Thrills, skills and hot dogs at the all-star game!

Monday, 21st March 2011

Sunday evening saw the Manchester Phoenix and the Trafford Metros taking their competitive urges and channelling them into the All-Star Challenge evening at the Altrincham Ice Dome, and event which saw players from both teams taking each other on in contests of speed, accuracy, agility and tomfoolery!

The winners of the recent Fantasy Phoenix contest, Adam and Danny, made their selections from the current Phoenix and Metros squads to start the evening, before the event got underway. The first and third periods were played as a normal hockey game, with a tenuous definition of the word 'normal', and the second period was played as a series of skills competitions.

The first period saw James Neil fulfill an early season promise to get into a fight, when he dropped the gloves and went toe-to-toe with Andrew Sharp, with both players receiving "Two Minutes for Bro-mance" penalties. The period saw some skillful displays of hockey from both the Phoenix All-Stars and the Metros All-Stars, with all of the players getting in on the action very much in the spirit of the evening.

The second period saw forwards pitted against each other in Fastest Forward Skater contests, defencemen taking part in Fastest Backwards Skater heats, and Netminders skating as fast as possible in their full kit.

The Hardest Slapshot and Shooting Accuracy events saw the targets come in for a serious battering, and the penalty shoot-out contest saw Luke Boothroyd channelling Bobby Orr for some serious moves in front of the net!

The third period saw some of the most bizarre goal celebrations that the Phoenix Faithful have seen all season, with Joe Miller, Ben Morgan and Andrew Sharp leaving the ice to celebrate a goal with a trio of hot dogs! Curtis Huppe's "Flying V" attack plan paid off with a great goal, and James Archer's "Hockey Lesson" celebration saw him grabbing the Coach's white-board, drawing a diagram of his play and showing it to his team-mates. With Joe Miller's questionable choice of stick and Curtis Huppe's homage to Stephen Fone, the evening round to a close with all of the players gathering for the Man Of The Match awards and some post-game celebrations, echoing with the applause of the Phoenix Faithful.

Phoenix team owner Neil Morris was pleased with how the evening played out. "It's great to see the players letting their hair down and easing the pressure, just for one night," says Neil Morris. "We're at a crunch point in the season, the title is almost in Phoenix's grasp, and an evening like this is great for the players, great for the supporters, and great for the Club as a whole!"