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Burnett brace fires Phoenix to comfortable win

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Manchester Phoenix 5 - 2 Basingstoke Bison

Goals in both the first and the second period from Lucas Burnett inspired the Manchester Phoenix to a comfortable Tuesday night victory over a spirited Basingstoke outfit.

The team from Hampshire are on a massive losing streak and arriving in Altrincham for this re-arranged game, they were soon up against it as Phoenix went for early goals. Kevin Reiter in the Bison goal was called upon to make early saves from Luke Fulghum and Alex Dunn, but was powerless to prevent the Phoenix opener in the sixth minute. Good approach play down the left side ended with Lucas Burnett playing a neat one-two with Kyle Bruce before squeezing the puck past Reiter from close range. The visitors tried to hit back and Stephen Murphy in the home goal made excellent saves to deny Olynyk, Chambers and Hughes. Phoenix extended their lead in the final minute of the session, Alex Dunn firing the puck home on a powerplay, assisted by Tony Hand and David-Alexandre Beauregard.

The second period saw Phoenix dominate possession and their reward came in the shape of two goals in less than two minutes, just past the half hour mark. First Burnett bagged his second of the game assisted by Bruce and Nathan Ward before a sweeping move from their own zone involving Dunn and Josh Garbutt ended with a neat finish from Brett Clouthier to send the home side into the second interval with a comfortable margin.

Basingstoke worked hard in the final period trying to add some respectability to the scoreline and they finally tallied in the 45th minute, Shaun Thompson scoring on a powerplay with Alex Dunn in the penalty box. With just over six minutes to play, Bison grabbed a second marker as the impressive Ivo Mocek chipped the puck past Murphy to make it a two-goal deficit. Phoenix weren't panicked, even when the visitors pulled back-up goalie Graeme Bird with just under two minutes to play, and they wrapped up the points with Luke Fulghum scoring into the unguarded net from his own end of the ice.

A Phoenix spokesperson noted, "The guys did another professional job tonight. We knew we had to get the result to keep the pressure on Cardiff and we did just that. The Burnett, Bruce, Ward line combined well and we were always in control of the game. If anything, we could have been a bit more clinical in front of goal, we had enough chances to score a few more goals."

Phoenix are in Elite League action again on Thursday evening, the opposition the Edinburgh Capitals, with face-off at 7.15pm.