrlik collected a penalty with five seconds of play in the match left, for a Cross Checking call at 59:55 and meant the Phoenix were on a 6 on 3 penalty kill as the away side pulled the goalie looking for the tying goal.
Phoenix held on for a tough and hard
fought 4-3 win to complete a tough weekend for Manchester and meant a 4 point
weekend as well. As it saw two wins in two tough games over the weekend, which
started off with a win over bitter local rivals the Sheffield Steeldogs, as
Manchester picked up a 5-3 victory at Ice Sheffield which also saw Michal
Psurny score a hat trick in the game too.
The win leaves Manchester top, but
level on points with the Guildford Flames, along with the Basingstoke Bison
breathing down both their collective necks too in third place.
1
|
Manchester Phoenix
|
16
|
11
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
82
|
37
|
26
|
2
|
Guildford Flames
|
17
|
12
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
80
|
54
|
26
|
3
|
Basingstoke Bison
|
16
|
11
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
67
|
43
|
25
|
4
|
Milton Keynes Lightning
|
14
|
8
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
59
|
48
|
18
|
5
|
Swindon Wildcats
|
16
|
4
|
3
|
1
|
8
|
47
|
59
|
15
|
6
|
Sheffield Steeldogs
|
17
|
5
|
2
|
1
|
9
|
55
|
71
|
15
|
7
|
Slough Jets
|
16
|
6
|
1
|
0
|
9
|
58
|
65
|
14
|
8
|
Peterborough Phantoms
|
15
|
5
|
0
|
2
|
8
|
48
|
67
|
12
|
9
|
Bracknell Bees
|
16
|
3
|
1
|
2
|
10
|
41
|
69
|
10
|
10
|
Telford Tigers
|
15
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
11
|
42
|
66
|
8
|
PHOENIX PODCAST: http://manchesterphoenix.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/going-for-jokila.html
PHOENIX TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAM8hBYQjBQ
Line brawl from seat: http://youtu.be/QnL09DGb1b8
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