It was the boy's birthday last month and as a belated surprise, I had organised a trip down to Cadbury's World because we're both big kids at heart and he's a massive chocolate fiend! As we were half way down the country anyway and hadn't caught an away game this season, we decided to carry on south after the tour to see Phoenix take on Guildford. A small band of Phoenix fans also made the trip down and after the performance against Tigers the night before, we were quietly confident of a positive result. However, Sir Tony was out having taken a puck to the ankle the night before and didn't even make the trip down. With Wallace and Spelda out too, John Connolly got a call early morning to play and a makeshift Phoenix team hit the ice.
First Period
The last time Phoenix played Guildford, the Flames scored with less than a minute gone. This time Phoenix held out until 1:28 when Longstaff squeezed the puck past Fone. However, Phoenix kept their heads up and at 2:02 Ward found Faith who beat Lee to equalise. Just over a minute later, Harabin passed to Cingel who drove the net and shot past Lee to give Phoenix the lead! (much to my surprise!) Halfway through the period Archer blatantly had his stick held by a Guildford player with referee Cloutman a few feet away staring right at it. Instead of making the call, he let play go on (something he'd do for the whole game) and less than ten seconds later the puck was at the other end of the ice and Chambers scored the equaliser for Guildford. At 11:15 Cloutman finally called a penalty and Campbell got 2 minutes for cross checking. Unfortunately for Phoenix, things didn't go to plan on the powerplay. The puck couldn't be kept in the Guildford zone and bounced past the defence man, much to Hemmings delight who rushed up with the puck and scored past Fone to take the lead.
The period ended 3-2 to the Flames but the Phoenix fans were reasonably upbeat. Although Phoenix were playing mixed lines, they were working hard and Guildford did not look great defensively. But for the bounce of the puck Phoenix could have gone into the break in the lead, despite Guildford out shooting us.
Goals - Guildford 1:28 - Longstaff, Assists - Potts, Dixon, Phoenix 2:02 - Faith, Assist - Ward, Phoenix 3:16 - Cingel, Assist - Harabin, Guildford 12:24 - Hemmings (shorthanded)
Second Period
Phoenix started the second period a little slowly with some mis-placed passes and didn't seem to be able to control the puck. This unfortunately allowed Guildford to score their fourth goal after Wood had his stick lifted and the puck stolen off him. Unfortunately Phoenix couldn't fight back like they did in the first period and Guildford extended the lead through former Phoenix player Curtis Huppe slapping the puck into the unguarded net from around the left circle. Phoenix fans hearts were in their mouths when Harabin blocked a shot with his face just a few weeks after smashing his teeth doing the same thing. Thankfully he was still wearing a full face cage to protect his injury and the puck bounced away leaving Harabin unhurt. That man has no fear! Guildford continued to extend their lead and at 38:27 Longstaff poked home from close range for his second of the game. A bit of handbags between Archer and Kvetan seemed to put a bit of spark back into the Phoenix team and at 39:04 Koulikov slapped a shot past Lee from near the blue line on a delayed penalty call.
At the end of the second period Flames led 6-3 and it was all too comfortable for them. Phoenix were making too many mistakes and after Guildford scored their fourth goal the players' heads seemed to drop a bit. Archer's scrap seemed to fire the players up a bit and it was hoped that some of the energy could be carried into the final period and if we went down at least it wouldn't be without a fight.
Goals - Guildford 22:49 - Campbell, Assists - Kvetan, Hemmings, Guildford 27:42 - Huppe, Assists - Melicherik, Dixon, Guildford - Longstaff, Assists - Campbell, Dixon, Phoenix 39:04 - Koulikov, Assist - Boothroyd
Third Period
Unfortunately for Phoenix the third period went from bad to worse. Huppe scored twice at 42:29 and 45:44 to complete his hat-trick against his former club. At 8-3 and with less than 15 minutes to go, Phoenix called a time out to try and collect themselves and Guildford took the opportunity to replace netminders to give Hadfield more experience. The time out did not stem the tide and Longstaff completed his own hat-trick at 53:41. Johnson then vented his frustration and picked up a 2 minute slashing penalty at 54:05. Phoenix did have glimmers when they ventured forward and whilst killing the powerplay Archer broke free and almost scored but his shot rang off the crossbar and away. Phoenix were able to get another goal at 59:17 when Koulikov broke free and scored his second of the game to give the travelling fans something the cheer about and saw the game out to keep Guildford at single figures.
At the end of the game Phoenix were on the wrong end of a heavy defeat. This was far from a great defensive performance and showed how important having both Spelda and Harabin are to our team. Without one (or both of them) a lot is expected of Neil, Johnson and Wood and it perhaps seems too much as times. Neil is still learning his role and Wood is having to switch between forward and defence too much for him to convince as either. Not having Hand playing also showed how much we miss his control of the puck and his set up of the power plays. Although he perhaps hasn't had the greatest of starts, he does control the tempo of the game for Phoenix and we seemed rudderless without him. There were positives though. Duggan, Long and Ward all worked hard throughout the game. Unfortunately for Phoenix, there just seems to be too many injuries to cope with at the moment and it's worrying that a lot of them may be long term. As well as Spelda, Wallace and Hand, Archer and Harabin don't seem their usual selves and may be playing simply because they have to. Plus Ward has been called up by the GB Under 20 team and will miss important games in December against Guildford, Peterborough, Slough and Milton Keynes. I've never known a season like this for injuries in all my years of watching hockey and I just hope that the players that are fit can keep digging hard.
Goals - Guildford 42:49 - Huppe, Assist - Melicherik, Guildford 45:44 - Huppe, Assists - Plant, Melicherik, Guildford 53:41 - Longstaff, Assist - Savage, Phoenix 59:17 - Koulikov, Assist - Johnson
Final Score - Flames 9 - Phoenix 4
MOM - Flames - Longstaff - Phoenix - Cingel
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