Phoenix leash the Dogs in an amazing game at the dome.

Tuesday, 27th December 2011

Manchester Phoenix 5 - Sheffield Steeldogs 4 (after OT & penalties)

Phoenix scorers: Cingel, Koulikov, Long & Wallace. Game winning pen: Faith.

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix came back from two goals down to take the points in front of a packed Ice Dome on Tuesday night.

The home side were without injured players Tony Hand and Tom Duggan but welcomed Stephen Wallace back after his wrist injury.

The first period was a nip and tuck, end to end affair with both teams having 12 shots on goal but it was the Steeldogs who took the honours with two goals. The visitors stunned the huge crowd after only two minutes with an Ashley Calvert goal and doubled their lead on 11.19 as Edgar Berbris scored a short- handed goal. Plenty of Phoenix pressure came to nothing and the period ended 2-0 to Sheffield.

If the first period was end to end, the second was dominated by Phoenix. Martin Cingel pulled a goal back for the home favourites on 23.29, only for Sheffield to restore the two goal advantage through

Stuart Brittle. Slava Koulikov scored for Phoenix just after the half hour mark but the Steeldogs pulled away yet again with Brittle’s second of the night. The roof came off the building just before the end of the period when, firstly, Ciaran Long made it 3-4 then Stephen Wallace equalised on 38.43 with a neat shot from the right face off circle to send the teams into the second break tied at 4-4.

The third period failed to produce any goals but was certainly not devoid of talking points. With just two minutes gone, ex Phoenix favourite Pavel Gomeniuk was ejected from the game after a poor, late hit on Josh Ward. The referee gave him a major penalty for boarding and as Gomeniuk had already received a 10 minute misconduct earlier in the game, he was given an early shower. Phoenix pressed for the game winning goal to no avail and had Stephen Fone to thank for a wonder save late in the game to send the game into overtime.

No goals in the overtime period but yet again, excitement ruled. Phoenix ran into penalty trouble and had to face a nervy last two minutes on the penalty kill to send the game into penalty shots.

Slava Koulikov took the first shot for Phoenix and after a mazy run wide left which seemed to take an age and a half, cut in to beat top netminder Ben Bowns. Chris Sykes missed the Steeldogs’ first shot and then Juraj Faith took the same route as Slava to give Phoenix a two shot advantage. Greg Wood silenced the raucous crowd as he pulled one back for the visitors and then Stephen Wallace was unable to secure the win when Ben Bowns saved his effort. The crowd did their best to put Steeldog Edgar Berbris off as he tried to tie the game and when Stephen Fone grabbed his shot, the fans went absolutely wild as Phoenix took the win and the extra point.

The largest crowd of the season in the Dome rose as one to laud the victors and cheer the vanquished as both teams took a bow after the post match handshakes and almost everybody left with huge smiles on their faces as Phoenix took back to back wins for the first time in a while.

Man of the match awards went to Slava Koulikov for Phoenix and Stuart Brittle for the Steeldogs.