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Phoenix battle to overtime win over Bison

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Manchester Phoenix had to dig deep with a short bench, but claimed a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over the Basingstoke Bison on Sunday night.

It was the visitors who started the brighter, and took the lead at 6:29 as a shot from the blue line from Stuart Mogg was tipped in by Tomas Karpov.  Phoenix grew into the game as the period went on, and Bison netminder Tomas Hiadlovsky made a couple of smart saves with his head, and Ben Wood saw a good shot from the blue lined padded away, as the first 20 minutes ended 0-1.

Basingstoke had a good opportunity to extend their lead early in the second but Ciaran Long was denied by an excellent pad save from Steve Fone.  Phoenix were unable to create many opportunities although Vaclav Meidl was unfortunate to see a shot come back off the bar following a face-off win.  At the other end, Ivan Antonov hit the angle of the post and bar however the defences remained on top with no goals in the period.

Phoenix’s solid defensive performance kept them in the game in the final period as Basingstoke were limited to few chances.  Edgars Bebris was well denied by Hiadlovsky at the other end before Phoenix grabbed their deserved equaliser at 47:05 as James Neil released Gareth O’Flaherty on the left wing and his backhander beat Hiadlovsky at his near post.  It was Phoenix who could have won the game with a late powerplay as Hiadlovsky stopped Bebris and a scrambled rebound came back off the bar with only two seconds left.

In overtime, Phoenix struck with only a few seconds left on their powerplay as Neil set up Bebris in the right face-off circle, and his booming shot flew past Hiadlovsky to give Phoenix the two points.

Phoenix are at home next Sunday evening against the Sheffield Steeldogs, with a 5pm face-off in Blackpool.