This week consisted of 3 games for Phoenix, including a mid-week game away to Guildford which resulted in a 5-3 loss and the usual Saturday away game at Bison which resulted in a 5-2 win. Unfortunately the indestructible Harabin took a puck to the face in Guildford which caused the loss of two teeth and 17 stitches to his lip making our defence even weaker than it was before which was going to make this game a challenge for the lads. However, Sir Tony has brought in Connolly from the Slough Jets to play a few games for us whilst Harabin and Spelda are recovering. Connolly was released from Slough earlier this week and has a couple of weeks free before he jets off to play in America. So, on Sunday Bison made their way to the Ice Dome to get their revenge from the Saturday night game and it was game on!
First Period
Phoenix started the game well and created numerous chances. Koulikov managed a great shot which was unfortunately saved by Colclough and Cingel was denied a goal by the puck taking a deflection off the stick of a Bison player. At 5:21 the first penalty call of the game was made, Wood got two minutes for high sticks. Now I know I am not Wardell's biggest fan but this was possibly the most ridiculous call I have ever seen as the puck blatantly flicked up and caught the Bison player in the face! Luckily for Phoenix, we managed to kill the power play. At 9:35, Bronnimann was called for hooking and Phoenix got a chance at the power play, unfortunately it didn't go quite to plan and Bison broke away, through the Phoenix defence and Miller slotted the puck home to take the lead. Following this Phoenix seemed to lose the momentum and Bison took control of the game. At 14:36, Fone made an unbelievable diving save (one that King Henry would be proud of!) to stop Bison extending their lead.
After the First Period, Phoenix are losing 1-0. We seemed to start well but as soon as Bison scored it all started going downhill a bit. It is obvious that we were missing Harabin and Spelda in defence and as much as Connolly had filled a void and doing a great job, he couldn't make up for the fact that we are missing two import defence men. Colclough looks very good in net and the Bison defence were working hard to make sure that Phoenix didn't have a chance at goal. Phoenix look tired and I don't blame them after two tough games this week but I think a few words from Tony will bring them out fighting in the Second Period.
Goals - Bison - 10:16 - Miller, Assist - Volrab (shorthanded)
Second Period
The Second Period was pretty even between both teams. Unfortunately for Phoenix there was only one memorable attempt on goal from Duggan which I'm not sure how Colclough saved. At 37:14, Johnson received a match penalty for accidental high sticks as his stick had caused blood to be drawn from Miller. As if we weren't struggling enough with our defence, Johnson has to make his way off the ice. This is possibly the most stupidest rule in our league, I personally think that it should be 2+2 like in the NHL and if the player who has been hurt can no longer play for the rest of the game then the match penalty should be called. Hockey players get injured all the time and there are numerous fights that result in blood being drawn. The players who deliberately have a fight with someone get a 5 minute penalty but for an accidental incident the player gets set off! Doesn't make any sense to me. Anyway rant over! The rest of the period continued where it left off , but Phoenix seemed to be on the back foot (or skate!) and spent most of the time coming back to help out the defence.
So a goalless Second Period which seemed to be a good result for Phoenix following the match penalty to Johnson (I have already had my rant about that!). Anyway, Bison still seemed to be in control of the game, Phoenix seemed to concentrate more on defending (for obvious reasons!) and not on the attack. This created the lack of drive towards the net and therefore the goals weren't forthcoming. Colclough seemed to be getting stronger and stronger with each save and looked set for a shut out. However I was hoping that we up our game for the third period, after all there was only one goal in it so not impossible to tie the game or win!
Third Period
After only 34 seconds of the third period, Bison extended the lead whilst still on the power play and things started going from bad to worse for Phoenix. No matter how hard Phoenix tried to get back into the game it didn't seem to work and the stronger Bison got the more confident Colclough was in net. At 51:09, Bison managed another goal, which was very unlucky for Phoenix as Fone had made the save and the following up came off Neil's skates and into the back of the net.
So at the end of the game Phoenix lose 3-0 to Bison. This was not the greatest game for Phoenix but to be fair we are down on players due to injury and the defence just isn't strong enough at the minute. I am however not blaming the defence for everything and I think they did extremely well under the circumstances. The forwards never seemed to get going and when they did they weren't finishing. In my opinion the top line was not the strongest line tonight and I am becoming I massive fan of the Archer, Kouilkov, Wallace line. Kouilkov really impressed me tonight and seemed to turn himself into a utility player, chasing the puck back and taking it forward too. Bison weren't that impressive really, Colclough was decent in net but under normal circumstances we would have easily broken the shut out, however, we didn't and all credit to him!
Goals - Bison 40:34 - Moira, Assist - Petran, Volrab, Bison 51:09 - Kubenko (shorthanded)
Final Score - Phoenix 0 - Bison 3
MOM - Phoenix - Duggan, Bison - Colclough
