Ice Hockey: Thompson Late Strike Burns the Flames

MANCHESTER PHOENIX   5 - 3  GUILDFORD FLAMES

 

 

Sunday night saw the reigning English Premier League Champions (EPL) the Manchester Phoenix complete a rare home double this past weekend with victories over the Solway Sharks in the EPL Cup on Saturday night and then followed it up with a 5-3 thriller against the Guildford Flames, that saw a late go-ahead goal by Phoenix forward Shaun Thompson finding Its way in the back of the net for a big win over a top 4 team.

Phoenix who have had somewhat of a resurgence to form of late and looking much like them old selves kept that form going in the opening period of the game, as the home side got out of the blocks quickly and warmed the glove of the Flames net minder Gregg Rockman, as the Guildford shot-stopper was called upon to make some important saves in the opening couple of minutes of the contest, with the Phoenix still buoyed by that massive win last week over the Basingstoke Bison. 

Manchester came close to taking a lead in the game, but for the pipe work yet again denying the hosts of an opener and saw the game remain scoreless after the first five minutes of a Phoenix dominated period. Guildford it seemed was still in the locker room as they looked slow and out-paced by their opponents and was unable to make any kind of attack in the game with the Phoenix defense on top of the Flames forwards and held them  back at arm length so to speak in the game.

Eventually the deadlock was broken and came from back in inform Czech forward Michal Psurny, who scored his 100^th goal for the Manchester Phoenix the previous night in a 10-2 win over Solway, saw him scoring the game opener when play by James Archer behind the Flames back boards had the returning forward find Tony Hand and his pass found the man from the Czech Republic waiting near the far side of the net and put home from a tight angle to beat Rockman and give the home side a early 1-0 lead after 7-23.

Guildford then started to up come alive and started to enjoyed a bit more possession in the game, but nothing that really caused any kind of problems for the Phoenix, as the home side had to kill off a 5-on-3 power play, to which they successfully did with ease as Luke Boothroyd sat for Tripping and Johan Burlin collected a delay of game call, but no shots came on the two man advantage for the away side and so a tight one goal lead separated the sides at the break.

Second period saw a much better Guildford side turn up, as they started to create problems and should have really leveled the game up early in the second, when Steve Fone in the Phoenix nets was forced to make a pad save and the rebound fell straight to Andy Hemmings and the Guildford forward who had a majority of the goal to aim at and plenty time to shoot, but the forward could only find the far post instead and saw Fone managed to gather up the rebound quickly. 

The Flames if you pardon the pun, was fired up a bit more in the second and it showed as they seemed to edge their way back in the contest and in parts controlled the period with Fone now being was the netminder coming under pressure in the match. Phoenix seemed to weather the Guildford storm in the early part of the period as they looked to be getting back on track with play.

Manchester started to find to some joy then and forced Rockman into a couple of saves as they got by the Guildford back line on a few occasions, but they couldn`t find a way through. The visitors have always had the ability to score at any time with the fire power they have at their disposal and it was highly likely that they would reply at some point and they did. Their opener came from a trio of former Phoenix players and straight out of the Manchester playbook too, as Andy McKinney and Marcus Kristofferson battled along the boards for Guildford and when Johan Burlin lost an edge it gave Kristofferson enough time to play a lovely pass across the far side for Curtis Huppe to control and put home for the tying goal at 25-55, which saw the defensive inability yet again by the Phoenix to not have the back post covered.

crowd look on at the Altrincham Ice Dome during Phoenix/Flames match

Manchester seemed slightly stunned by the goal they conceded and had their opponents enjoy the play for the next few shifts of play. Phoenix though retook the lead again a couple of minutes later, when at 27-57 Tony Hand found James Archer and his shot on goal was stopped by Rockman, but the Yorkshireman battled for the puck at the front of the net and saw Michal Psurny on hand to sweep the puck into the net and grab his second goal and the Phoenix 2^nd of the game to get the large home crowd back on their feet again. 

Guildford huffed and puffed at the Manchester goals, but they were unable to force anything past Fone with the home defense and forwards back checking to snuff out any danger that the Flames posed and had Boothroyd and Hand throwing their bodies in the way too.

Things towards the back end of the period got a bit feisty on the ice, with some niggle after the whistle between Branislav Kvetan and Ben Wood to which saw a bit of a pushing and shoving and saw a little scrum occur but nothing more than that. The following passage of play saw Kvetan lay a big hit on former Flame Joe Graham and saw Manchester`s Bobby Chamberlain take exception to it and offered the big Slovakian out, as Chamberlain was fired up by it and laid a hard hit on a Guildford player on the boards to move the intensity up a notch heading to the end of the period.

In the final period of the game it was almost expected that the visitors would come out and give everything they had in the remaining twenty minutes of this encounter, and it saw an exciting end to end game for the fans with both sides slugging it out with their attacking play coming to the fore with a kind of who would blink first type of scenario, as both Fone and Rockman had good games between the pipes and kept the attacker out. Phoenix then moved two goals ahead in the game as a pass from Tony Hand from the side boards, fell perfectly to James Archer at the front of the net and the forward netted on his return to the line up and moved the home side 3-1 up and looked to be the goal that would end the game at 47-39. 

Manchester then suffered a mini collapse in the space of 20 seconds towards the middle of the period, when first off Andrew Hemmings shot somehow squeezed in at the near post of Fone for 3-2 at 49-13 and then at 49-23 Branislav Kvetan scored the tying goal to send the traveling fans delirious and give the visitors a massive boost in the game as we approached the final 10 minutes of the contest. The game then saw play go back and forth for a crazy eight minutes or so, before the game then became like a overtime period with both set of players trying not make any mistakes in the final two minutes of the game.

With 1.20 left on the scoreboard, it saw the hosts then strike the killer blow in this match as a Robin Kovar pass found Shaun Thompson who was patrolling the blue line and his first effort was turned away by Rockman, but the puck came only as far as Kovar, who again passed to Thompson and this time the Phoenix man blasted home the winner from the blue line that saw the dome nearly come off and the Flames looking dejected and the home side ecstatic for a 4-3 lead.

With a timeout called by the away side with eleven seconds to go in the game, it saw the visitors pulling their netminder for the extra attacker in a bid at somehow rescuing a point, but it was to no avail as the hosts sealed victory with Michal Psurny completing his hat trick with an empty net goal at 59.59, to see the Phoenix beat two of the top two sides in the league over back to back weekends.