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Phoenix draw the Bees' sting

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Manchester Phoenix 6 Bracknell Bees 0

Manchester Phoenix eased to victory on Sunday night, after a shaky start against basement club Bracknell Bees.

On-fire Curtis Huppe bagged a hat trick, while man of the match Ladislav Harabin scored two and James Archer picked off the final goal of the night.

Phoenix were eager to put behind them the penalty-shots defeat of Saturday night, which saw them go down 2-1 away at Slough Jets.

It was an uncertain start from both teams, with plenty of passes going astray and a hatful of chances missed, especially from Phoenix.

It was not until 16 minutes had elapsed that Curtis Huppe broke the deadlock, catching Marcus Kristoffersson’s pinpoint pass to brilliantly lash the puck past Adam Marashi in the Bees’ goal.

Bracknell had showed themselves to be a dangerous and extremely hard-working opponent, and while chances in front of goal were limited, they were disrupting the Phoenix forward lines very effectively.

Phoenix began to take charge of the tie after 25 minutes, when Ladislav Harabin took the puck from one end of the ice to the other before slipping it beneath Marashi for a breathtaking individual goal, and Curtis Huppe doubled his tally for the night two minutes later when he caught a loose puck and crashed it into the net.

Into the third period, and it was Harabin again who scored a peach on 44 minutes, before Huppe got his hat-trick goal three minutes later. James Archer completed the scoring on 49 minutes with an assist going to Harabin.

Player coach Tony hand said: “We were a bit slow to get going tonight, but we showed out quality in the end. The defence were strong when it counted and once our first line got going, we took charge.

“We were all disappointed after Saturday night because we had enough chances, but we didn’t put them away, and that was costly.

“But we got back to winning ways, the confidence is high and we’re set for a huge weekend against Guildford and Telford.”