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Tigers mauled at the Dome

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Manchester Phoenix 9 - Telford Tigers 1

Phoenix scorers: Tom Duggan x 2, Slava Koulikov, Ladzi Harabin, Martin Cingel, Ryan Johnson, Josh Ward, Ciaran Long and Juraj Faith.

J Davidson sponsored Manchester Phoenix took on the struggling Telford Tigers at the Dome in an English Premier League game and ran out easy winners.

Phoenix were keen to keep tabs on league leaders Guildford Flames but were slow out of the blocks and Stephen Fone had to be sharp to keep the scores level in the first few minutes of the game. The home side, however, got on the scoreboard after eight minutes with a neat Slava Koulikov goal. Seven minutes later, Ladzi Harabin hit a speculative shot from the blue line that found its way past Declan Ryan after good screening in front from Juraj Faith. Martin Cingel found a third goal for Phoenix and the period ended 3-0.

A dominant Phoenix side took the game to the Tigers in the second period and Ryan Johnson scored a rare goal when he found himself free and sent the puck high over Declan Ryan’s shoulder for 4-0. Tom Duggan scored a beautiful shorthanded goal as he took a cross ice pass from Martin Cingel to score and followed that up with a second marker to put Phoenix six goals up going into the second break.

The home crowd erupted in the 46th minute as the popular Josh Ward scored his first ever goal for Phoenix to make it 7-0. He then followed that up three minutes later with an assist on Phoenix’s eighth goal by Ciaran Long.It was 9-0 soon after with a superb breakaway goal by the excellent Juraj Faith.

Coach Hand had given young goalie Jorge El-Hage some needed ice time with 11 minutes left in the game and the kid was unlucky to concede on 54 minutes as Tomas Janek scored a consolation goal for the visitors.

A comfortable, clinical performance by Phoenix tonight and coach Hand commented after the match: “I thought we were a bit sluggish at the start but after we got the goals and we dominated the match. The third line had a good evening and I was happy to be able to rest the first line a bit in the third period and also give Jorge some ice time. We have a tough game tomorrow (Sunday) against Sheffield and the guys are focussed and go into it playing very well.”