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Florence supershow eclipses fine Phoenix effort

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Kingston Jets 7 - 6 Manchester Phoenix ENL

This game had the makings of a close encounter with Phoenix hoping to edge a win. It hung in the balance from the first face-off to the final buzzer. Phoenix seemed to be a little relaxed following and easy win against Grimsby the previous evening allowing ex-Stingray Mark Florence to score after only 33 seconds. Florrie was in sparkling form and contributed to all Kingston’s goals: scoring the first four and assisting on the remaining three becoming the Jet’s inevitable and undisputable Man of the Match. As in recent games, special teams heavily influenced the result – of the thirteen goals only five were scored at even strength. Phoenix shrugged off the initial shock and took the game to Kingston, leading the game at the mid-way point only to lose to a power-play goal with less than seven minutes remaining.

Almost from the initial face-off Mark Florence scored the first of his four goals with assists from his line-mates, Ben Milhench and Matty Jeffcock (33 seconds). Phoenix came back and looked threatening until two careless minor penalties gave the Jets a 5-on-3 powerplay. Significant pressure from the Jets’ top line resulted in Florence scoring his second goal with a wraparound shot. Unlike a couple of previous games, this did not cause Phoenix’ heads to go down. Indeed it seemed to kindle a new determination and they came away and scored a short-handed goal on the same penalty-kill. Danny Binns created his own turnover and broke away dipsy-doodling around Carl Jaszczyk in the Jets’ net at 6.50. Following a session of 4-on-4, in the residue of the Phoenix penalty, Mark Florence scored on the powerplay, slipping a pass from the right-hand goal line behind Benn Schofield for his, and Kingston’ s third goal (9.41). Still Phoenix rallied and came back scoring even-handed at 13.04 - Mike Stockley accepting Andy Richie’s stretch pass to make it 3–2 and end the first period scoring.

Astonishingly, the second period began almost exactly as the first period had: Florence scoring from Milhench and Jeffcock after just 37 seconds. A Holding penalty gave Phoenix a powerplay at 21.10 allowing Tom King to take Brian Worrall’s pass and score from close in (21.49). Phoenix swept forward from the face-off and pressed Kingston producing the first of Brian Worrall’s brace from another pass from Andy Ritchie at 22.31. Four-all and Phoenix appeared to moving into the ascendancy. The go-ahead goal came on another Phoenix power-play, Worrall taking Tom King’s pass and lifting the puck over the keeper’s catcher from the edge of the blue paint. Another couple of mistimed penalties gave Kingston a further session of 5-on-3. The Jets’ big line buzzed around the Phoenix blue-line, but made far less impression this time, Jamie Rogerson making a couple of diving blocks, picking up his rebound and breaking down the ice to kill several seconds. Phoenix seemed to lose track of Florence for a period after this and he continued to be in Benn Schofields’ line of sight far too often. The Phoenix ‘keeper stood up well to the pressure and kept his goal intact, until at 35.46, some sloppy defence allowed the Jets to equalise, Haggar scoring from that man Florence and Jeffcock. Five a-piece and still all to play for. An indication of the pressure that the Phoenix net was under is the shots on goal statistic: 7 on Jaszczyk, 20 on Schofield, nevertheless the period score was 3 – 2 to the Phoenix.

The final session began with a flurry of activity: two power-plays and two goals. A Hooking penalty allowed Kingston to score 30 seconds into the man advantage (41.33). Tom King won the puck at the face-off following a delay–of-game call on the Jets, scoring to even the match once more (42.13). Around the 45-minute mark a series of three ill-disciplined penalties caused sessions of one, then two-man advantages in favour of the home side. During these calls, Dave Costelloe was ejected from the game for his second 10-minute Misconduct penalty. This caused a line-up reshuffle, Jamie Rogerson falling back to cover on defence. Phoenix survived these varying man-down situations without conceding. A Phoenix bench minor (Too-many-men) gave Kingston the power-play they needed for Ben Milhench to score the game winner at 53.06 (Milhench from Davies and Florence). Try as they may, including withdrawing Benn Schofield for the extra attacker, Phoenix couldn’t pull a last goal out of the bag.

All in all, an exciting game which, maybe, could have gone to either team. The goals stats seem to tell a different tale (53 shots on the Phoenix and 24 on the Jets) so it’s little wonder that Benn Schofield received his fourth Man of the Match award of the season.

A team official said “we showed more character in tonight’s game. We could have let their early goals and two goal leads affect us adversely. But we didn’t, and came back strongly. But we were, generally, playing catch-up against a strong line on top form. We can look forward to next Saturday’s final game (at home against Bradford Bulldogs) with confidence.”
 

Man of the match for Phoenix: Benn Schofield  

Man of the Match for Jets: Mark Florence

Period Scores: 3–2, 2–3, 2-1

Shots on Goal: (Shots on Phoenix first) Total: 53–24

Phoenix Stats: Tom King 2+1, Brian Worrall 2+1, Andy Ritchie 0+2, Danny Binns 1+0, Mike Stockley 1+0 

Nets: Benn Schofield 53/ 7 (86.79%)