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Manchester Phoenix meet Slough Jets in back to back fixtures

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J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix take on the Slough Jets in a double-header fixture this weekend. They travel to Berkshire for the Saturday game and entertain the Jets at the Dome on Sunday with the usual 1730hrs face off.

The Jets had a mixed first weekend of the season when they lost 6-1 at home to Champions Guildford Flames but recovered some pride the following night with a 2-1 overtime win in Swindon against the Wildcats.
The Jets have made a few changes from last season, losing imports Pavel Gomeniuk to retirement and Frantisek Bakrlik to Phoenix. The replacements are giant Czech defender Tomas Fojtik and Czech forward Ales Padelek. They also lost Adam Greener on defence and brought in Sam Waller. Tough forward Ryan Watt returns to the Hangar after a year in Braehead. He has already spiced things up with a match penalty last week against the Flames.

Phoenix made a great start to the league campaign with a 5-1 win in Telford against the Tigers and an 11-2 demolition of the Sheffield Steeldogs the following evening. The goals flowed from all three lines with Frankie Bakrlik hitting 3 on Sunday. Also of note was Michal Psurny’s 6 assists alongside Tony Hand’s contribution of 5 assists. All in all, two good performances reaped the deserved reward to put Manchester at the top of the table.

Coach Hand said of the 2 encounters:

“This weekend promises to be entertaining at the least. Slava Koulikov, in his second year as head coach has assembled a tough team again. Ales Padelek , a new face to the league, looks to have brought some useful stats over with him and will need watching. Ryan Watt has returned to the Hangar and he is sure to become a fan favourite yet again with the Jets fans. At the back they have Tomas Fojtik and Mindy Kieras and that certainly puts some size on the defence. In net they have Greg Rockman between the pipes again and his experience will be a telling factor. Jets will certainly be looking at some silverware at the end of the season. However we have made a great start to the season and we are all looking to build on that this weekend.”

With Slava Koulikov and Ciaran Long returning to the Dome and Frankie Bakrlik meeting his old club, determined to put some score up, the weekend’s match up promises to entertaining. Don’t miss out on a cracking Sunday evening’s hockey. Get down to the Dome, you know you want to.