News

Kingston Kestrels 7 - 3 Manchester Phoenix

Wednesday, 17th June 2015

Manchester Phoenix made the trip over to Humberside this past Saturday lunchtime as they faced off against the Kingston Kestrels at the Hull Ice Arena and saw the Kestrels move top of the table on goal difference to become the new league leaders at the top of the Planet Ice Sledge Hockey League. The Hull based side beat the Manchester Phoenix 7-3 as Kingston's GB international duo of Matt Clarkson and Matt Woolias saw them both claiming hat tricks in the win over the Altrincham outfit.

Before the puck was dropped it saw the Phoenix forced into a very late change as netminder Steve Midghall was ruled out with a troublesome upper body injury, so that meant that Dougy Hankinson made his netminding début in the game as he went in between the pipes for the visiting Phoenix team.

Manchester was the brighter side of the two at the beginning and had them nearly opening the scoring less than a minute of play gone, when forward Anthony Booth saw his effort bring out a stunning save by Ian Houliston in the Kingston goals to keep the puck out of the net. At 1.43 in the game it saw the home side taking the lead through the dynamic duo of Matt Woolias and Matt Clarkson combination play, after good work by Clarkson set up his team mate and saw a rush by Woolias up ice getting by the Phoenix defence and putting the puck past Hankinson for a goal against the run of play.

At 5.49 Matt Woolias then doubled the lead for the Kestrels, after he found the twine yet again and saw Manchester’s inability to convert their chances coming back to haunt them with the Kestrels being the more clinical of the two sides. Matt Woolias then turned from goal scorer to provider a bit later, when the forward got himself free from his marker in the corner and saw him play a lovely pass out across the face of the goal right to the waiting Matt Clarkson and he flipped it high over Hankinson for a 3-0 score line after 9.59.

In the second period and the Phoenix still couldn't break down the stubborn Kingston defences this  despite a chance falling to Booth right at the start of the period after the puck went under the sledge of Ian Houliston and the netminder lost sight of it as it got stuck near the goal line but the Kestrels somehow managed to stop the Phoenix man from scoring.  At 20.49 it saw Matt Woolias completing his hat trick to make it 4-0 for the hosts, when Phoenix was yet again caught too high up the ice and gave Woolias the perfect opportunity to skate up on in attack and despite the unlucky efforts of Dominic Cosgrove trying to stop the Kingston man Woolias from getting by, it saw the Kestrels man keeping control of the puck and slipping past the netminder to give the home side a commanding lead and looked to have sewn the game up.

Both teams had a man serving penalties with Kingston having a man in for Interference and then Phoenix had Graham ‘Pain Train’ Wilson called as well for T-boning penalty and saw some 4 on 4 hockey being played out. Manchester finally got on the board through a Karl Nicholson goal as the former Kestrels man slalomed his way through the Kingston back line to fire high over Houliston and make it a 4-1 game at 26.59 with Graham Wilson picking up an assist. Wilson then picked up a nasty blow soon after, when the defence-man accidentally took a sledge to the chest and saw him down for a few minutes to recover before heading back to the bench.

In the third and play was very much like the second was, in where the two sides battled hard and had a few chances and it made for a very entertaining game for those in attendance. Kingston through killed off the game with three quick strikes in the early stages of the period, with two goals by Matt Clarkson who was clearly in ‘Top Gear’ in the game and saw him netting a hat trick, before player coach Simon Berry made it 7-1 for the home side at 33.49 and the contest was pretty much done and dusted.

Manchester though battled on and seemed to finally get some attacks working for them and resulted in Rob Allen pulling a goal back at 34.07 with Karl Nicholson getting an assisting,then three minutes later the Phoenix made it a four goal game with Nicholson firing in goal three for the visitors with Anthony Booth and Rob Allen picking up the assists to see the score line a bit closer. In fairness the score line doesn’t fully show how close this game was in truth and even though Kingston was the more organised side of the two teams, It saw them only just out shooting Manchester by just four shots in the game. Plus the performance of Ian Houliston in nets for the Kestrels saw the Phoenix come out empty handed and if not for some stunning saves in the game it may well have been a different story.  

Next Week

The Phoenix will have a chance to correct their league position as they return home in their next league game when they welcome the Sheffield Steelkings to the Altrincham Ice Dome ahead of the Home and away games in successive weeks against them. It will see a number of firsts in the game too, with the first competitive league meeting between the two sides in history and will be the first time the Sheffield side have come this side of the Pennines with previous games played over at Ice Sheffield in friendly matches. 

There will also be a Family connection over the following two weeks as well, with the battle of the Oakley family as Sheffield’s Jake and John Oakley take on the tougher member of the family in Phoenix’s own Els Oakley. The game will certainly have them hoping to get the bragging rights on another, so it should be interesting to see which side of the Oakley’s will be enjoying their week till the rematch over the Pennines.

Match starts at 4.30pm on Saturday the 20th of June, so come on down and watch the War of the Roses in Sledge Hockey. Entry is FREE!