Manchester Phoenix 5, Mobilx Newcastle Vipers 2

Mar 3 2008 by Peter Adams, The Journal

NEWCASTLE were forced to endure a second dose of Elite League disappointment when, despite twice giving themselves a glimmer of hope in the final period, their victory hopes were snuffed out in Manchester last night.

The defeat followed Saturday’s 4-1 reverse at Belfast Giants in a weekend of woe on the road for Rob Wilson’s side.

The Vipers had failed to get anything out of their previous two trips to the Altrincham Ice Dome this season and the hockey gods didn’t favour them last night either, as they were penalised three times in the opening 12 minutes by referee Michael Hicks.

To the visitors’ credit, all of the short-handed spells which followed were successfully survived. But less than a minute after the final penalty-killing success, the Phoenix went ahead through Luke Stauffacher.

Two one-skater advantages were wasted by the Vipers either side of the break before Stauffacher made them pay for their failures by putting the home side further ahead on 35 minutes.

It was third time lucky on the powerplay for the Vipers who got on to the scoreboard thanks to Ben Storey four minutes into what was to become a five-goal final period.

Down a skater, the Vipers let in a powerplay third goal on 54 minutes but Brett Clouthier’s score produced a quick response from Todd Jackson (56).

Clouthier struck again 41 seconds later to put the home side two ahead again and in the final minute the Phoenix’s top scorer Joe Tallari hit his 48th goal of a productive season to make it 5-2.

On Saturday, a second period five-on-three powerplay advantage turned the tide against the Vipers in Belfast.

Wilson’s team had taken the lead when Jeff Hutchins capitalised on a rebound (23) but with players short it conceded the equaliser late in the period with Shaun Sutter scoring. Derek Campbell’s four minute roughing penalty spanned the break and soon after the forward was released from the sin bin, Peter Campbell put the Giants ahead on 43.

George Wada’s unassisted goal on 51 minutes effectively made a Vipers defeat a certainty and the same player put gloss on the victory by scoring an empty net goal late in the game.

SCORERS: Saturday – Belfast Giants: Wada 2+1, Campbell 1+2,. Sutter 1+0, Johnson 0+2. Mobilx Newcastle Vipers: Hutchins 1+0, Johnson and Longstaff 0+1.

Yesterday – Manchester Phoenix: Clouthier 2+2, Stauffacher 2+0, Tallari 1+0, Basiuk and Starke 0+2, Fankhouser, Macmillan and Mangos 0+1. Mobilx Newcastle Vipers: Jackson and Storey 1+0, Gouett, Hutchins, Longstaff and Shields 0+1.