LATEST details and fixtures

Manchester Phoenix 3. London Racers 1

Cardiff Devils 5 Basingstoke Bison 4

Coventry Blaze 5. Belfast Giants 1

All the scoring action came in the final period of the game between

Manchester and London, with goalkeepers Jayme Platt (Phoenix ) and Evan

Lindsay (Racers) both achieving shut outs for the first 40 minutes. After

the second break London scored after just 35 seconds when Jani Touminen

found the net, with assists from Marc Long and Mark Scott. It only took

the home team three minutes to respond with a power play goal from Chad

Brandimore, who followed this up seven minutes later with his second goal

of the night. A 53rd minute power play goal from David Cozier sealed the

victory for Manchester.

A power play goal after 3 minutes from Steve Moria gave Basingstoke an

early lead at Cardiff, and just before the break Joe Ciccarello put the

visitors 2-0 ahead. Devils sprang into action in the second period with a

goal from Jeff Brown after two minutes, only to see Bison maintain their

two goal lead when Richard Hargreaves scored less than a minute later.

Cardiff wiped out he deficit before the break thanks to Russ Romaniuk and

Ivan Matulik, leaving everything to play for in the final period. Again a

goal from Bison, with Steve Moria scoring his second of the night, was

rapidly countered by a Cardiff equaliser, with Matulik also bagging a

second. Just as it looked as if the game would go into overtime, Devils,

through Ed Patterson scored the winning goal at 59.44, giving Cardiff the

points, just widening the gap in the table between these evenly matched

teams.

Coventry Blaze beat their closest rivals in the league as Belfast Giants

spent much of the game killing penalties. Shane Johnson had opened the

scoring for the visitors at 2.26 on the powerplay, and Giants held firm in

defence for almost 30 minutes. But Hilton Ruggles scored a penalty shot to

equalise. Recent signing Frank Evans made it two, while Graham Schlender

scored the first of three Coventry powerplay goals at 34.11 The penalties

clocked up in the Giants box, with Brad Kenny, Shane Johnson and Paxton

Schulte all collecting ten minute majors in a four minute spell. Steve

Gallace and then Steve O'Brien both scored third period powerplay goals to

leave Giants still winless against the Blaze.

FIXTURES

Tuesday

Nottingham Panthers v. Basingstoke Bison 7.30pm

Wednesday

Manchester Phoenix v. Coventry Blaze 7.30pm

Friday

Belfast Giants v. Sheffield Steelers 7.00pm

London Racers v. Basingstoke Bison 8.00pm

Saturday

Basingstoke Bison v. Manchester Phoenix 6.30pm

Cardiff Devils v. Belfast Giants 7.00pm

Nottingham Panthers v. Coventry Blaze 7.00pm

Sunday

Coventry Blaze v. Belfast Giants 6.00pm

Sheffield Steelers v. Cardiff Devils 6.00pm