Ok, so after a solid 4-0 road win at Swindon on Saturday, and the good report which followed it, I approached Sundays game at the Dome in a fairly positive mood. Peterborough have a habit of being a tricky team to beat, playing gritty hockey, and making teams work for their points.
Not on Sunday.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it isn’t like a poor team showed up from Peterborough. Au contraire, they actually played soem damn nice hockey, which on any other evening would jhave given them a damned good chance to taking the points home themselves. Unfortunately for them and their travelling supporters, then came across the Phoenix on a very very good night. Not only was Fone on his absolute best form (quite possibly his best run of form since joining the club), refusing to let a single shot past him into the Phoenix goal, but the outskaters hit the kind of groove that they must dream about.
Everything clicked. The passing was crisp and precise. The player movement was sublime, each man seeming to just know where they needed to be at any given moment. And the shooting…. oh the shooting. I think it is safe to say we have one hell of a collection of forwards at the Phoenix this season. The way that the lines were switched around fluidly was genius, each player fitting in with pretty much any combination of the others perfectly. The goals were spread about the lines, with each grouping making their mark on the scoresheet. Bakrlik had a stunner, proving why Tony pursued his signature this summer. Psurny looked like he was in his prime, each attack deftly built and executed. And the ‘Brit Pack’ were not far behind. Chong, Archer and Watkins showed just why Tony ahs such faith in them, delivering performances full of skill and panache. Chong in particular is a different beast to last season, looking far more confident and contented.
We even had a fight to talk about. Not a ‘handbags at dawn’ piece of nonsense, but a good old fashioned from the face off, drop the gloves, lose the helmet and go at it fight. Which ended with a 1 punch knockdown win for Andy McKinney. You don’t often see them with pantomime villains like Andre Payette looking to jump players or cheapshot them, but this was bit of old time hockey fisticuffs, even if the ref called a predictable 2+2 roughing on both participants.
And the best part from my perspective? It looked like we still had another gear to crank up into had we needed it. Yes, we were that damned good, we appeared to demolish the Phantoms without ever fully hitting top speed. Scary thought, isn’t it?