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Phoenix and Blaze in 6-goal OT thriller

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Manchester Phoenix and the Coventry Blaze fought out a six-goal thriller on Boxing Day to take a share of the spoils from an entertaining holiday game.

Miroslav Skovira fired the Phoenix ahead in the 7th minute only for Russell Cowley of the Blaze to tie the game up again inside a minute. Home debutant Darcy Anderson fired the Phoenix in front again early in the second period but the in-form Coventry outfit hit back again this time through veteran sniper Steve Chartrand. Phoenix again took the lead with a superb Mike Lankshear powerplay goal to edge the second session only for Steve Gallace to again haul the Blaze level in the 47th minute. An entertaining end-to-end game failed to produce any further scoring and both sides settled for a hard-earned point after overtime.

Phoenix head coach Rick Brebant proclaimed himself happy overall with performance saying, “I thought we got a great effort from all our guys tonight against one of the top three teams in the league and probably the in-form team of the moment. It was important for our fans that we showed we could go some way to erase the memory of the result in Coventry a few weeks ago. I thought we played hard and considering we lost Mike Morin in the first period and then David Kozier in the third as well as George Awada picking up a long penalty, I thought the result on the night was just about right.”

Mike Morin picked up a knee injury that will see him miss Sunday’s return game in Coventry and very doubtful for the upcoming home games against Sheffield and Nottingham. David Kozier too tweaked a knee and will be assessed by Phoenix medical staff ahead of the game on Sunday to see if he is fit to play.