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Phoenix look for winning repeat against Swindon

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Manchester Phoenix welcome the Swindon Wildcats to Deeside on Sunday evening, looking for a repeat of their 6-2 pre-season win back in August.

That fixture represented Phoenix’s first game on Deeside ice, and the home team responded by storming into a six goal lead, including two from Robin Kovar, resulting in a comprehensive first win.

Since then, Phoenix were narrowly beaten 5-3 in Wiltshire back in September, when Ben Wood, Nico Aaltonen and James Archer grabbed the goals.

Phoenix will go into the game still wondering how they lost in overtime to the Hull Pirates last Sunday, despite heavily outshooting their opponents and creating a series of excellent opportunities.

Phoenix sit joint-fifth in the league table alongside the Wildcats on 11 points, providing a huge incentive for both teams.

Swindon appointed netminder Stevie Lyle as Player-Coach over the summer, who brought in a number of new imports and young British players.  Slovakian forward Miroslav Zalasek returned home last week, and was replaced by Canadian forward Carlo Finnuci.  He joins Jan Kostal, Sami Ryhanen and Tomasz Malasinski as the club’s import forwards for the season.

Lyle also signed veteran defenceman Neil Liddiard from Guildford, and young British players Harvey Stead from Bracknell, Matt Selby from Basingstoke, Corey McEwan from the Canadian junior leagues and Owen Griffiths from Wrightlink as part of a large overhaul of his squad.

With much to play for between two evenly-matched teams, this will be one game which all Phoenix fans will not want to miss.  Face-off in Deeside will be at 6:30pm and tickets are still available online.