Manchester Phoenix 3 Sheffield Steelers 2 by Nigel McFarlane

The traditional New Year clash between Manchester and Sheffield served up a gritty, thunderous, classic tie which had it all.

Phoenix were looking to bounce back from a 3-1 defeat at Coventry and came out at a frantic pace, as did Sheffield. As befits this cross-Pennines derby, skill and finesse on the puck played second fiddle to speed and hitting. Both sides were finishing their checks, and the action was end to end with Darcy Anderson for Phoenix and Gerad Adams for Sheffield both coming close before disappearing under a pile of defenders. Surprisingly, the first period ended goalless, with Steelers out-shooting Phoenix by 12 to 7.

The deadlock was finally broken after 28 minutes when Petteri Lotila collected a pass from Miroslav Skovira and slotted coolly past Pasi Raitenen to put Manchester ahead. The lead lasted less than three minutes as Sheffield came back strongly. With Phoenix captain George Awada serving a two minute minor for Interference, Mark Dutiame took advantage of the Steelers' powerplay to crash a shot past Phoenix netminder Jaime Platt.

In the third, Sheffield's hard-hitting tactics proved their undoing, as first Kirk Dewaele and then Kevin Bolibruck were penalised for interference and cross-checking offences. With a 5-on-3 powerplay, Phoenix capitalised as George Awada piled into the Steelers' net, along with the puck. Sheffield increased their hitting, but Manchester played smart and three minutes later Darcy Anderson seemed to wrap the game up with a delightful top-shelf slot-in, assisted by Manchester's man-of-the-match Skovira.

At tis point, Sheffield's discipline began to fall apart, as Ron Shudra then Mark Dutiame both went for slashing and roughing. Steelers laid seige to the Phoenix goal, and as they pulled their netminder for the man advantage, Joel Irving set up a nailbiting finish by pulling back a second for Steelers with 30 seconds remaining. Despite more grappling in front of the net, though, Phoenix held on for a classic and vital win.

Afterwards, Steelers' coahc Mike Blasidell said: "We played a hard game, but they played smart. If we had put away a couple of the chances we had in the first, I think it would have been a very different game. Full markes to their goalie, though, he came up with big stops when it mattered."

Phoenix coach Rick Brebant agreed: "Platt came up with big saves tonight. We were strong on defence as well. We kept our discipline, because we knew Sheffield would come back strong, but we've been working on it all week, and I think the team we've got now is really hitting its stride. We need to put a winning streak together, and we can hopefully capitalise on this win with a big performance against Nottingham on Sunday."