THREE goals in eight minutes from Manchester Phoenix helped them defeat the newly crowned EPL Champions Guildford on Sunday The Flames took Phoenix’s title last weekend but Tony Hand’s side notched a confidence boosting win against the new champions ahead of the end of season playoffs.

After a goalless opening period, Phoenix stunned the Flames with three straight goals at the mid way point of the second session.

Juraj Faith opened the scoring in the 27th minute and this was added to by Josh Ward and Jaroslav Spelda but the Flames regrouped and hit back through Jozef Kohut before the break.

Milos Melicherik reduced the deficit further on the power-play early in the third period but two goals from Martin Cingel put Phoenix out of sight.

The win completed a maximum points weekend for Manchester as they beat Swindon Wildcats 5-4 on Saturday and they look to have now sealed a second place finish for the season with only two league games remaining.

Hand said: “After the disappointment of last week’s defeat at home to Slough, it was important to get back to winning ways. We were a bit careless in front of net in the first period, and Flames goalie Mark Lee was on great form.

“But we stuck to our game plan and kept our discipline and we were good value for the win.”