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Phoenix overcome late Phantoms surge

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Manchester Phoenix 4 - 2 Peterborough Phantoms

Leading three-nil in the third period, Manchester Phoenix maintained their top-of-the-table status despite a late surge by the Peterborough Phantoms that had the crowd on the edge of their seats to the final hooter sounded.

Phoenix got off to the perfect start, opening the scoring in the third minute as Iain Bowie netted his 13th of the season finishing approach work from Ben Wood and Robert Lachowicz. The visitors were working hard, but the home side were enjoying the better of the scoring opportunities and they doubled their advantage on nine minutes as Adam Walker swept home his 11th of the campaign on a tic-tac-toe passing move involving Tony Hand and Ed Courtenay. With the boisterous and noisy crowd expecting Phoenix to then run away with the game, a stubborn Peterborough team showed they would be no pushover by going to the first interval with no further change to the scoring.

Phoenix again enjoyed the better scoring opportunities in the second period - despite being outshot 11-9 in the session - but Stephen Wall in the Phantoms goal was living up to his surname in keeping the home side at bay. And when Wall was beaten, Phoenix and in particular Ed Courtenay were frustrated by shots narrowly missing the target.

The third period saw Phoenix take a three-goal lead as a 47th minute powerplay saw Andre Mattsson find Courtenay on the left flank and his pass to the front of the goal crease was converted by Jaakko Hagelberg, the Finn celebrating with gusto the end of a recent lean spell in front of goal. With the game seemingly safe, Phoenix relaxed a little too early and the Phantoms made them pay with two goals in the space of ninety seconds, Maris Ziedins and James Knight giving the travelling support plenty to make a noise about. With the visitors straining for an equaliser, Hagelberg repaid the compliment by setting up Ed Courtenay with less than two minutes remaining and the Phoenix leading scorer secured the victory crashing the puck past Wall from close range.

Phoenix coach Tony Hand noted, "I was impressed with the way Peterborough kept coming back at us and when we made a couple of mental errors they took full advantage. That said, I thought we'd played well enough to put the game beyond them before they scored. It was a good solid performance again from the guys and with a little bit of luck, we could have won by a bigger margin. The ice surface didn't help either team tonight, the puck wouldn't settle and it made a mockery of trying to play a smooth passing game. It's disappointing that a good game can almost be spoilt by a playing surface that takes away from the skill and effort of all the players."