MANCHESTER PHOENIX 3 - 4 SLOUGH JETS
(AFTER Penalty shots)
slough 1-0 pens
Sunday night saw the Manchester Phoenix trying to break a 3 game losing streak against the Slough Jets at the Altrincham Ice dome.
Phoenix had the night before lost further ground on the League leaders as Basingstoke Bison beat them 5-2 down at the Basingstoke Planet Ice and as i said last week, has given the Bison a MASSIVE advantage at this stage of the season.
Phoenix were missing influential forward and energetic Tom Duggan as he`d picked a head injury in the clash down in Basingstoke. Slough were at full strength and had the 3rd best goalie in the league between the pipes in Gregg Rockman who `s save percentage of 91.94% and that doesn`t include his display at Sheffield Steeldogs the previous night.
1st PERIOD
Think the team introduction told us how the night would be as it AGES before Slough came out, played "NO CHANCE IN HELL" 2x and they still hadn`t come out, played another song and another and then after a sound clip of " WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILFURE TO COMMUNICATE" they skated out!
..BUT ANYWAY back the hockey!
Manchester Phoenix came out of the blocks quickly putting the Slough Jets under a lot of pressure in their zone. And were aggressive and Rockman was under fire for the early part as Phoenix were hoping to start off the game and shake the 3 defeats out of their minds. A Bench penalty on Slough for ICING INFRINGEMENT at 2:00 in put Phoenix on the Powerplay. But as is a Phoenix Tradition the powerplay lacked any kind of powerplay set up.
A shot by McKenzie pinged off the Crossbar down and away to the side boards as his shot had the Jets netminder beat all ends up. Another shot hit metal by Phoenix later on and just seemed for a bit that the puck wouldn`t go in. Eventually the pressure by Phoenix reaped it`s rewards as a scramble in the Jets goal had Rockman unsure of where the puck and everyone else around the crease. Flatten jumped on the puck passed to Hand who found Ciaran Long and his shot hit the underside of the goals and bounced in for a deserved 1-0 lead at 7:43 in the 1st.
Phoenix then wer in penalty trouble as they were caught for an ICING INFRINGEMENT themselves at 10-27. But midway through there penalty Import Mindy Kieras tripped a Phoenix player up while they were ona Powerplay so he went to the box at 11-00 dead. Phoenix kept the pressure on Slough and got another goal as this time Joachim Flatten scored before the net was off this moorings with Tony Hand and Captain Luke Boothroyd assisting on the goal timed at 13-12.
Phoenix looked in control of a mistake ridden game due to poor passing by both teams and the Annual bad ice at the dome around this time of year. But Slough woke up after the 2nd goal and pulled a goal back after work by Dan Davies found ex Phoenix forward Slava Koulikov as the Russian evaded the marking of Hand as he shot past Fone to half the lead in half. The last action of the period came when Bakrlik and unbelievably Cool head Luke Boothroyd getting involved in a little tussle behind the play as both slashed each other and as the referee called the pens Bakrlik skated to Boothroyd giving him a jab in the face and pushing him trying to get him drawn into another pen,but just skated off to the Penalty box and ignore his actions.
End of 1st Period : Phoenix 2 - 1 Jets
2nd PERIOD
The game for me turned into a massive bore from this point, neither side could pass well enough as players seemed to be doing Prattfalls on the ice and a few times skating and forgetting the puck often. It seemed like who could concentrate and and adapt to the best would come out on top it seemed. But neither side looked like they could at first, but Slough settled more and Manchester fell asleep as normal when holding a lead.
Slough spent the majority of the 2nd period camped in the Phoenix half it seemed to me, As all the pressure in the game now on the Phoenix net.
Slough were attacking more now and looked threatening when going forward and the home side was being snuffed out. Slough frustatrating tactics of playing a methodical slow game and break on the counter a couple of times they had a man adavantage but the shots were sailing high over Fone in goals and hitting the plexi.
An error by the Phoenix led to Slough on a 2-on-1 man advantage though the home got a bit lucky when the passing between the 2 Jets players was slowed by the puck not moving as it should and had the trailing one having to turn away from goal to reach back and get the puck before Kieras fired high and wide.
