Phoenix Struck By Lightning

Sheffield Scimitars 2-3 Manchester Phoenix
Manchester Phoenix 2-3 Milton Keynes Lighting

Manchester Phoenix’s unbeaten start to the new season came to a halt on Sunday night as the Milton Keynes Lightning came away from their first ever visit to the Altrincham Ice Dome with 2 points. The Phoenix went down 3-2 on home ice despite winning in Sheffield the night before which took to them to the top of the English Premier League, Tony Hand’s men now lie in third place after the opening four games of the season.

On Saturday night, the Phoenix travelled to Sheffield for their third meeting with the Scimitars in five games. Three goals in the opening six minutes saw a blistering start to the game, Phoenix’s Jaakko Hagelberg deflected an Andre Mattsson slap-shot on the powerplay to take the lead before Robert Farmer brought the hosts level within minutes. Seconds later, some great Phoenix transitional play led to Robert Lachowicz neatly finishing a breakaway move to give Manchester the lead once more.

The Scimitars again brought the game level late in the second period as Farmer raced in on goal to beat Steve Fone in the Manchester net which led to a tense third period with little chances at either end of the ice. The breakthrough finally came in the 56th minute as Tony Hand netted from close range to seal the Phoenix’s second win in Sheffield this season.

The following night, the Phoenix played host to ex-Manchester Storm forward Nick Poole’s Milton Keynes Lightning and the tone for the match was set early as Phoenix netminder Steve Fone made a dramatic diving safe to deny the Lightning an early goal. However this seemed to spur the Lightning further, who by the close of the period, netted twice through Adam Carr (short-handed) and Ross Bowers (power-play).

Phoenix finally countered in the 28th minute as Jaakko Hagelberg scored on the power-play, after which the home team laid siege to the Lightning net but were unable to find an equalizer before the end of the second period. The third period saw the Phoenix hit the goal-frame before the Lightning regained their two goal lead, Adam Carr scoring his second of the night sending the visiting bench into ecstasy and leaving the home-side a mountain to climb in the closing minutes. New Phoenix captain Luke Boothroyd did reduce the deficit with a late, hotly disputed goal but the Phoenix could find no equalizer in the time remaining.

Player coach Hand remarked, “The guys worked hard tonight in a hard-fought and well contested game, maybe this result will act as something of a wake up call for us. We’ve made a good start, but we’ve learned this weekend that there will no easy nights.”

“We’ve a number of younger players who are still learning the game and the standard of play we’ve seen is possibly better than we were expecting. We’ll look hard at both of this weekends games and look to minimise the areas where we’ve been caught out.”