News

4-Point weekend on the road for Phoenix

Tweet

Telford Tigers 5 - Manchester Phoenix 8.

Phoenix scorers: Martin Cingel x 2, Jaroslav Spelda x 2, Juraj Faith x 2, Ciaran Long and Stephen Wallace.

Phoenix made the shortish journey to Telford for their second away fixture of the weekend.

In a first period totally dominated by the visitors it was the home side that took the honours and went to the locker room 1-0. A good skate down the left and round the goal by Marek Hornak on 9.30 split the Phoenix defence and Callum Bowley stole in front to sweep the puck past the helpless Stephen Fone. Phoenix continued to make all the chances with only a few forays by the Tigers but Declan Ryan in goal made two or three good saves to keep the Phoenix forwards at bay.

The fans were treated to a goal fest in the second period. Phoenix started proceedings with 21.47 on the clock, Ciaran Long grabbed the equaliser after good work from Stephen Wallace and James Archer. Telford argued that the puck had been kicked into the goal but, after consulting his linesmen, referee Decaux awarded the goal. Telford regained the lead just 3 minutes later when Josh Bruce scored a power play goal. The powerplay came after a strange call from the referee. Martin Cingel took a slash to the arm and was not best pleased with the Tigers’ player. Meanwhile over on the boards Luke Boothroyd was called for boarding and no action taken for the slash. 25.16 on the clock saw Phoenix equalise for the second time with a Martin Cingel opportunist goal after total confusion in front of the Tigers’ goal. Seventy seconds later Phoenix took the lead for the first time in the evening. A good pass from Luke Boothroyd found Slava Koulikov who squared for Jaroslav Spelda to score. Two minutes later, Phoenix increased their lead with a sweet move and goal from the very same player, this time assisted by Slava Koulikov and Juraj Faith. Telford regrouped and brought the score back to 3-4 with a lovely shot from Henrik Sahlin, who found the top shelf after 33.57. Two minutes later and the dogged Tigers evened up the game. Play broke down on the Phoenix blue line and Luke Brittle took full advantage to make it a 4-4 game. The scoreboard altered one more time in an eventful period with a fifth goal for Phoenix. This time it was the turn of Stephen Wallace to net, assisted by Juraj Faith and Slava Koulikov. End of an eight goal period with the visitors edging it 5-4 after 40 minutes play.

Phoenix doubled the lead with only 33 seconds on the clock in the third period and it was the Cingel, Koulikov, Faith line that scored with Martin bagging his second of the evening. Juraj Faith made it 7-4 three minutes later when James Neal found him free on the left side and he whipped the puck past Declan Ryan in the Tigers’ goal. Five minutes later Telford hit back once more after a mistake by Luke Boothroyd on the boards allowed a two on one break with Tom Soar taking a pass from Callum Bowley for 5-7. Both teams tired after this and, despite some end to end play, the scoreboard only clicked one more time. Tigers pulled Declan Ryan for the extra outskater on 19.30 but it was Phoenix who scored the final goal of the evening with a Juraj Faith empty netter.

An exciting, goal-riddled match ended with an 8-5 win for Phoenix and gave the team a 4 point weekend on the road.

Man of the match for Phoenix was Jaroslav Spelda.