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Phoenix make it 10 in a row at home

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Manchester Phoenix 6 - Peterborough Phantoms 4.

Phoenix scorers: Robin Kovar x 2, James Archer, Robert Schnabel, Tony Hand and Michal Psurny.

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix made it 10 home wins in a row with a 6-4 win over Peterborough Phantoms.

It took Phoenix just 76 seconds to take the lead with a Tony Hand power play goal. Robert Schnabel sent Michal Psurny down the wing and his pass back to Tony Hand found the Phoenix man with time to measure a shot on goal. The puck took a deflection to send it past the despairing Damian King in the Peterborough net. Six minutes later it was 2-0 with a superb goal from Robin Kovar who took a pass direct from Stephen Fone and left the Peterborough defence trailing in his wake to score.

13.15 on the clock and Phoenix made it 3-0 with another power play goal. Michal Psurny passed to Tony Hand who whipped the puck across the centre for James Archer to blast it past King.  Just over a minute later Phantoms pulled a goal back when a pass from Luke Ferrara found Erik Piatak alone at the back post and the top-scoring import made no mistake. Immediately after the Phantoms’ goal Will Weldon and Jacob Heron had a coming together and a fairly good lightweight scrap took place. Heron got the better punches in but Weldon, who looked totally surprised that Heron fought at all, got the take down. An honourable draw was the result. Heron picked up an extra 2 minutes for a slash on Weldon, putting the Phantoms on the power play. An outstanding pass from Tony Hand found Michal Psurny who cut across King, putting him on his rear, before clipping the puck past him for a short-handed goal.  End of the first period and a comfortable lead of 4-1 to Phoenix.

Peterborough dominated the second period and outshot their hosts 26-4 in the second period. However all that domination brought them only 1 goal in the period with a delayed penalty goal by player coach Slava Koulikov. Assists went to Darius Pliskauskas and Marc Levers. The period ended with Phoenix leading 4-2, having had to hang on for long periods under sustained Phantoms’ pressure.

Phoenix made it 5-2 on 45.26 with their third power play goal of the evening. Robin Kovar scored his second of the night with assists going to Michal Psurny and Tony Hand. With just under 10 minutes left Phoenix scored a sixth goal through Robert Schnabel assisted by Michal Psurny and Tony Hand. Peterborough staged a late rally with two late goals from James Ferrara to make the final score 6-4 to Phoenix.

Man of the Match Robin Kovar spoke to Jim “Tambo” Piper after the game.

“We had a good first period and got the goals. We did not play well in the second but scored important early goals in the third period to keep us on top in the match. I have not been getting goals so I changed my stick and am very happy to get the goals now.”

The result, coupled with a slip up by Guildford at Bracknell, put Phoenix back to the top of the table. Phoenix travel to Coventry to take on Milton Keynes Lightning on Monday night looking for 2 more points to keep up the pressure on those close to them.