Phoenix inconsistency costs home points again
11:37pm Sunday 4th December 2011 in Sport
by Mike Appleton
Manchester Phoenix 3 Basingstoke Bison 4
MANCHESTER Phoenix’ grip on their English Premier League title is loosening after another inconsistent weekend.
A superb 6-2 win at Bracknell Bees on Saturday was followed by a 4-3 loss at home to Basingstoke Bison last night to leave them eight points behind leaders Guildford Flames.
Once again Phoenix let a winning position slip to ensure they are still seeking their first four-point weekend since September.
It appeared to be the same frustrating story of recent weeks as power play chances went begging and a physical team got the better of them.
In front of a healthy Sunday night crowd in the Ice Dome, Phoenix got off to the best possible start when Jaroslav Spelda combined with Juraj Faith for Slava Koulikov to sweep past Matt Colclough in the Bison goal.
Basingstoke's Joe Miller was causing Manchester problems but the home side doubled their advantage when Martin Cingel fired a wonderful low shot off Koulikov and Spelda's work for 2-0 after nine minutes.
Phoenix were in cruise mode and weathering everything Bison had to throw at them, but the away side were handed a lifeline on 12:26.
Viktor Kubenko picked off a defensive lapse in the neutral zone, got into Manchester's territory, then cut back inside and blasted an unstoppable shot high into Steve Fone's goal.
Spelda cleared off his own line early in the second period before Jacob Heron hit the post as Basingstoke pressed.
And they got the goal their play deserved when Kubenko added his second in the 29th minute.
Miller then made it 3-2 to the Bison only for Ladislav Harabin to tie it up for Phoenix within seconds, with a superb individual goal.
Basingstoke ran into penalty trouble in the third but Manchester couldn't take advantage – spurning six opportunities on the night.
And once Nicky Chinn put the Bison ahead on 46 minutes, Phoenix looked unlikely to respond.
Basingstoke upped their physical play and Manchester had no answer – but they did have a sniff of forcing the game into overtime in the final minute.
Daniel Volrab was sent to the bin for Tripping and Phoenix pulled Fone to make it 6-on-4 – but Spelda's tame effort from the right of the blue line was all the pressure they could muster.
Phoenix coach Tony Hand said: “The guys are disappointed at the way things went tonight. We played well enough to get more out of the game.”
