Manchester Phoenix 10 Swindon Wildcats 5 (agg 13-8)

Manchester Phoenix powered their way to their first ever EPL Challenge Cup Final with an awesome display in front of a large crowd at the Dome on Thursday night. The results sets up a two-legged final against league high-fliers Telford Tigers. 

Phoenix came into the game full of optmism following a resounding 5-2 win over the Wildcats at home the previous Sunday - their first success against the Wiltshire outfit this season. With the first leg even at 3-3, there was all to play for and the faithful were expecting a close encounter.

Both teams seemed very cagey during the early exchanges as the importance of the occasion seemed to be affecting their play. However, when Tomas Kana went to the penalty box on a roughing call, the Phoenix power play swung into action. With the puck stuck in the Swindon defensive zone, Michal Psurny and Tony Hand cycled the rubber back and forth behind the net before the latter sent a back hand pass to the edge of the crease where the waiting James Archer stroked the puck past Stevie Lyle for the opening goal. Five minutes later, Joe Graham powered his way down the middle before slipping the puck into the net, doubling the Phoenix lead. 

Everybody was expecting a Wildcats comeback in the second period, but a rampant Phoenix scored four unanswered goals in the first eight minutes of the second period to effectively put the game beyond the visitors. James Archer scored his second and third of the night with goals on 22.14 and a tap in on 24.32. Phoenix looked like scoring on every attack at this point and further goals on 25.14 from Michal Psurny and Archer’s fourth on 28.03 had the crowd rocking.

Shortly afterwards Joe Graham took offence to a bad check from behind by Floyd Taylor and took some serious retribution with a controlled exhibition of his pugilistic skills, giving the young Wildcat a bit of a lesson. The fight gave Joe the honour of a “Gordie Howe hat trick”, a goal, an assist and a fight. Tomas Kana pulled a goal back for Swindon on 33.17 but it took Phoenix only three minutes to restore their six goal lead with a neat goal by Shaun Thompson.

Johan Burlin then went to the penalty box on 37.25 and just 19 seconds later the Swindon power play scored their team’s second of the night with an Adam Harding goal. That was it for the period and Phoenix went for a cup of tea to a standing ovation from the ecstatic crowd.

The match may have been over as a contest but the entertainment continued with a shared six goal third period. Hot shot James Archer scored his fifth of the night on 44.38, followed by a Wildcats strike shortly afterwards from Jonas Hoog. Two quick goals from Adam Walker and an outstanding individual effort by Robin Kovar made it 10-3. That was enough for the beleaguered Stevie Lyle and he was replaced by Michael Crisp in the Swindon net. With Phoenix taking their foot off the gas, Swindon pulled back two late goals from Tomas Kana and Shane Moore to restore a bit of pride to the visitors. Game over at 10-5, giving Phoenix a 13-8 aggregate score and a place in the final against Telford Tigers.

Phoenix Man of the Match James Archer said: “For me personally it was good to get my scoring touch back but this was an amazing effort by everybody. We really wanted this result for Coach Hand and the best fans in the league bar none. The noise was fantastic tonight and we can now look forward to the final against a good Telford side and get a good run going as we gear up for the play offs.”

Phoenix are back in action on Saturday at Swindon and return to the Dome on Sunday evening against the Milton Keynes Lightning with the usual start time of 5:30pm.