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Phoenix empty-handed weekend

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Manchester Phoenix disappointingly lost both games over the weekend that saw difficult road trips to Nottingham and Sheffield.

Despite taking a two-nil lead in Nottingham on Saturday through Eric Lind and Shin Larsson-Yahata, the home side hit back with four straight including three powerplay goals as Phoenix suffered at the hands of some harsh officiating. On Sunday against a resurgent Sheffield, Phoenix weathered the early Steelers pressure before falling behind to goals from Gerad Adams and Eric Anderson as the home side applied strong second period pressure around Jayme Platt’s goal.

Speaking about the weekend head coach Rick Brebant admitted, “Of course, it’s disappointing to lose both games but we knew ahead of the weekend, that this would be a stiff test. I thought we got off to a good start in Nottingham before we ran into penalty trouble, paid the price and never recovered. Sunday, we came under a lot of pressure from Sheffield and for the most part we shut them down. We succumbed to a couple of breakdowns and then didn’t enjoy the best of luck in front of their goal.”

Brebant added, “I’ve said all along that this month of November will determine a lot about how the season goes. We’re on the road all month and away from most of our fans – those that travel with us give us great support and I have to commend them. I’ve said I want to play .500 hockey through these six away games so, the emphasis now is on getting a result in Cardiff on Thursday. It’s not an easy place to go, but we’ve beaten them twice this season and if we can get the points there, we’ll be back on track for the target I’ve set. We’ve no new injuries so I expect us to be at full strength Thursday.”