News

Manchester Phoenix 9 - Sheffield Steelkings 0

Tweet

This past Saturday saw the War of the Roses taking place at the Altrincham Ice dome and had the Red Rose of Lancashire taking the bragging rights for this weekend as they beat a spirited Sheffield Steelkings side 9-0 win with Karl Nicholson bagging a hat trick in a comprehensive win for the Phoenix, but it was a much tougher game than the score line suggests.

Manchester had netminder Steve Midghall back in their ranks after he was missing from the defeat against Kingston in their last outing with a shoulder injury. A sub plot to this derby game was the fact that there was family occasion too within the game, as John and Jake of the Sheffield Steelkings faced off against their fellow family member Els Oakley as she donned the White shirt of the Phoenix.

Play was mainly in the Steelkings zone and had Karl Nicholson netting opener at 1.44 to give the home side a deserved the 1-0 lead. Sheffield though did well to try and stem an energetic Phoenix side and saw them holding the hosts out to trail just a goal. Rob Allen though broke their resistance to make it 2-0 at 3.56 after the forward scored with a tip in at the front of the Sheffield net after Anthony Booth claimed his second assist of the game as the Phoenix started to move up a gear.

Phoenix upped their play with every attack and grew in confidence with their opponents being pulled out of position and also saw them losing shape at times which caused chaos within the Steelkings ranks. Sheffield created a rare chance as Caroline Bonner brought out a save from netminder Steve Midghall to see him deny the visitors a goal. Pat Bailey scored goal three at 7.23 for the Phoenix after Sheffield goalie Bryan Hackworth made a good stop from Bailey initially, but the Phoenix man followed it up to put home and have the hosts starting to open up a commanding lead.

Sheffield struggled to get any attacking plays going in the game though it did see them having the odd flashes of good play in the contest though these flashes were more often than not snuffed out by the Phoenix defence. Manchester scored their fourth unanswered goal in the match through Karl Nicholson after the Phoenix man fired a shot into the top far corner for a stunning goal.

Steelkings netminder Bryan Hackworth was called upon yet again for the opponents as he made a couple of brilliant saves to deny the hosts. With any meeting between Lancashire and Yorkshire you always expect a physical encounter and this game saw some heavy hits come in by both sides as Barry Grayson gave some good hits on a few Phoenix players but had the home side giving it right back too.

Nicholson scored his hat trick as the score moved to 5-0 for the hosts in the opening period as the game was predominately one way traffic in the period to the hosts. We then got our first battle of the Oakley’s with sibling rivalry in Brother and Sister facing off minutes before the end of the first.

Entering the second and Els Oakley nearly scored her first goal for the club after the she found herself at the front of the net and had a couple of chances with Bryan Hackworth making a double save off her to see the score line remind as it was. Had the puck gone in then it would be she would pretty certain that her brother and father would not have heard the last of it. Hackworth then made two top draw save as firstly he denied a all but certain goal from Nicholson with a gaping goal at his mercy and the Sheffield shot stopper somehow threw out a glove and robbed him, then made another save as he tipped it over the crossbar. Anthony Booth netted goal six for Phoenix at 19.04 as the puck came to him at the side of the net and he managed to finish it off. Phoenix thought they had scored soon after but had it waved off for a hand pass in the lead up to the goal.

Sheffield managed to filter into the Phoenix zone and had a half chance through David Hall but he could only manage to drag his shot wide of the target. Dominic Cosgrove then made it seven with a poacher’s type of goal timed at 24.43 as the puck fell to Cosgrove from a rebound and the Phoenix man tucked home to score his first of the year.

Seven became eight at 28.00 when Karl Nicholson’s shot was saved by Hackworth but a clearance near the front of the goals saw the Steelkings have the puck bounce unluckily off Hall’s stick into the net for another goal in the Phoenix column. With two periods of play gone and the scoreboard reading 8-0 to the home side you would be forgiven for thinking that the losing side would just try to shore up at the back.

Instead Sheffield came out and camped in the Manchester zone for a couple of minutes and had the hosts in a bit of mild panic as they failed to clear their lines and brought another save out of Steve Midghall in the Phoenix goals by David Hall and had David Scivill looking for any loose rebound that could come about. Sheffield seemed to gain confidence and when Anthony Booth served a two minute call for boarding it gave the Steelkings an opportunity of possibly pulling one back.

The Steelkings got caught in possession and seen Nicholson break away up ice and fire a shot on target but Hackworth was alert once more to keep it out. Pat Bailey then scored the goal of the game at 36.21 as the Manchester man picked up the puck down the left side of the Sheffield goal and with a flick of the wrist saw the puck fly over the goaltender and beat the Sheffield goalie all hands down. Els Oakley had another chance to grab her first sledge goal and once again it was the GB international coming to the rescue.

The horn sounded to bring the curtain down on the first part of the Roses games as the return fixture sees the Steelkings hosting the Phoenix next Saturday evening at Ice Sheffield.