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Sheffield Steelkings 2 - Manchester Phoenix 10

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Part two of the War of the Roses between the Phoenix and Steelkings took place at Ice Sheffield this past Saturday Evening and saw a really tough contest between the two sides and in some ways had both sides coming out as winners. Four goals by Anthony Booth saw the Phoenix man finding his form once again as the Manchester side did the double over their rivals after they had beaten Sheffield last weekend 9-0 in Altrincham.

Despite Manchester being the odds on favourites to win this game against the new boys to the league, it was far from straight forward as the hosts did a brilliant job of restricting the visitors of chances as they kept them to the outside and saw the Steelkings confidence grow as the opening minutes ticked by. Manchester then made the breakthrough as Rob Allen’s pass to Karl Nicholson saw the Phoenix man firing in the opener past Bryan Hackworth for a 1-0 lead at 4.15 gone in the game.

Phoenix thought they had doubled their lead moments later when Rob Allen put it in the back of the net but the match official waved it off for no goal. Allen wasn’t going to be denied though and saw him net the second goal for the visitors at 5.43 as Nicholson and Graham Wilson both assisted on Allen’s strike to see the Phoenix capitalising on some rookie mistakes by the Steelkings defence to lead 2-0. Sheffield defensively though was playing really well and may have even surprised themselves at how well they dealing with the Phoenix in the opening five minutes of the period.

However a glut of Phoenix goals came against them with Anthony Booth scoring twice in a minute to make the score line 4-0 after 12-35 and then a shot near the blue line from Karl Nicholson looked to have been gloved by GB goalie Bryan Hackworth, but instead had bounced out and took a deflection off his own players sledge for a very unfortunate own goal indeed at 13-39. With the period coming to an end it saw Booth finding the target once more to see Phoenix move 6-0 ahead and was a tad harsh on Sheffield as they made a couple of soft mistakes and Manchester made them pay.

Sheffield though did manage to have one shot on goal in the period, but that was dealt with easily by Steve Midghall as he toe poked it away to safety. Moving into the second period and it saw the guests increase their lead to seven as Booth took his total to four goals for the night with Pat Bailey assisting at 15-59, to see the Manchester side moving nearer their score of last week and had them hoping to better it this time around. In Sheffield’s case what they may lack in skill and attacking threat in their debut season what you can`t question is their heart and battling qualities and that never more evident than the second period.

Sheffield started to find little gaps and tried to exploit Manchester as they were playing a tad high up ice the Phoenix and gave the Steelkings a couple of opportunities in the game to go on quick breaks. Andy Ako was like a shark in the game as whenever a mistake was made by the Phoenix side Ako always seemed to sense blood and was chasing it down hard all game and helped his side massively with the visitors hurrying them to play the puck away. The Steelkings then found themselves on a penalty kill after Caroline Bonner was penalised for a T-boning call on a Phoenix player and saw the Phoenix unable to make the extra man count for the two minutes.

Hits were flying in by both sides and began to see a real Lancashire v Yorkshire rivalry coming out of them all. Both sides gave good hits out and made the game a bit more physical than in previous encounters between the two sides and with less than ten seconds to go it saw Karl Nicholson called for an Interference penalty on Bonner for Sheffield and gave the home side a rare powerplay chance. From the faceoff the puck came towards Barry Grayson from a Jake Oakley pass and his low driven effort beat Steve Midghall in the Manchester nets for a 7-1 score with just six seconds remaining on the period and was deserved for all their hard efforts in the period.

You could make a case though that Manchester took their foot off the gas in the second stanza, but they started the third period meaning business as the Phoenix netted three unanswered goals through Rob Allen as he grabbed his second of the game and then Pat Bailey who had a great game last weekend saw him scoring twice to see the scoreboard move onto 10-1 after 39.09 gone. Sheffield though still came forward and scored the most bizarre goal for their second one, as a tame shot went on goal towards Midghall and he got in a complete tangle with the puck stuck under his sledge and as the netminder reversed to get it free he left a open goal with the puck near the line and David Hall came steaming in on goal and followed the puck into the nets for a 10-2 score.

To say the Phoenix coach wasn`t impressed would be an understatement as he looked on with hands on his hips with a death stare. Play got a tad more physical in the final five minutes and saw Pat Bailey given an Elbowing penalty in the final two minutes of the game as he connected on Barry Grayson giving the Steelkings another powerplay chance. Karl Nicholson nearly made it 11 for Phoenix but his effort pinged off the post and then with a battle at the front of the net as the game came to a close it saw handbags after Dominic Cosgrove shot the puck in to the Steelkings net.

Cosgrove, Els Oakley and fellow family members in John and Jake all got involved along with Hackworth and a couple more Steelkings as they protected their goalie. Dominic Cosgrove and John Oakley were both given 10 minute misconducts for their scrum and made it a proper War of the Roses. Man of the Match for both sides saw Barry Grayson for the Steelkings and for Phoenix the hometown girl in Els Oakley taking the honours.