Phoenix U-18s Trounce Telford

Tuesday, 3rd March 2009

Telford Trojans 2 - 6 Manchester Phoenix U-18s

The Manchester Phoenix U-18s finished their league campaign with a flourish at Telford on Sunday, defeating the Trojans 6-2. The victory edged them above Nottingham to finish fourth in their debut 'A' league season.

Manchester opened brightly exerting plenty of pressure on the Telford net. Looking confident and well organised, Phoenix took the lead in the third minute as Max Drakeley let loose a slapshot from just inside the blue line and the puck bounced back from the boards for Ben Brown to finish from right of goal. Defenceman Marc Etherington was next to strike, four minutes later when his shot was too hot for netminder Josh Nicholls to hang on to, the puck escaping his grasp into the net to double the visitors' lead. In the fourteenth minute Brown set off down the right wing and round the net, passing to Drakeley in the left circle who made no mistake, burying the puck for the third. Phoenix were on fire, and less then a minute later a bullet from Josh Healey made it four, with assists from Conner Dakin and Joe Greaves.

Phoenix continued to play some composed hockey early in the second period. Telford's Paul Rigby was adjudged a two-minute tripping minor three minutes in and the Manchester powerplay rolled into action. Drakeley found Brown behind the goal, and Oli Bayne worked his way into space in front of the net to bury the feed, putting Phoenix an incredible five goals up. Telford fought their way back into the game at this stage. With Manchester relaxing a little, the hosts made use of long passes through centre ice to find forwards lurking high towards the Phoenix blue line. Phoenix netminder Matt Leeming was repeatedly called into action and repelled all advances until the thirty-fifth minute when Luke Brittle grabbed one back for Telford. The revival continued as Paul Rigby added a second four minutes on, and Phoenix left the ice for the second break, only three goals to the good.

The final session was a nervy affair as Phoenix realised their lead wasn't conclusive against a resurgent Telford side. To prove the point, Matt Leeming was the busier of the two goalies, but the Manchester netminder pulled off a string of good stops to maintain the three-goal buffer. It wasn't until the 57th minute that the pressure was finally relieved with a Phoenix strike masterminded by the defence. Ashton Jenion charged down the right and found Jack Sweet shadowing him in the centre and his shot beat Ben Hunt to round off a pleasing 6-2 victory.

A Phoenix spokesman noted, "The final result didn't really do justice to Telford's game. They matched us shot-for-shot, but we took much better advantage of our chances and it's great to end the league campaign on a high. The aim for our first season in the A-league was to consolidate our position, finishing in the top half certainly achieves that and we can now plan new targets for the future."

Phoenix Stats: Ben Brown 1+4; Max Drakeley 1+2; Marc Etherington 1+0; Josh Healey 1+0; Oli Bayne 1+0; Jack Sweet 1+0; Conner Dakin 0+1; Joe Greaves 0+1; Ashton Jenion 0+1.

Matt Leeming (MVP) 2/41

Phoenix U-18s Trounce Telford

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