Bakrlik's Rocket Double Not Enough To Save Phoenix From Defeat

Bison 3 Manchester Phoenix 2

17/1/15

Back to Planet Ice they came in their masses like the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan. Admittedly not as numerous, nor indeed as violent, nor on horseback, nor armed to the teeth. Come to think of it they weren’t a bit like the Mongol hordes. Who were they then? The good folk of Basingstoke and a hearty contingent from the frozen wastes of the north, not to mention in Block A Trio Polskie, armed not with the weaponry of the Mongol hordes, but with vuvuzelas and exploding balloons. More about them later. As for the game it proved to be a tight encounter with Bison edging it by a single goal despite outplaying and outshooting their opponents, a too familiar scenario for them this season. Both teams were short benched, most significantly perhaps was the absence of Michal Psurny (with a silent P) for the Phoenix.

The 1^st period belonged to Bison as they romped into a 3-1 interval lead. Their first was claimed with only 1:22 on the clock. Cuddly Joe Greener was in on goal and fired in a shot. Steve Fone, in the Phoenix net saved it but gave up a rebound, which Long Ciaron Long fired back off his backhand. Fone saved again, but gave up a second rebound and there was Maple Leaf Doug Sheppard to put Fone out of his misery, or rather cause him some misery, with a netbound finish. 1-0 Bison. The goal caused the Bison backers to become joyful, jubilant and jolly.

In the 4^th minute Phoenix’s James Archer was adjudged to have tripped and was banged up. 55 seconds later Bison skipper Nicky Chinn was summarily convicted of an identical offence and incarcerated in the next cell to Archer. This resulted in a 4 on 4. Phoenix took advantage of the additional space created with less men on the ice to equalise. Robin Kovář  and James Neil combined to set up Fankie Bakrlik to try a slap shot from the blue line. It would have been easier to scale the north face of the Eiger than to stop this rocket shot. Dean “Deano” Skinns in the Bison net was able to achieve neither the former nor the latter. 1-1.

The game ebbed back and forth with Bison having the better of the play. Fone seemed to be giving up a huge number of rebounds, as if he himself were made of rubber, and Bison realised they had to adopt the tactic of getting men in front of the net to take advantage. It worked. In the 14^th minute they bagged their second after another pair of rebounds off the rubbery Fone. The first shot came in from Greener. The puck rebounded off Fone to Sheppard, whose shot rebounded to Long, who delivered the decisive finish. 2-1 Bison. When the goal was scored the Irishman in Block C exclaimed "BEGORRAH!", the Australian in Block B "STRUTH!" and the men of Trio Polskie in Block A “Dobre dla Ciebie Bison. Masz strzelił kolejnego gola.” See footnote.

Both Bison goals had been bagged by the Sheppard/Long/Greener line and it was that line which was to grab Bison’s third in the 17^th minute to send Phoenix reeling like a man who has drunk a yard of crème de menthe. Strangely enough this involved no rebounds off Fone. Coach Sheppard set up Long from behind the goal line. I am not sure whether it was a pass or a shot from the latter, but the puck went straight to Greener just outside the blue paint and he banged it in for 3-1 Bison. The goal drove the tormented (and possibly also the demented) Phoenix fans to new depths of despair. They wished they could be borne away from their place of anguish and back to the relative comfort of the frozen wastes of the north, but alas that was not possible.

The period time expired with no further goals. It had been a very satisfactory period for the home team, outshooting their visitors by 19 to 11 and making that superiority count with a goal advantage of 3-1. In between Ps 1 & 2 the crowd cogitated, meditated and ruminated. Bison’s own Man of Steel tore up a telephone directory. Mystic Jo laid out her tarot cards. Trio Polski inflated balloons. What were they thinking? I have no idea.

And so we entered P2, which was to prove a scoreless period, played at a less frantic pace and with better D work from both sides restricting the shots on goal to 9-7 in Phoenix’s favour. The period was not without incident, the most remarkable of which was a sudden noise as loud as a volcanic eruption, an Alpine avalanche and an atomic explosion all rolled into one being heard by all assembled and emanating from Block A. Trio Polskie had exploded a balloon to set off a chant.

Both teams stepped up their efforts to find the net in P3 and we saw a livelier period akin to P1. With the period barely more than a minute old Phoenix Coach Tony Hand fell to the ice with an injury and the whistle blew. I did not see what had happened to him but I did see him kicking his legs like a petulant child. No call was made and, after returning to the bench, Coach Hand decided to deliver his considered opinion to the officials. What was said remained unheard by us observing from Block C, but it almost certainly did not start “I value your opinion, referee. However……” Referee Brooks doled out a bench minor to Hand for abuse of officials and the coach wearily made his way to the allotted house of correction with “Who’s sorry now” and so many other appropriate songs too numerous to mention blaring from the Planet Ice sound system.

On 46 minutes it was the turn of Bison to fall foul of the law with Kurt “The Scissors” Reynolds called for interference. In Greek mythology a phoenix was a bird which was capable of rebirth, obtaining new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. Could the Manchester Phoenix start their own process of rebirth from the ashes of their quest for victory over Bison by taking advantage of the power play? Yes they could. A minute and a half later Robin Kovář and James Archer worked the puck to Frankie Bakrlik in a very similar position from where he scored the first Phoenix goal. Just as it is a certainty that, if you cut open a steak and kidney Pukka Pie, you will not find a recognisable piece of kidney (come to think of it you won’t find recognisable steak either), it was also certainty that big Frankie, presented with an opportunity of this type, was not going to miss the target. All he had to do was find a gap between Dean Skinns and the goal frame. He did. The puck flew past Deano’s head and bulged the net behind. 3-2 and all to play for.

And so with nearly 12 minutes remaining Phoenix found themselves back in the game. They needed to keep their discipline at all costs. With 10 minutes remaining an unfortunate incident occurred. Kovář high sticked Reynolds in the face. Kurt “The Scissors” went down spilling corpuscular material all over the ice, causing several members of the crowd to feint at the sight of the blood. There was an unprecedented uproar from the Bison blocks as in unison the unsettled and the upset took umbrage. Most vociferous was the Howling Man, whose utterance was, for once, clearly heard by all in close proximity. “Get that goon off,” said he. And that is exactly what the officials did. Kovář was given a 5 + match (later downgraded to a 5 + game as a patched up Reynolds was able to return to the ice). These sorts of incidents are frequently accidental, but “rules is rules”, as they say, and, if you high stick someone in the face and spill blood, you must suffer the consequences. Kovář had shown his sporting nature earlier in the game when Dean Skinns dropped his stick and  the Czech chap returned it to him whilst play went on. 

Phoenix defended the 5 minute power play, but only just as, with a minute of the 5 on 4 left, a rocket shot from Marvellous Miroslav Vantroba rattled the bar and came down in the crease.  Back to full strength with 5 minutes remaining Phoenix redoubled their efforts, but Bison looked just as likely to score again. Neither side did and the final buzzer sounded with the score at 3-2 and the points in the bag for Bison. Bakrlik, scorer of both his team’s goals (and tremendous shots they were too) was elected top Phoenix banana and Cuddly Joe Greener Bison’s. 

Footnote : Dobre dla Ciebie Bison. Masz strzelił kolejnego gola. Good for you Bison. You have scored another goal.