Phoenix win EPL Play-offs

Sunday, 7th April 2013

Manchester Phoenix 5 - Guildford Flames 2

Phoenix scorers: Luke Boothroyd, James Archer, Tony Hand and Michal Psurny x 2

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix ended the 2012-13 season with what was arguably their best performance of the whole campaign. A scintillating display of hockey gave Phoenix a resounding and well deserved victory and the title of EPL Play-off Champions.

Phoenix took the game to the regular season league winners right from the first face off and their powerplay unit came up trumps after 9.55 with the first goal of the evening. Michal Psurny fed Tony Hand who sent the puck across traffic to the waiting Luke Boothroyd and he made no mistake firing high past Mark Lee in the Flames goal. There was no further scoring in the period but Phoenix were dominating proceedings, harassing the Flames at every opportunity.

The sell out crowd expected Guildford to come back at Phoenix in the second period but it was Manchester who scored 2 goals to give themselves a 3-0 lead going into the final 20 minutes. On 26.37 Bari McKenzie sent James Archer off and the in-form forward made no mistake. Phoenix’s third marker broke the hearts and souls of the Flames supporters as Michal Psurny hit a short-handed goal with 4 minutes left in the period. Liam Chong was awarded an assist on the goal.

The expected Flames come back looked like happening when they pulled a goal back with just 40 seconds on the clock in the third period. Nathan Rempel scored the goal with Jozef Kohut assisting. Phoenix held firm under a 5 minute onslaught before another short-handed goal gave them one hand on the trophy. Joachim Flaten was in the penalty box on a high sticks minor penalty when James Archer passed to Tony Hand on the goal line. Spotting Mark Lee just off his near post, the veteran genius hit an unstoppable shot through the gap and high into the net. The Phoenix fans began to believe the dream was about to come true on 49.49 when Michal Psurny, the man from the Czech Republic the fans have a special song for, scored his second goal of the evening to make it 5-1. Defender Ondrej Pozivil was awarded an assist on the goal. Flames scored a second goal with just under 10 minutes left through Branislav Kvetan, assisted by Nathan Rempel and David Longstaff, but this was to be a consolation goal as Phoenix saw out the match with a couple of outstanding saves from their man of the match Stephen Fone. Final score 5-2 to Phoenix.

Coach Tony Hand said after the celebrations and trophy presentation: “I am really proud of the whole team tonight. They executed our game plan to perfection and this must go down as one of our best ever performances. Guildford are a great organisation and team but tonight was to be our night. I’m really pleased for the fans. They have been superb all season both home and away and the turnout this weekend is amazing. We are so glad, as a team, to win the trophy for them.”

And so the 2012-13 campaign ends with a play off title for Phoenix. Third place in the league, cup semi finalists and now play off champions is a great achievement for the organisation after so many injuries throughout the campaign. Now to the summer and the fans will be watching Tony’s recruitment closely, hoping the club can go on from strength to strength.