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Phoenix go down battling to champions elect

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Coventry Blaze 5 - 1 Manchester Phoenix

Manchester Phoenix travelled to the league leaders on Wednesday night and found the going hard as the champions elect were in determined fashion to show why they've been the long-time favourites for the title.

Phoenix settled quickly and it was the home side who were first called upon to kill a penalty as former Phoenix player KC Timmons sat out a Hooking minor. Coventry's Danny Stewart and Phoenix Brett Clouthier then jousted for coincidental Slashing penalties before the lethal Coventry powerplay clicked on their first opportunity. Blaze captain Sylvain Cloutier scored on the man advantage in the ninth minute with Joe Tallari in the sin bin for Tripping. A lightning fast transitional attack in the 13th minute saw Blaze extend their lead, Barrie Moore netting assisted by Neal Martin and netminder Trevor Koenig. Blaze were now calling the tune and Phoenix did well to kill another Tripping penalty, this time against Sean Starke to go to the first interval trailing by two.

Both teams spurned early powerplay opportunities in the second period before Coventry added to their lead with Russ Cowley scoring a shorthanded marker in the 25th minute while his team-mate Adam Calder was serving a Holding penalty. Phoenix refused to be rattled and held their own for the rest of the period without troubling the scoreboard. Phoenix killed a Slashing penalty on Jeff Macmillan and then hounded Coventry's Neal Martin into the same misdemeanour with just 14 seconds remaining on the session to leave themselves with a long powerplay chance to start the third period.

Coventry successfully returned Martin to the ice at the start of the final session and with a three-goal cushion to rest on, the game continued in similar vein to that of the second period. Phoenix were icing their third line more and the younger players gave a good account of themselves and working hard to kill further penalties against Omar Ennaffati and Starke. Coventry always appeared to have another gear to move into if required and they demonstrated exactly why they are odds-on favourites for the league title by adding a fourth marker in the 57th minute as Cowley bagged his second shorthanded goal of the game. Thirty second later, Coventry went nap as Curtis Huppe fired them into a five-nil lead, but Phoenix responded instantly with Joe Tallari notching his 45th goal of the season assisted by Tony Hand and Brian Passmore to complete the scoring and in so doing, spoil the shutout claims of Trevor Koenig in the Blaze goal.

Phoenix player coach Tony Hand reflected saying, "we always knew it would be tough coming in here tonight. Coventry want to get the title race over and done with and they looked hungry tonight. We battled hard and there was no shortage of effort from our players, but Coventry will be champions and you could see why, they have greater depth through three lines than most other teams. We'll put this loss behind us and look forward to the weekend when travel to Newcastle and then come home against Edinburgh."