Phoenix finish in style

BRUCE Mulherin and Adam Walker grabbed a hat-trick apiece as Manchester Phoenix thrashed Basingstoke Bison 8-3 last night.

Playing their fourth game in five nights and missing Lucas Burnett and Kyle Bruce through injury, Manchester simply blew their opposition away to go joint third in the Elite Ice Hockey League.

Mulherin wrapped up his treble with three well-taken goals inside the first 17 minutes.

Basingstoke’s player-coach Eric Braff pulled one back before the end of the first period, but a nice passing move between Tony Hand and Alex Dunn sent David Beauregard in for his 34th of the season.

An Adam Walker blaster and a sublime Luke Fulghum solo effort made it 6-1 at the end of the second.

Basingstoke flew out of the blocks in the third and tore into Manchester, threatening an unlikely comeback through Warren Tait and Danny Stewart.

But once Walker had stuffed in a Fulghum shot that had come off Kevin Reiter it was game over.

Both coaches decided to give their back-up netminders some ice time for the last five minutes and the first thing Basingstoke’s Graeme Bird did was pick Walker’s third out of his goal.

Phoenix number two Adam Summerfield turned aside a couple of shots as his side closed out the game.

On Saturday, Phoenix were unlucky to go down 4-3 in Coventry.

Sylvain Deschatelets notched the winner for the hosts 13 minutes from time after Phoenix had pulled it back to three apiece through Walker, Mulherin and Beauregard.