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Hull prove too strong for Phoenix

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Manchester Phoenix welcomed the Hull Pirates to their new temporary home at the Fylde Coast Ice Arena on Saturday night for the opening game of the season.

Ben Wood grabbed Phoenix’s first goal of the season at 4:59 when he tipped in a Joni Tuominen shot in front of Hull netminder Jordan Marr.  However, it was the visitors who would go onto dominate the period, and levelled when Dominic Osman found the top corner from the slot on the Powerplay at 7:41.  Less than a minute later, Andrej Themar also netted to make it 2-1.

The second period simply featured a glut of goals.  Firstly, Phoenix roared back with three unanswered goals, which started when Roman Malinik capitalised on a two-on-one to fire under Marr.  James Neil then scored a rocket from the blue line which found the top corner, and on the Powerplay, Tuominen blasted a shot past Marr to put Phoenix in control.

However, Phoenix’s lack of match sharpness began to tell, and Themar got the visitors back in the game with his second of the evening.  Lee Bonnar then sneaked a backhand shot past Fone at 30:40 to make it 4-4.  The goals kept coming as Stanislav Lascek capitalised on giveaway in the middle of the ice at 31:51, before setting up Nathan Salem to make it 6-4.  There was still time for a seventh for Hull as Themar completed his hat trick.

The one-way traffic continued in the final period Ugnius Cizas, Brad Moore and Lascek all netted in quick succession, before Fone was replaced by Dennis Bell in the Phoenix net.  The scoring was completed by Jonathan Kirk as Hull ran out 11-4 winners.

Phoenix coach Tony Hand commented: “A disappointing end result but certainly some positives to take from the game.  We are a bit behind the rest having only had one full training session.  We have another tough one at Telford but we will get there.”

Phoenix are at home next Sunday evening against the Milton Keynes Lightning, with a 4:30pm face-off in Blackpool.