Shining lights in Blackpool

In a town famed for its illuminations, Phantoms continued to light up the English Premier League last Sunday night.

The city men made the marathon trek to Blackpool – the temporary home of Manchester Phoenix–worthwhile by sinking the second tier’s bottom side to stretch their hot streak to four games.

Phantom shit the ice at the Fylde Coast Ice Arena without influential forward Marc Levers. He sustained a foot injury towards the end of the home success against Swindon the previous night and went to hospital for x-rays which came back clear.

And they suffered an early blow in the north-west as Sam Towner was thrown out little more than a minute into his second game back from an injury lay-off following acci- dental high-sticking.

But Phantoms have proved they have the depth to deal with such hiccups and Petr Stepanek made the breakthrough before Will Weldon provided a twogoal cushion before the first break.

Phantoms kicked on in the second session. Former Manchester man James Archer struck against his old club before Ales Padelek bagged a brace.

The second of those goals arrived just 28 seconds before the buzzer and all but ended the resistance of a hard-working Phoenix side.

The only disappointment for Phantoms was conceding a goal 37 seconds into the final stanza.

Roman Malinik finally found a way past netminder Janis Auzins on a night when the Latvian star dealt with the other 47 shot son his target.

Opposing netminder Stephen Fone was taken out of the firing line by Manchester chief Tony Hand ahead of the closing period.

His replacement, Dennis Bell, was beaten once as Darius Pliskauskas completed the scoring to add a goal to an earlier hat-trick of assists.