Phoenix bounce back with victory over Lightning

Manchester Phoenix 3-1 Milton Keynes Lightning

After a disappointing result in Romford on Saturday night, the Manchester Phoenix stormed back to form with a hard earned victory over the Milton Keynes Lightning at the Ice Dome on Sunday night.

With the away team having won on both occasions previous to this match up, the Phoenix were looking to break the trend whilst also hoping to hold onto top spot in the English Premier League. The Phoenix took the lead in the 8th minute through Robert Lachowicz as he netted from close range after good work on the powerplay by Jaakko Hagelberg and Luke Boothroyd.

This would prove to be the only goal through the opening two periods as both teams found the netminders in spectacular form, Steve Fone in the Manchester net proving his worth whilst putting Saturdays 8-3 loss behind him and Barry Hollyhead in the Lightning net continued to thwart everything Phoenix through at him.

The breakthrough finally came in the 47th minute when the Phoenix doubled their lead through Hagelberg as he sneaked the puck under Hollyhead from in close. Steve Fone lost his shut-out bid in the 56th minute as the Lightning’s Adam Carr netted after stepping out of the penalty box. The Phoenix however, even when on the penalty kill in the dying minutes never looked like conceding further and Ed Courtaney sealed the victory with an empty net goal.

Player coach Tony Hand noted after the match, “Where we were not very good on Saturday, we were very good tonight. We defended well tonight, probably our best penalty killing of the season so far and overall, every single player showed up, played his part and I thought whilst Milton Keynes gave us a great game, we were the better side and deserved the points”