Phantoms spooked by awesome Phoenix performance

Sunday, 29th September 2013

Manchester Phoenix 11 - Peterborough Phantoms 0

Phoenix scorers: Frantisek Bakrlik x 4, Liam Chong x 2, Michal Psurny x 2, James Archer, Jack Watkins, Robin Kovar.

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix completed their third 4 point weekend in a row with a comprehensive win over Peterborough Phantoms. The opening exchanges were fairly even and nobody could have foreseen the end result of this game. Phoenix opened the scoring on 8.45 with a neat goal from Liam Chong, assisted by Richard Bentham and Andy McKinney. Just over 4 minutes later, the lead was doubled with Jack Watkins scoring at the back post. Assists on this goal went to Robin Kovar and Joe Graham. Frantisek Bakrlik hit his first of the night on 15.43, assisted by Andy McKinney. That was it for the first period as Phoenix went for their tea with a healthy 3 goal lead.

The second period was more of an even contest with Phantoms taking the game to Phoenix on occasions. However, it was Phoenix who were converting their chances and 2 goals from Frankie Bakrlik and one each for Michal Psurny and James Archer made it 7-0 after 2 periods. Just after Psurny’s effort, Phantoms’ Greg Pick decided to try and boost morale by scrapping with Andy McKinney. After some dancing and attempted hay makers by both players, the Phoenix man landed a bomb and got the take down and a narrow win. 2 plus 2 for both men was the award from the referee. End of 40 minutes play and Phoenix lead 7-0.

Tony Hand decided that he wanted to watch/coach from the bench for the third period and gave Jorge El-Hage some valuable ice time from the start. Phoenix troubled the scorekeeper four more times with goals from Michal Psurny, Robin Kovar, Liam Chong and a fourth of the night for top forward Frantisek Bakrlik.
Jorge El-Hage kept the Phantoms at bay for the 20 minutes, including an excellent penalty shot save.

Man of the match for Peterborough went to 17 year old Lewis Hook and Frantisek Bakrlik understandably took the honours for Phoenix.

Frankie Bakrlik said after the game:

“It is not about who scores as long as the team takes the points. We played well this weekend but it is only September and there is a long way to go. I am glad the fans are happy, we want to keep on winning for them.”