The period was a really uneventual one as Slough dominated possession but didn`t make it pay, but then with 00:34 seconds left on the board The Jets Finally got the goal there play deserved as that man again Koulikov set up that man that loves to score against Manchester everytime, Darius Pliskauskas as his shot crept under Fone and made it 2 all going into the Intermission break. As the horn went it was met with complete silence as it was such a flat atmosphere and dull game tonight, even with 4 goals scored.
End of 2nd Period: PHOENIX 2 - 2 JETS
3rd PERIOD
The 3rd period was even more dreadful than the 2nd period and many yawning as it was lacklustre and needed a team or player to spark something to get the game going at all as it was more a mid ice battle and Battle of Attrition the game. As neither side seem to let the other in the game and cancel each other out. It wasn`t one for the the UP and at them EPL fan, as the puck seemed to spend most of the time going out of play than on the ice.
THEN at 53-47 a Rob Schnabel pass found James Archer who was free and skated down on goal 1-on-1 with Rockman coming in from the left wing and he made a move on him deked and slotted it in for a 3-2 lead and one that looked like that would be it as Slough didn`t have many clean chances. But about a minute or 2 after Archer goal Slough scored only for it be rightly Wash-outed as a Jets player was in the creased and was barging Fone out the way and i think Towalski shot it in the open half of the net and the ref straight away gave the WASH-OUT signal. Much to the protests of the Jets players who thought they should have had the goal but the complaints were quickly withdrawn as the Ref deemed it disallowed due to a Man in the crease.
Slough were trying to push for the 2nd goal and Phoenix then resorted as they did for half the game to Dump and chase the puck which was a useless tactic as they were more threatening when taking the puck over the blue line themselves. 2 Mins were on the board and Phoenix started to just cycle the puck around the boards in the Slough zone, but as a couple time happened they ran out of players. To pick it up and just keep it in the corner. The Home side then re used the tactic and when no one chased it the Jets went up the other with Rockman waving his stick asking whether he should dash to the bench for the Extra Attacker.
But as has been a current problem with Phoenix this season they couldn`t hold onto the lead and puck thrown across the goals by Frantisek Bakrlik his effort bounced off the ankle of Ondrej Pozivil and looped in the net for a 3-3 tie with 47 secs left in Regulation! The goal was met with grumbles and cheers as the travelling group of Jets fans celebrated and the Phoenix fans was left frustrated. And so as has been the case often this season at Altrincham we went to Overtime!!
OVERTIME PERIOD
Overtime was one Slough looked to edge it more as a Slapshot by Dan Scott Pinged off the post as Fone lost it through the crowd. Phoenix again used the cycling the puck and again players that did it expected another team mate to following it round and Slough broke and Fone made a cracking save in the Overtime period to deny a Jets OT win. The dying embers of the game Phoenix had a chance to get a shot off with the crowd pleading for them to shoot but they messed around trying to find the perfect pass and goal that it was snuffed out by the Jets and so it led to the 2nd Penalty shoot out this season!
SHOOT-OUT
1ST to go were Phoenix and Joachim Flaten who tried to mak a move on Rockman and his effort was saved by the Jets Netminder. 0-0
Slough first shooter was Darius Pliskauskas he skated in cutting in a bit from the right and tried to go far low corner but was stopped by Fone.
Round 1 of PENALTIES : 0-0
PHOENIX: was up next with Michal Psurny he skated down the left wing with speed and shot past Rockman but hit the Crossbar much to his frustration.
JETS: Next for them was Frantisek Bakrlik who pushed the puck and skated at snails pace prodding the puck and then as he reached the hash marks he made a quick move with Fone going to his left post and th jets player going to the other side and guided it in as quick as he skated for the pen! Was like watching slow motion!
Round 2 of penalties: Phoenix 0- 1 JETS
PHOENIX: Ciaran Long then took Phoenix 3rd and final pen, needing to score to keep the game going, but Rockman denied him and consigned Phoenix to 4 Losses on the bounce but pick up a point and which was made worse, that Basingstoke had a Shock defeat,down in Peterboro against the Phantoms 6-3. Making the gap 5pts when it really, had concentration levels been up should have been 4pts. But now attentions turn to next week with the trip to "The HIVE" to faceoff against Bracknell Bees and the sunday home game v the Milton Keynes Lightning!.
.jpg)
.jpg)
