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Two home games to close out the year

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J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix will have two games at the Dome before the year’s end. On Thursday night they entertain Telford Tigers with a 1930hrs face off and close out 2012 on Sunday night with a match against Bracknell Bees.

Phoenix return home after a successful away double header last weekend when they picked up a maximum 4 points from games at Slough and Peterborough.

Bottom of the table Telford make their second visit of the season to the Dome, having lost   3-1 on their last trip. However, no one in the Phoenix camp will be taking a result for granted as the Tigers always seem to up their game against Tony Hand’s men and make the Phoenix fans reach for the valium.

Although rock bottom, Telford have been playing some decent hockey and recently made a few changes to their roster. Giant D man Tomas Fojtik came and went within days, Jordan Bannon went to Blackburn and Juraj Senko returned from Edinburgh. Dmitri Rodin, released by Sheffield, came in and of course Scott McKenzie bade an emotional farewell to Phoenix and returned to his former club.

The Tigers are on an eleven game losing streak, in fact they have not won a game since they convincingly beat Phoenix 4-1 in November. Goal scoring seems to be their Achilles heel with not one player in double figures in the goal column. Tim Burrows is top scorer with 8 goals followed by youngster Elliot Knell with 5. They will be hoping for Scott McKenzie’s return to change their fortunes. They have a more than capable netminder in Declan Ryan but he is facing some serious rubber and needs help from his defence. Rodin has come in to provide a bit of experience on the blue line.

Phoenix have a very good home record against the Tigers and will be looking to continue their winning streak with the points staying in Altrincham.

On Sunday the Bracknell Bees swarm into town, looking to avenge the 7-1 drubbing they took on their last trip north. They suffered a huge blow at the beginning of the month when top scoring blue liner Marcel Petran asked for his release to further his career and his bank balance in Kazakhstan. Bracknell coach Cox has replaced him with Pavel Strycek, a Czech well known to his new team mates Martin Masa and Lukas Smital.

Masa and Smital will, as always, be a threat up front and they are complemented by Shaun Thompson, who has scored 18 goals so far this season. Scott Spearing is likely to provide the agitation aspect and the netminding job could go to either Carl Ambler or Tom Annetts as they appear to be sharing the number 1 spot.

Sunday night will also see Phoenix honour one of Manchester’s favourite hockey sons as ex Storm and Phoenix defender Dwight Parrish makes a welcome visit to be honoured with a commemorative shirt for his outstanding service to hockey in the city.

Time to walk off the Xmas pud, get your hat and scarf on and come down to the Dome for two exciting hockey games and pay your own tribute to Dwight on Sunday. 

You can be the extra man to Tony Hand and his team and cheer the team to victory and aid their climb up the table to challenge for this season’s silverware.