Whitley Bay Tomahawks  4 - 5 Manchester Phoenix U-16A

The Phoenix U-16A squad travelled to the north-east and the hockey hotbed of Whitley Bay knowing that two points from the Hillheads Ice Rink would guarantee them the comfort of a mid-table finish. With Jack Sweet back in a defensive position and Under-14 star Jared Dickinson drafted into the attack, Phoenix opened strongly, dominating the opening exchanges. Harry Sims shot narrowly wide on four minutes as the team exerted confident pressure on the Tomahawks’ net. The Phoenix advance was halted briefly at 4’32” as Conner Dakin was sent to the box on a two minute Charging call. The visitors successfully killed the penalty kill with some determined work in the corners and along the boards. Back at even strength, Manchester’s offensive drive was commanding, but always left them susceptible to breakaway counter-attacks and this was highlighted on the ten-minute mark as Bob Browne smartly foiled Whitley’s Jack Watkins as the forward skated clear to go one-on-one with the Phoenix netminder. A Cross Checking penalty against Phoenix captain Tom Hammond in the final seconds of the first meant the visitors started the middle period short staffed. 

Despite tempting the Phoenix forwards up the ice, Whitley couldn’t find a way through to goal and their powerplay chance went begging. More penalty action saw Whitley’s Liam Brown ejected, then Joe Greaves and Tomahawks Jack Stevenson traded Roughing calls at 18’42” to set up two minutes of four-on-four. Phoenix had the better efforts including a Marc Etherington slap shot from just inside the blue line that was turned away by David Lawrence in the Whitley net. Very much against the run of play, it was the home side that took the lead as a defensive error in front of the Manchester net let Jack Watkins through to bag the opener at 20’27”. Undaunted by this setback, Phoenix continued to dominate the game with Sims seeing another effort turned away, and Whitley’s net minder reacting quickly to deny Dakin. It was Manchester’s captain who made the breakthrough at 28’15” as Etherington passed the puck out of the Phoenix zone to find Hammond in centre ice. The skipper deked his way through the Whitley defence to finish sweetly and put Phoenix back on terms. Tomahawks were getting frustrated as Phoenix enjoyed the majority of possession and Mitch Houghton vented his anger a little too freely at 27’23” and trudged off to sit two minutes for Roughing. Phoenix duly took full advantage to punish his hiatus with Harry Sims letting fly from outside the blue line to bury the puck beyond a surprised Lawrence to put Manchester in charge at the end of the second.

It took only thirteen seconds of the final spell for Phoenix to extend their lead.  Following good work by Hammond behind the Whitley goal, Ben Brown dished the puck to the front of the goalcrease for Josh Healey to nonchalantly lift it into the top left corner of the net. Tomahawks’ Josh Maddock then picked up his second minor of the match to gift Phoenix another powerplay and the visitors gleefully capitalised just five seconds later, Hammond converting from Etherington. At 4–1 with twelve minutes remaining a Phoenix victory seemed assured and especially when Whitley’s Jack Stevenson was awarded a massive 57 penalty minutes for a combination of Interference and Misconduct, the resulting seven-minute powerplay should have made the outcome even more certain. But nothing in sport is certain and with Manchester’s collective foot firmly off the pedal, Whitley’s Houghton was allowed in to claim his second of the game, short handed, cutting the deficit to two goals. The Tomahawks promptly pulled their netminder in an attempt to rescue the game, but Manchester’s Hammond skated through to fire home his hat trick goal into the empty net restoring a three-goal cushion. Still the Tomahawks refused to concede the victory and, straight from the restart, Hawkins bagged his second and Whitley’s third.  Phoenix were starting to look rattled and Whitley knew it.  Jack Sweet was sent to the penalty box for a Tripping infringement and once again, the home side audaciously pulled their goalie. With a two-man advantage the home side surged forward and Watkins found the net to complete his personal treble with just twenty seconds to go putting Whitley within reach. Steadying the ship, Phoenix saw out the dying seconds and were relieved to take both points, denying Tomahawks a squaw draw (apologies for the poor gag, the writer was obviously stressed out).

 

Phoenix Stats: Tom Hammond 3+1, Harry Sims 1+0, Josh Healey 1+0, Marc Etherington 0+3, Ben Brown 0+1, Joe Greaves 0+1

Netminder: Bob Browne 17/4 

Phoenix MVP: Tom Hammond