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Phoenix off to New Year flier

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Manchester Phoenix ushered in the New Year with a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Elite League leading Sheffield Steelers on Friday night.

After a goalless first period with netminder Jayme Platt in outstanding form thwarting the Sheffield forwards, Petteri Lotila scored a tremendous opening goal in the 29th minute to set the Phoenix on their way. Steelers hit back with a powerplay equaliser three minutes later and the game was nicely poised going into the final twenty minutes. Phoenix got the vital breakthrough in the 46th minute with captain George Awada scoring on a powerplay and three minutes later, a superb move involving Miroslav Skovira saw Darcy Anderson score the vital third goal. Steelers hit back with a late second but the Phoenix were not to be denied and sent their fans home happy after a thrilling victory.

Head coach Rick Brebant commented, “Tonight was a big game for our club and it was important that we played to our strengths given we were two players short in Mikey Morin and David Kozier. The boys stuck to the game plan and got their just desserts. When you work hard and play to a system, the rewards will come. Jayme was outstanding in goal again tonight and Skovy together with Darcy were very influential. We’ve got another big game coming up on Sunday and hopefully, our fans will give us the same kind of vocal support that we got tonight they really help us when they are that loud.”

Brebant continued, “the Elite League standings are so tight right now that we move up two places tonight and Nottingham’s win over Basingstoke takes them top so come Sunday, we’re going up against the league leaders yet again. We have games in hand over every club but, we need to make the most of those games so Sunday becomes a real crunch fixture. It should be a cracker and if we can win it, it would really get our New Year off to a great start.”

On the injury front, Phoenix officials confirmed that Mike Morin will not play on Sunday, but gave David Kozier a 40% chance of returning to the line-up. A spokesperson said, “Kozy is getting closer, but we won’t risk him. A lot will depend upon the Saturday training session and pre-game skate early Sunday morning. It’s touch and go right now.”