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Manchester Phoenix 5 - Guildford Flames 2

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Manchester Phoenix scorers: Juraj Faith, Josh Ward, Jaroslav Spelda, Martin Cingel and Tony Hand.

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix entertained the newly crowned EPL Champions , Guildford Flames, to the Dome on Sunday night.

Phoenix, as has been the case all season, still have injury problems and Slava Koulikov remained on the injured list. Sean Day stepped up from the Metros to help the bench. Guildford were missing Chambers and Kvetan.

The first period was an exciting end to end affair with Phoenix outshooting the Flames 14-11. Guildford netminder Mark Lee had an outstanding 20 minutes in front of the pipes, denying Stephen Wallace twice and Martin Cingel. Stephen Fone also had to be alert to keep the free scoring Flames from getting on the scoresheet. End of the first period 0-0 with Phoenixoutshooting the Flames 14-11.

Phoenix continued to take the game to Flames and went ahead on 27.07. Ladislav Harabin found Luke Boothroyd who set up to shoot. The shooting line was closed down by the Flames defence but Luke passed to the unmarked Faith at the back post and he shot past the out of position Mark Lee.

Phoenix doubled the lead just over a minute later with Josh Ward in the right place at the right time to turn in a pass from Ciaran Long. The home crowd were in raptures on 35.04 when Tony Hand found Jaroslav Spelda on the blue line and a trademark shot found the left corner for 3-0.

Phoenix may have been three goals up but were not allowed to settle with their lead as Guildford forced the pace for the last five minutes of the period. They were rewarded with a fortuitous goal from Jozef Kohut as the puck bounced off his shin and looped over Fone. Juraj Faith and Kohut had words after the goal and both were given a 10 minute misconduct penalty. End of two periods with the score at 3-1 to Phoenix.

Guildford came out in the third meaning business and pulled a goal back after just 42 seconds with a neat goal from Milos Melicharek, assisted by Paul Dixon and Rick Plant. Phoenix soon restored their two goal lead when Martin Cingel was last to touch the puck after a scramble in front of Mark Lee on 42.15. The scoring was over for the night on 49.45 as Tony Hand found the net and Phoenix were able to relax and win the match 5-2.

Juraj Faith was awarded the man of the match and Phoenix had a fabulous 4 point weekend to consolidate their second place in the league with just one weekend to go.