Disappointing weekend for Phoenix

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Basingstoke Bison 5  Manchester Phoenix 2

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix made the long trip down to Basingstoke looking to avenge the defeat from the previous weekend.

It was not to be as a clinical Bison side took the points with a 5-2 win. Phoenix started strongly and pressured the Bison defence in the early minutes. However it was the home side who took the lead after 3.10 when Joe Rand broke down the right and centred for Andy Melachrino to score. Phoenix stuck to their task and continued to dominate the period but found themselves 2-0 down when Bison player coach Doug Sheppard skated out of his own zone to fire across goal for the unmarked Cesky to score. The period ended with Bison leading 2-0 having been dominated for most of the period by Phoenix without losing control of the game.

Phoenix flew out of the traps in the second period as Michal Psurny and Joachim Flaten took the puck into the Bison zone and the latter dropped the puck for Ondrej Pozivil to wrist it through traffic into the top corner.  Once again the visitors put their hosts under pressure but Stevie Lyle once again stood strong to deny the Phoenix forwards. Basingstoke regained their two goal lead as Rand won the puck with a strong forecheck and fired it to the top of the crease where it came off a Phoenix skate into an open space where Melachrino was again in the right place at the right time to make it 3-1. Basingstoke then sat back, allowing Phoenix to come at them but always looked able to limit the chances by stringing 4 players across their blue line. Manchester continued to plug away and got their reward when James Neil brought the puck over the blue line and centred for Ciaran Long to redirect the puck past Lyle for 3-2.

The period ended with Manchester again on top but Bison holding on to their lead.

Bison scored on the power play early in the third as a defensive error allowed Chambers to send Sheppard in on Stephen Fone. Bison’s coach deked Fone then hit a backhand into the net to put his team two goals in front once again. The game was all over with seven and a half minutes left as Sheppard found Smith who in turn sent Cesky one on one against Stephen Fone and scored beautifully for 5-2. That was all the scoring and Bison had beaten Phoenix for the fourth time this season in a pulsating, entertaining, end to end game.

Manchester Phoenix 3  Slough Jets 4 (after penalty shots)

Phoenix made a great start to the game and found themselves 2-0 up after just over 13 minutes. Ciaran Long scored on 7.43 from a Tony Hand pass with the second assist going to Joachim Flaten. The latter scored Phoenix’s second on 13.12 after good work from Tony Hand, with Luke Boothroyd also getting an assist. With just under 3 minutes to go in the period, Jets pulled one back as Dan Davies found his player coach Slava Koulikov all alone and he beat  Stephen Fone to end the period at 2-1 Phoenix.

Jets stifled the game in the second period as they let Phoenix come at them, closing their forwards down and attacking on the break. It brought dividends with 36 seconds left in the period as Darius Pliskauskas took a pass from Koulikov to net.

The third had very little to thrill the crowd until 53.47 when James Archer took a pass from Robert Schnabel to skate round the Jets’ defence to net past Rockman. Phoenix looked as if they had done enough for the two points, especially as Jets had a goal washed out for man in the crease twenty seconds after the go ahead goal.

However, Frantisek Bakrlik silenced the home crowd with 47 seconds left as he poked the puck into the net with the Phoenix defence asking the referee for a high sticks penalty. The pleas fell on deaf ears and Jets had taken a deserved point from the game.

Overtime failed to trouble the scorer and the Dome was again treated to a penalty shoot out. Joachim Flaten and Darius Pliskauskas both missed their shots in the first round and Michal Psurny hit the post with his shot after beating Greg Rockman. Bakrlik confidently found the net to put Jets in front and they took the extra point as Ciaran Long failed to find the net with Phoenix’s third shot.

A single point weekend for Phoenix after drawing a blank the previous one leaves them 5 points behind Bison in the league table.

Phoenix will be hoping to get back on track next weekend with a trip to Bracknell followed by a home encounter with Milton Keynes Lightning on Sunday evening.

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