Coventry Blaze 4 - 1 Manchester Phoenix U-16B

Coventry made no fewer than seven changes to the team that played in the 3-3 tie at the Silver Blades Ice Dome the previous week whilst Phoenix iced a full bench. Blaze brought in three England standard players plus number one netminder Chris Gill as they geared up to go for both points. From the first face off Phoenix knew they would be in for tough night as Blaze played a strong checking game making several telling hits on the initial shifts. With Nicole Jackson called into early action, she thwarted Scott Venus and Ashley Tyrell with two good saves, one deflected to the corner and the other cleanly taken in the glove. From the face off Shannon Lingwood and Jared Dickinson broke away, feeding Kieran Ferris, but the shot went wide from the Manchester winger. On the counter attack Venus nailed Sarah Hutchinson by the Blaze bench and then took out Bobby Streetly in the corner. The fifth miunte saw the home side take the lead as Blaze forced an error in the Phoenix defence and Tyrell pounced on the loose puck to force home the go-ahead goal. Coach Cassidy rejigged his lines trying to create some decent forechecking and keep the heavier home team at bay.

In the space of eleven seconds Phoenix found themselves two men down as referee Adams called Jake O’Connor for Interference at 7:35 immediately followed by Shannon Lingwood for Roughing on the much bigger Sheppard - the Phoenix player lucky not to get his customary misconduct penalty with strong complaints to the official. With the face off in the Phoenix zone, Hutchinson, Ryan Hulme and Harvey Treadgold kept the two man advantage at bay for a minute of the kill until Blaze skated the puck in with Clements feeding a pass to Ross Venus who found his older brother Scott in open space for a simple goal. Two-nil to the home team and the period wound down with 19 shots on Nicole Jackson withg just two faced by Gill in the Blaze goal.

With the Phoenix team feeling badly let down by some debatable officiating, Coach Cassidy calmed his troops to try and get back into the game. The second period was better from the Phoenix viewpoint with a couple of efforts from the first line forwards and some good solid defending when required. Again Phoenix fell foul of the ref as first Ryan Hulme sat two miuntes for Interference followed three minutes later by an innocuous trip by O’Connor at 29:30. The initial penalty was effectively dealt with and Phoenix ended the period with excellent work rate and a 0-0 period, again outshot, but only by 9-2.

Starting the third period with a player in the box, the Phoenix defence worked hard and even created a couple of scoring chances on breakaways as they killed off the minor penalty. At 31:57 U-14 player Ross Venus found fellow U-14 England player Clements in centre ice who coolly skated in unchallenged and netted the home teams third goal. Phoenix were then given their first powerplay at 32:29 and they created some half chances around the net, first Ferris squared a pass through the crease only to deflect to safety, then both Hutchinson and Streetly had shots either saved or cleared. With a 5-on-3 advantage for 25 seconds as Scott Venus sat a 2+10 Checking from Behind penalty after committing a bad challenge on O’Connor, Phoenix failed to capitalise with the extra skaters and Blaze comfortably dealt with the minor penalties. As Blaze mounted another attack, Hutchinson broke up the play in the left corner, made a neat pass to Lingwood who set Ferris off on a breakaway with Gill. Skating in alone Kieran made no mistake and buried the puck high in the top corner off the pipework for a cracking goal. The goal gave the Phoenix players some belief that they could get back in the game and they immediately created more scoring chances around the Blaze goal. Unexpectedly on a rather mis-timed line change, Blaze grabbed a fourth goal to put the game out of reach with captain Robert Adams scoring a scrambled effort at 38:31 with Nicole Jackson stranded.

Just before the forty minute mark, both teams changed netminders, with Phoenix U-14 back up Jorge El-Hage taking up station between the pipes. He was quickly into the game and made several smart close range saves to deny Blaze a fifth goal. With the away team absorbing some heavy Blaze pressure, Ryan Hulme drew an Elbows penalty at 40:11 and then again at 42:31 for Hooking. Referee Adams didn't endear himself to the travelling support by then assessing a 2+10 for Checking from Behind on Sam Campbell at 42:45 with Phoenix again two men down. Again the Phoenix rearguard stood resolute and denied Blaze with El-Hage making two point blank saves from unmarked forwards in the slot. The period finished 2-1 to the home team, with the home side again well ahead on the shots on goal count, 15 to 5.

Conclusion a much stronger, more physical and bigger Coventry team dominated the Phoenix forward lines and some excellent defence and netminding kept the scoreline to a respectable level. With a road trip to high flying Billingham Bombers next weekend, Coach Cassidy will have his work cut out for training this week.

Period scores: 2-0, 0-0, 2-1

Phoenix Stats: Kieran Ferris 1+0; Shannon Lingwood 0+1

PIMs 26-26

SOG's: On Blaze 9 On Phoenix 43

Phoenix MVP: Sarah Hutchinson