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Wolfe and Molin star as Phoenix march on

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Manchester Phoenix provided their army of fans with another edge-of-the-seat penalty shootout victory on Sunday night as they edged past the Nottingham Panthers in a bruising encounter in Ice Sheffield.

Phoenix jumped out to flying start as Joe Miller notched his first goal in the bmibaby Elite League in the third minute to stun the Panthers and this after Ryan Watson had crashed a shot against the crossbar moments earlier. The Panthers goal frame also denied Tony Hand while Jason Wolfe in the home goal pulled off a string of impressive saves to send the Phoenix into the first break leading by Millers’ early strike.

The second period saw both teams pressing hard and both goalies forced into action, Panthers Evan Lindsay denying Derek Cambell and Jason Wolfe saving well from Shmyr and Krajicek. Phoenix had Derek Campbell ejected on a 5+Game penalty for Roughing at 32.49 as he reacted aggressively to a late hit on Simon Mangos, but Phoenix stayed calm and captain Scott Basiuk blasted them into a two-goal lead at 33.36. Just under a minute later, Panthers hit back through their captain David Clarke to keep in a one-goal game going into the third period.

Jason Wolfe was again the busier netminder in the third period as the Panthers steadily increased the pressure on the Phoenix defence, the big goalie in outstanding form. The Phoenix cause was further impaired at 47.54 as Radoslav Hecl had to be helped from the ice following a hit from Panthers Simoes. Now missing two players, Phoenix dug deep and Johan Molin was unlucky as he became the third Phoenix player to be denied by the frame of the Panthers goal. The Panthers pressure though told at 52.58 as McAslan squeezed a shot past Wolfe to tie the score at 2-2. Neither side could find a game-winning goal and for the second consecutive weekend, Phoenix went into overtime.

Panthers thought they’d won the game early in the extra session but referee Nigel Boniface decided otherwise and the game went to the nerve-jangling penalty shootout to decide who took the two points on offer. And just as last week against Basingstoke, the Phoenix hero was super Swede Johan Molin. Needing to equalise in the initial best-of-three penalty shots, he scored sublimely and when Simoes missed for the Panthers in the sudden death, it was Molin who again bamboozled Lindsay to send the Phoenix fans into dances of delight.

The victory means Phoenix are unbeaten in their last five games and have moved into 4th place in the bmibaby Elite League standings behind Belfast, Nottingham and Sheffield but with games in hand.