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No joy for Phoenix in Peterborough

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Peterborough Phantoms 6 - Manchester Phoenix 4

Phoenix scorers: Frantisek Bakrlik x 2, Tony Hand and Robin Kovar.

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix came home pointless on Thursday night after a disappointing 6-4 loss to the Phantoms.

The early initiative went to the home side on 4.29 when Slava Koulikov poked the puck past Stephen Fone for the first goal. Five minutes later it was 2-0 when Marcel Petran fired a rebound into the net on 9.13. Worse was to come 2 minutes later when James Hutchinson slapped in another rebound to give the home side a 3-0 lead. Phoenix seemed to wake up after this; they had a goal disallowed for a man in the crease and then scored with a powerplay goal by Frankie Bakrlik on 18.52, assisted by Robin Kovar. This finished the scoring for the first period and the Phantoms had a healthy 3-1 lead.

Sixteen seconds into the second period the same combination scored to bring the visitors to within a goal at 3-2. Player coach Tony Hand then was hit with a 10 minute misconduct as he remonstrated with the referee for not stopping play with Robert Schnabel down injured. Phoenix lost two goals during Hand’s absence with goals from Danny Wood and Erik Piatek. End of the second period with the score at 5-2.

Peterborough scored a sixth just 37 seconds into the third period as Piatek hit his second of the evening. Phoenix then lost Andrew McKinney to the ridiculous high sticks match penalty rule, resulting in a 5 minute power play for the Phantoms. However, Phoenix had their best spell of the game and scored two short-handed goals through Tony Hand and Robin Kovar. Any hope Phoenix had of pulling closer disappeared when Robert Schnabel was given a 2 plus 10 for a check to the head. With 11 minutes left on the clock. Peterborough ran the clock out for a 6-4 victory. At the end of the game Robert Schnabel and Tony Hand were given game misconducts, and Richard Bentham received a match penalty.

Coach Hand said after the game:

“Peterborough played well and deserved the points. It is always hard in this rink and losing two really early goals made things difficult for us. Now we will re-group and get ready for another tough weekend against Guildford and Telford.”