Photograph of Nathan Rempel of the Guildford Flames in action against Swindon.

After opening Saturday night to a 0-3 deficit, then eventually suffering a 4-1 defeat to Manchester Phoenix, the Guildford Flames fell behind once again early on Sunday; this time dropping to 0-2 in Peterborough but, unlike 24 hours earlier, managed a recovery programme for the early trouble; indeed pulled back a 2^nd 2 goal deficit later in the match to eventually force overtime before Nathan Rempel netted at 62:13 to zip up a 7-6 win over the Phantoms.  Joe Miller put the Phantoms in front just beyond the 2 minute mark and added another about 5 minutes later.  Martin Masa cut the lead in half in the 9^th minute when he converted a Flames powerplay and the 1 goal spread remained on the clock to start the 2^nd.  The Flames finally pulled even at 23:24 with a goal by Lukas Smital.  Gary Clarke gave them their first lead at 29:33, but Maris Ziedins’ powerplay goal pulled the game level less than a minute after that.  Miller’s hattrick, just ahead of the final break, put the home team up again by 1.  They made it 5-3 thanks to Brent Gough in the 42^nd minute before another Masa goal at 42:26 and his 3^rd of the night at 51:56 erased a 2 goal deficit once again.  The Phantoms weren’t done, though.  Miller scored his 4^th with less than 5 minutes remaining only for the see saw to tilt back again with the leveller by Rob Lamey less than 2 minutes from time to force a tie breaking session that paved the way for the final goal heroics by the ex-Phantoms sniper. 

24 hours earlier, after a pair of recent visits to forget, the Manchester Phoenix made their final appearance on Guildford’s pad and put the travelling demons well behind them blowing 3 goals by the Flames in the opening period and then cruising to a 4-1 win.  Stephan Wallace opened their account at 3:20 before a Robert Lachowics powerplay goal in the 19^th minute set up a two goal margin.  With just 1 tick left on the period clock, Wallace added another to send the Flames reeling into the 1^st break trailing by 3.  Penalty trouble, totalling 22 minutes for the home side, helped prevent any type of recovery for much of the middle session, but there was no further scoring until the Phoenix found themselves the wrong end of a 3 on 5 manpower situation during the period’s last minute in which the Flames finally got on the board to pull the game back to a pair with an Adrian Saul powerplay goal.  An opportunity for Surrey’s team to pull to within a goal on another powerplay early in the 3^rd backfired when the Phoenix bagged a shorthanded marker to extend the lead to 3 at 44:19 before shutting the door the rest of the way to complete the result. 

Flames Head Coach Paul Dixon commented on the weekend:

“We did not turn up on Saturday night like the team we had been for much of our recent success.  In the first period in particular, aside from a good opening couple of minutes, we had no jump and that allowed Manchester to really pile on the pressure for most of the period.  Sometimes you get away with it but Manchester is far too gifted offensively for that to happen and they put 3 by us to take full control.  It is always an uphill battle when you get behind, but when you do that and then in the next period spend much of the time in the penalty box, you have put yourself in a situation from which it is nearly impossible to escape.  Manchester took full advantage of their lead and played it perfectly the rest of the way to get a well earned win.  Obviously Sunday was a different type of game.  Peterborough is a much smaller ice surface so there is often the potential for more shots and scoring opportunities which is how things turned out.  On the one hand, you are pleased to get the win and to have scored 7, but we like to think that we can be a bit tighter in our own end to cut the goals against significantly from the 6 we gave up.  However, in a rink that is always been difficult for us, we have to take the win and move our thoughts to training this week and another important weekend at home to Romford and our final visit to Manchester on Sunday.”