Manchester Phoenix 5-3 Guildford Flames

Manchester Phoenix 10-2 Solway Sharks

CZECH hot shot Michal Psurny netted a hat trick on Sunday night to lead Manchester Phoenix past the Guildford Flames.

Phoenix, who got their stuttering league season back on track last weekend with an 8-3 battering of Basingstoke Bison, climbed the table with a hard fought win over the Flames after surrendering a 2 goal lead in 10 mad seconds.

Tony Hands side were finally back to full strength this weekend with the return of the energetic James Archer from injury, whilst the return to form of Psurny allowed Phoenix to take the points.

Psurny opened the scoring in the first period to give the home side a slender one goal lead going into the first break but a good start to the second frame by the visitors saw Curtis Huppe net for the Flames.

Psurny quickly put the Phoenix back in front and Archer, on his return, bagged the home sides third to give them a two goal cushion. But 10 seconds of madness and bad luck pulled the Flames level with little over 10 minutes remaining.

Firstly Andy Hemmings reduced the deficit to one with a scrappy finish before Branislav Kvetan scored the luckiest of goals, banking the puck off netminder Steve Fone from behind the goal line to bring the teams level.

But Phoenix, for all their hard work, were not to be denied and with little under two minutes remaining, Shaun Thompson struck to give the home side the lead leaving Psurny to net his hat-trick goal with an empty net finish as time expired.

After the match, defenceman James Neil said: “A great game tonight between two good teams. We worked very hard and got our reward with some great goals and all round team play. We will now work hard to keep this run going and get ourselves up the table.”

The previous evening, Phoenix ran out 10-2 winners against NIHL side Solway Sharks in the Challenge Cup.

Phoenix, who lead the cup table with eight wins from ten games, had a tough opening period with the scores locked at 2-2. But a four goal burst in the second period saw the home side take control with strikes from Johan Burlin, Jack Watkins, Ben Wood and Adam Walker.

The win was sealed in the final period with further goals from Bobby Chamberlain, netting a hat-trick on the night, and Michal Psurny who bagged his 100th goal for the club.