News

The Hand of Phoenix

Tweet

Slough Jets 3 - Manchester Phoenix 4

Phoenix scorers : Tom Duggan, Luke Boothroyd, Ondrej Pozivil and Tony Hand

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix again showed their amazing resilience with another third period comeback in Slough. Last time out it was a 4 goal third period that secured the points, this time only three but throw a spectacular winning goal in the mix and the faithful went home happy.

Things did not start too well for the visitors and, after an early penalty for an icing infraction, Darius Pliskauskas gave the home side the lead with a shot through Stephen Fone's five hole. They doubled their lead in controversial circumstances with a goal right at the end of the period. Most people in the rink thought the buzzer had gone before the puck went over the line, however after a lengthy discussion with his linesmen, the referee gave the goal.

Phoenix looked down and out on 31 minutes when Pliskauskas netted his second of the evening with a great strike from centre blue line to make it 3-0. Phoenix were playing well and making quality chances that Greg Rockman in the Slough net was comfortably saving. The breakthrough for Phoenix came on 37.25 with Tom Duggan scoring from James Archer to send the teams to the second break at 3-1.

The Jets seemed to take their foot off the gas in the third and Phoenix were slowly beginning to dominate proceedings and got their reward on 48.24 with a Luke Boothroyd strike. Slough then thought they had the puck in the net at the other end but it was clearly side netting and play continued. Manchester completed the comeback when Tony Hand found Derek Campbell with a long pass. He then found the rushing Ondrej Pozivil who beat Rockman with a neat shot to make it 3-3. Phoenix were on top but Slough were ever dangerous and Stephen Fone had to make a couple of key saves to keep the scores level. With just 67 seconds left, and Phoenix under pressure, Tony Hand received the puck just inside his own blue line and fired it goalwards to take the pressure off. Jets' netminder Rockman was asleep and the puck found its way into the net for an unlikely but possibly deserved winner. Final score 4-3 to Phoenix and a welcome two points on this weekend away double header. Man of the Match for Phoenix, James Archer, could not hang around for the beers as a phone call gave the news that his fiancée was showing signs of producing their first child.

A good win for Phoenix against a potent Jets team and one that will give the team confidence going into Sunday's game at Peterborough.