Telford Tigers collected their second ‘away’ success in just five days over Manchester Phoenix with a 7-1 victory at Telford Ice Rink.
The Phoenix travelled to Shropshire for their home match with the Tigers after the original fixture – scheduled for December 27th at Deeside Leisure Centre – was postponed.
Manchester have since been unable to secure ice time to replay the game in North Wales, and were granted permission by league bosses to host it at the Telford venue.
Max Birbraer watches his Tigers goal go in
Last night’s result followed a 3-2 overtime win for the Tigers at Deeside on Saturday night.
Tigers coach, Tom Watkins said: “Having that goal early on from Dan Davies really helped to settle us down and set the tone for the the game.
“He sits in that nice little area, gets a good pass from Pete and scores after just a minute. We asked for a good start and we got that, so I am more than happy with the result tonight.
“They had 38 shots, which is more than normal at home, but not a huge amount of quality and you’re always going to give up some good chances. There were a lot of shots against us on the powerplay, but generally we were good tonight.”
Rick Plant puts the Manchester goal under pressure in the first period
The first period started brightly for Telford, when Davies opened the scoring after just 60 seconds with a fine powerplay strike from close range.
Andrei Makrov doubled that advantage on 15 minutes with a lobbed effort from the blue line, as the Tigers sent out an early message to their ‘hosts’.
The second session started in a similar fashion with a goal from Telford’s Max Birbraer, again from close range, after just 26 minutes.
And Rick Plant was on target a few minutes later to establish a dominant 4-0 advantage over the Phoenix.
Manchester briefly threatened a comeback on 31 minutes with their first goal of the evening, but Tigers netminder Thomas Murdy was on hand with a string of fine saves.
The final session saw Telford retain a firm hold on proceedings, with Rick Plant scoring a remarkable solo effort on 51 minutes, after skating virtually the entire length of the ice.
Sam Zajac scored a determined goal six minutes later after seeing his initial shot saved, before Peter Szabo rounded off the evening with 20 seconds remaining.
Watkins added: “Rick played a solid game tonight and scored two really good goals. He is doing a great job as centre on that third line, even though he is a natural winger.
“He adds a lot of experience for us, especially with the young guys, and goes a good job on the powerplay and penalty kill.”
Telford Tigers are back in action this weekend with two home games, as they play Basingstoke Bison on Saturday, before Sunday’s visit of Milton Keynes Lightning. Both games start at 6pm.
Tigers goalscorer Dan Davies sees a shot go wide in the first period
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