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Tigers caged at the Dome

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Phoenix scorers: Tony Hand, Ciaran Long, Stephen Wallace and Juraj Faith

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix played bottom of the league Telford Tigers on Saturday night, well aware that Telford often belie their lowly league position when playing Phoenix. Both teams were without key players. Phoenix iced without Slava Koulikov and lost Jaroslav Spelda after the warm up. Telford were without netminders Greg Blais and Josh Nichols as well as Adam Taylor, Marek Hornak, Ross Venus and Adam Radmall.

Phoenix made all the early running and Declan Ryan had to be on his toes to keep out the eager forwards. Chances went begging until the 13th minute when Ben Wood found Tony Hand free on the right and the maestro deked Declan Ryan out of his pads before chipping an exquisite shot into the net. That was all the scoring in the first period with Phoenix holding on to a narrow one goal lead despite heavily out shooting their opponents.

Tigers came out fighting in the second period and slowly took control of the game. The equaliser came on 27.35 with a well worked goal from the Tigers’ 1st line. Josh Henry finished off a neat move with assists going to Scott McKenzie and Luke Brittle. Phoenix regained the lead on 35.11 when Ciaran Long scored, assisted by Tom Duggan and James Archer. Tigers equalised for the second time in the game three minutes later after the Phoenix defence sent the puck straight onto Scott McKenzie’s stick and his slow shot beat Stephen Fone, who thought he had it covered but the puck slipped through the pads and into the net. The period ended 2-2 with Telford finishing the stanza as the stronger of the two teams.

Phoenix came out in the third period determined to re-establish their dominance but Telford kept them at bay until 43.53 when Stephen Wallace scored, assisted by Tom Duggan and Ladislav Harabin. Telford never give up against Phoenix and they came back strong, looking for the game tying goal and pulled their goalie for the extra skater. However it was Phoenix who scored with a Juraj Faith empty netter with 1 second left in the game to give the home side their 12th home win in a row.

Man of the match for Phoenix went to Tom Duggan and Telford’s Declan Ryan picked up their award after a superb performance.

Coach Hand said after the game: “All credit to Telford, they worked hard all night and made things difficult for us. I thought we lost a very softgoal to make it 2-2 but we took control in the third to take the points.”