 Manchester Phoenix 7 – 2 Swindon Wildcats
Manchester Phoenix gave a solid all-round performance as they cruised to victory on Sunday night despite an outstanding display in goal from Wildcats Chris Douglas, but for his heroics, the score line could have finished in double figures.
Phoenix dominated the opening period and twice hit the Swindon goal frame on shots from Greg Wood and Joe Graham, but fell behind to a late powerplay strike from Aaron Nell as the visitors needed just 25 seconds of the games first man advantage to open the scoring.
The home side quickly re-addressed matters in the second period, equalising through Ed Courtenay and taking the lead through Joe Graham – both goals coming in the 23rd minute. New signing Stephen Wallace notched his first home goal in the 36th minute before Adam Walker completed a four-goal period in the final minute. But, the story of the second session was the netminding of Wildcats Chris Douglas, a goalie who prior to this weekend hadn’t played in two years. The Phoenix forwards were carving the visitors defence apart, but a combination of some wayward finishing and some staggering saves by Douglas kept the score respectable at the second break.
The final period saw more of the same as the Wildcats found themselves pinned in their own end for long spells with Douglas again playing the starring role. However, even his heroics were not enough to prevent the Phoenix from increasing their advantage. Courtenay added his second of the game in the 47th minute, Wallace did likewise to complete his brace and third marker of the weekend in the 49th minute and Finn, Jaakko Hagelberg made it 7-1 in the 52nd minute. A poor pass from Wallace presented Wildcats Jason Cassells with their second goal in the 54th minute, but the Phoenix were home and dry. Douglas continued to deny the home forwards and finished as the Swindon Man of the Match after facing a massive 52 shots and earning a tremendous reception from the crowd of over twelve hundred in the Altrincham Ice Dome.
Phoenix coach Tony Hand noted, “We played well tonight and it was nice to get back to winning a game without being pushed to the limit. Steve Wallace slotted in well and I thought overall, the performance was very solid. We’ve got another home game on Thursday against Sheffield and if we can take another two points from that, it will put us in good nick for next weekend when we travel to Guildford and Bracknell.”
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