Phoenix topple Phantoms in OT

Sunday, 22nd November 2015

Manchester Phoenix welcomed the Peterborough Phantoms to Deeside on Sunday evening, with Gareth O’Flaherty back in the line-up following injury.

Robin Kovar was brilliantly denied by Peterborough’s Latvian netminder Janis Auzins early on, before Phoenix defended stoutly to prevent the visitors scoring on a lengthy 5 on 3 Powerplay. Phoenix then took the lead on the Powerplay as Ben Wood fired past Auzins at 9:53 after a pass from behind the net from Nico Aaltonen.

Peterborough responded swiftly and Milan Baranyk levelled at 12:05 quickly followed by an Ales Padalek goal at 12:26 to give the visitors the lead in an opening period littered by penalties. Phoenix also lost Stanislav Gron to injury as a result of a mistimed challenge towards the end of the period.

The second period saw both sides trade chances but both netminders made smart saves to keep the score at 1-2, before Peterborough saw a goal disallowed in the dying seconds of the period due to netminder interference.

The third period saw Phoenix work hard to get back into the game, which was rewarded on 52:44 when a Kovar shot was denied by Auzins, only for Aaltonen to score on the rebound with a deft backhand. Phoenix survived a late penalty to take the game into overtime.

In the extra session, Michal Satek scored a goal worthy of winning any game. After picking up the puck in centre ice, Satek skated round the defenceman before backhanding the puck over the outrushing Auzins at 61:11 to give Phoenix a 3-2 win.

Coach Tony Hand commented: “Tonight was a closely fought game and both sides deserved something from it, and I was surprised there wasn’t more goals. We’ve lost in overtime on a couple of occasions this season so it was nice to get the win. Slava’s put together a strong side but I thought we matched them throughout the game, so full credit to the boys.”

Phoenix have two away games next weekend, when they face the Milton Keynes Lightning on Saturday evening followed by the Telford Tigers on Sunday.