Phoenix edged out by Bison

Monday, 5th October 2015

Manchester Phoenix were unable to build on last night’s away win in Bracknell as they were narrowly beaten 4-3 by the Basingstoke Bison in Deeside.

The Bison took an early lead as Czech forward Tomas Karpov flew in behind the Phoenix defence and fired past Phoenix netminder Steve Fone at 4:28. Phoenix were then given a Powerplay and capitalised as Nico Aaltonen fired in at 7:42 following a superb cross-ice pass from Michal Satek.

A Phoenix giveaway allowed Shaun Thompson to set up Joe Rand to fire home at 11:32 but Phoenix again responded following good work from behind the net from Ben Wood, which allowed James Archer to turn and score at 15:55. An entertaining first period ended all square at 2-2.

In the second, Phoenix took the lead for the first time in the game after a pin-point pass up the middle from Ben Russell found Michal Satek and he raced in on goal to bury his second goal of the weekend. Basingstoke hit back strongly however, and Karpov jammed home his second of the night at 29:01 following a goalmouth scramble.

Phoenix then had a series of chances, including Robin Kovar who was denied by the post, however Karpov completed an excellent hat trick at 38:11 with a breakaway goal to give Bison a 4-3 lead.

Phoenix worked hard to get back into the game in the final period, but the visitors held firm to hand Phoenix their first home defeat of the season.

Coach Tony Hand commented: “I thought all the players worked extremely hard this evening, and it was a close game which could have gone either way. The league is so tight this season and many games will be decided by the odd goal. We’ve got a tough trip to Milton Keynes during the week, and then we’ll focus on two home games next weekend.”

Phoenix have two home games next weekend in Deeside; starting with the Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday evening (7pm), followed by the Hull Pirates on Sunday evening (6:30pm).