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Rampant Phoenix hit Vipers for six

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Manchester Phoenix bounced back to winning ways in emphatic style on Saturday inflicting a 6-2 home defeat on last seasons playoff champions, Mobilx Vipers.

Phoenix coach Tony Hand switched his line formations around on Tyneside and the changes came up trumps as the Phoenix dominated the opening period somehow without managing to trouble the scoreboard.

That all changed in the second session as Robin Gomez opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with an excellent wrist shot. Simon Mangos doubled the lead with a powerplay marker three minutes later and David Vychodil opened his Phoenix scoring account 90 seconds later. Derek Campbell added a second powerplay goal just past the half-hour mark as the Phoenix had romped into a four-nil lead.

Needing to try and spark a revival, Vipers tried to intimidate the Phoenix at the start of the final period as Jeremy Cornish challenged Robin Gomez and the Phoenix winger showed he is no slouch when it comes to the pugilistic side of the game. Vipers pulled a goal back through Jim Shephard before Jason Robinson then tangled with Derek Campbell, both men picking up fighting major and 10-minute misconduct penalties for their troubles. KC Timmons quickly restored the Phoenix four-goal advantage with a superb rising shot that beat Cruikshank in the home goal easily before Cornish returned to again challenge Gomez. The Vipers player fared no better at the second time of asking and the game came close to serious trouble as Vipers players lost their composure as Cornish lost the fight. Upon the resumption of play, Vipers captain Jonathan Weaver scored short-handed but any faint hopes of a late revival by the home side were squashed 30 seconds later as Johan Molin became the sixth different Phoenix player to register a goal.

A Phoenix spokesperson noted, “We’d lost three games by just the odd goal coming into tonight and we were determined to put that right. We made a few changes and they worked for us right off the bat. I think we showed tonight that we can play and we can look after ourselves if we have to. We dominated the game and scored some really good goals – the task now is try and build some momentum from this result to carry us forward.”