Phoenix ENL head into playoffs on another win...
Manchester Phoenix ENL 7 v 3 Flintshire Freeze
Saturday 14th March, 2009
Going into this final league game of the season, Manchester was unassailable in the league runner’s-up spot. Flintshire required one point from the weekend and from the first face-off, old rivalries and the Freeze’ wish to put third place on the shelf before their final game, made this a hard fought match.
The first period saw Phoenix apply the early pressure and take the lead in the ninth minute courtesy of Ben Wood sliding the puck under the home goalie. The Freeze though drew level inside three minutes on their first powerplay as Dave Sheffield tallied. Both sides appeared well matched at this stage and an even first session ended with the score tied.
The Freeze ran into penalty trouble early in the second period and with the phoenix on a two-man advantage, Pete Traynor fired them back into the lead. Once again, Flintshire fought back to tie the score at Ric Hughes netted in the 29th minute. The home fans were quickly silenced though as just 13 seconds later Jake Nurse, assisted by John Murray and Sean Day, restored the Phoenix lead. Both teams had periods of power-play but the defences held firm and the Phoenix left the ice leading 3 to 2 with the promise of a competitive final period.
Following the early exchanges in the final period, Phoenix pushed the goal difference out to a game-winning margin. Goal number four came from John Murray in the 48th minute on assists from Jake Nurse and Sean Day and barely ten seconds after the restart, Paul Stapleton made it 5-2 on assists from Ben Wood and Jamie Rogerson. Brian Worrall made the game safe in the 54th minute finishing good work from Jamie Rogerson and Ben Brown. Flintshire hit back within a minute, Richard Rylands the scorer before the game exploded as Flintshire’s Wes Barnett launch an incomprehensible attack on John Murray. With Murray pinned to the ice, being hit by Barnett, a melee of pulling and pushing ensued with Dave Costelloe emerging having exacted retribution on Barnett. Costelloe received a game misconduct as third-man-in, with Barnet also being ejected having accumulated 54 penalty minutes for his part in the incident. The two five-minute major penalties allotted to Barnett meant that any hopes of the home side mounting a serious fightback were nipped in the bud and Phoenix punished them with Phil Hamer netting the seventh goal on the resulting powerplay.
A Phoenix ENL spokesperson said, “The incident involving Barnett was unnecessary, distasteful and strange coming, as it did, when the game was practically in the bag. All credit to John: he wasn’t provoked into a rash response for which could have received a match ban. It’s unfortunate that Dave was ejected, but, at least, the referee saw the incident for what it was giving Dave a game misconduct without a major penalty. He will be able to play in our up-coming promotion games. Other than that, it was a good, close game between old rivals which we deservedly won. Once again it was good to see that the fifteen scoring points earned tonight were spread across ten different players. We can take confidence from having beaten a good team like the Freeze and carry this confidence forward into our play-off games against another old rival: the Blackburn Hawks.”
Man of the match for Phoenix: Dave Costello
Period Scores: 1–1, 2–1, 4-1
Shots on Goal: (Shots on Phoenix first) Total: 21–49
Phoenix Stats:
John Murray 1+1, Jake Nurse 1+1, Ben Wood 1+1, Sean Day 0+2, Phil Hamer 1+0, Paul Stapleton 1+0, Pete Traynor 1+0, Brian Worrall 1+0, Ben Brown 0+1, Jamie Rogerson 0+1.
Nets: Tom McDonald 21/3 (85.71%)
