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Flames keep pace with Phoenix
Photograph of the Guildford Flames in action against the Manchester Phoenix copyright of Alan Bone.
On the calendar’s spookiest evening of the year, less than 24 hours after a 3-1 home defeat to the Manchester Phoenix, and facing a potential 7 point gap to the top of the league table, the Guildford Flames ice hockey club could be forgiven for an uneasy feeling as Marcus Kristoffersson, for the 2nd night in a row, only this time on Phoenix ice, put his team in front very early in the outing. His goal at 3:55 remained the only one on the clock as the clubs resumed activity for the 2nd period. Unlike the night prior, however, Spectrum’s team had a robust reply when they netted 3 times in just over 3 minutes to take a 3-1 lead before eventually running out 4-3 winners and handing the league leaders their first regulation loss of the season. Nathan Rempel evened the score at 27:50. Ben Campbell gave them their first advantage of the entire weekend at 30:15 before Rob Lamey doubled the margin less than a minute later. Tony Hand struck at 32:28 to pull the difference back to 1 with a period to play. Just before the halfway mark of the final frame, Matt Towe re-applied the 2 goal lead, but a Tom Duggan marker in the 54th minute set up the nail biting finish.
One night earlier, the match on Spectrum’s pad started 10 minutes late, but the visiting Phoenix didn’t; firing the opening goal, thanks to Kristoffersson, just over a minute in to take a 1-0 lead before building a 2-0 margin and eventually holding court with a 3-1 win. In the 28th minute Greg Wood doubled the lead when he accepted a pass about 5 feet in front of the home goal and tucked the puck just high enough to elude Miroslav Hala. Inside the final 30 seconds of the period, Spectrum’s team finally solved Stephen Fone when Lukas Smital was on target to cut the lead in half with a period to play. Unfortunately, for the home support, Surrey’s side could not find the equalizer as time wound down and, with their net empty in favour of an extra attacker, former Flame Tom Duggan slipped the puck across the line to ensure the outcome.
Paul Dixon, Flames Head Coach, expresses his side’s relief at securing points in the 2nd half of the weekend:
“We put ourselves in a very unenviable position with a loss at home on Saturday night. At this early stage of the season both sides are likely to be perfectly comfortable with a split, but in those circumstances we would have felt a lot better about having already bagged a win as we stepped on the coach for the trip North. By losing the opener we put ourselves under enormous pressure knowing that we had to win to prevent Manchester from putting 7 points worth of distance between us; a gap that would have been very distressing even here at the front of the schedule. After what I would say was a very poor effort on Saturday, and under a lot of pressure to guarantee a win, we came up very big on Sunday night. To a man we played hard and played smart. We forechecked aggressively and played much better in our own end. We took our chances when we got them and we shook off the weight of needing to win and got the job done. Whilst I am very disappointed with what happened on Saturday night, I have to credit the guys for rebounding under difficult circumstances to keep pace in the table race.”
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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- Campbell and Flames agree terms
- Flames re-sign David Savage
- Longstaff stays with Flames
- Flames re-sign Curtis Huppe
- Towe departs Flames
