Rempel burns Phoenix with 4 goal blitz

Manchester Phoenix 4-5 Guildford Flames

Guildford Flames hot-shot Nathan Rempel has blown the English Premier League title race wide open after scoring four times against Manchester Phoenix on Sunday.

Phoenix entered the weekend’s games against the Flames with a five point lead at the top of the standings, but after back to back defeats to their title rivals, the gap has closed to just two points.

Marcus Kristoffersson opened the scoring for the home side with an early goal set up by a superb pass from Ladislav Harabin. But Guildford stormed back with Rempel netting a straight hat-trick before the end of the period.

Tony Hand rallied his side in the interval and by the end of the second period, they were level, goals from Curtis Huppe and Pavel Gomenyuk the result of a dominating period, out-shooting the Flames 16-5.

However two further goals from the Flames in the final period left Phoenix a mountain to climb, first Rempel added his fouth before Matt Towe extended the visitors lead to 5-3. Huppe managed to pull Phoenix to within a goal on the power-play in the 59th minute, but it was too little too late.

The previous night, Phoenix left Guildford with a point after losing 2-1 in overtime, Flames Martin Masa and Phoenix’s Huppe traded third period goals before Lukas Smital scored the winner in the extra period.

Tony Hand said after the match on Sunday: “The guys gave everything but we paid for our errors tonight.
“But we are still two points clear at the top of the league and there is plenty of character in this side. We’ll bounce back.”