Phoenix blank Bees

Manchester Phoenix 6-0 Bracknell Bees

A Man of the match performance from defenceman Ladislav Harabin paired with a hat-trick from sniper Curtis Huppe led Manchester Phoenix to a comfortable home victory over Bracknell Bees.

Netminder Steve Fone also recorded his second shut out in two weeks as the Manchester defence continues to improve since losing to Guildford 5-1 on Nov 20.
Since that date, Tony Hand’s Phoenix have only surrendered six goals in five games whilst they have hit the back of the net 24 times.

The home side opened the scoring in the 17th minute as Curtis Huppe netted, this was followed by a quick early double in the second period as Harabin and Huppe both beat Adam Marashi in the Bees net.

The final period saw Phoenix score three further markers to put them out of sight, first Harabin scored his second of the game before Huppe completed his hat-trick with a rocket slap shot. James Archer completed the scoring with a short-handed goal in the 50th minute whilst Andrew Sharp sat out a roughing penalty.

Tony Hand said: “We were a bit slow to get going tonight, but we showed out quality in the end. The defence was strong when it counted and once our first line got going, we took charge.