Archer fires last minute winner to sink Bees

Manchester Phoenix 3-2 Bracknell Bees

James Archer netted a dramatic late goal on Sunday night to lead Manchester Phoenix past Bracknell after the visitors tied the game late.

Bracknell equalized with a minute and a half remaining in the third period and the game looked to be going to overtime before Archer hit the winner on the power-play with 18 seconds left.

Phoenix, who beat Bracknell 5-3 away on Saturday, went behind to a Peter Jasik strike against the run of play but Ladislav Harabin quickly brought the home side level with a power-play goal minutes later.

Archer gave Phoenix the lead in the 25th minute with another power-play goal before Bracknell’s style of the play brought tempers to boiling point and Phoenix’s Ryan Johnson was given a match penalty for roughing after an altercation with the visitors Scott Spearing.

Martin Masa brought the sides level with little over a minute remaining after a rough, hard hitting third period where the visitors looked to have carved out an away point.

But a late power-play opportunity for Phoenix resulted in Archer hitting the winner with seconds on the clock securing a maximum points weekend for Manchester.

Player coach Tony Hand said: “That was an ugly win, but we’ll take the points however they come.

“We knew the Bees would come at us hard, but we were determined to stick to our style of play and we were confident the chances would come.”