News

Stingrays stung as Phoenix surge back

Tweet

Manchester Phoenix returned to winning ways on Saturday night in the first of the weekends fixtures against Hull by coming from behind to beat the Stingrays by the odd goal in seven.

Hull arrived in Deeside early and were well rested by the time the game began and they caught the Phoenix cold by taking a two-goal lead at the first interval. Stingrays captain Pavel Gomenyuk opened the scoring in the 9th minute and Kevin Young doubled the visitors’ advantage on a 20th minute powerplay.

Whatever Phoenix coach Tony Hand said to his charges in the break worked wonders, as the Phoenix looked a different team in the second period. Ales Parez re-directed a Scott Basiuk blast in the 23rd minute to reduce the arrears and Robin Gomez forced home the equaliser in the 32nd minute. Phoenix had turned the game around and delighted their fans as David Vychodil returned from serving a penalty and gleefully stayed on the ice to give the Phoenix the lead in the 39th minute.

A hard-fought and tight encounter saw another twist in the 53rd minute as Hull tied the score with James Knight delaying his shot to pick his spot with a close range effort. Phoenix though surged back and the game winner came two minutes later from Johan Molin as he batted the puck out of midair and into the Stingrays net after superb approach work from Hand and Basiuk.

Sunday sees the Phoenix travel to Humberside to face the Stingrays again with a 6pm face-off in the Hull Ice Arena.