Double Overtime, Jan 26th

Be warned in advance...some of this post may descend into starry-eyed rhetoric. But then, when you've just seen your team score two goals in the last twenty-seven seconds with the goalie pulled and then win in OT, you're allowed that.

On we go...let's get the rest of it out of the way first...

Something to prove, lads?: Belfast were pushed all the way by a battling Basingstoke team on Saturday in the Odyssey, needing overtime after throwing away a seemingly comfortable 4-2 lead at home against the Hampshire side. However, on the return leg there were no such worries, as the Giants seemed to be stung into action and scored 6 unanswered goals in a 7-1 victory down at the Silverdome. There's no wound deeper than those that go to pride, it seems...although the fact that Euan King in the Bison net faced 54 shots on Saturday and stopped 49 of them may also have meant he was simply worn out when the barrage resumed...

Steeling points is becoming a habit: Yes, the spelling mistake is intentional. Sheffield scored nine goals while only conceding two on their Edinburgh weekend, mainly thanks to the efforts of Jody Lehman, who earned himself a 44-shot shutout on Saturday. With Basingstoke gaining a point on the Capitals, the race to avoid the wooden spoon is hotting up, never mind the last playoff place...

Honours even in the North East: The points were shared in the other double-header of the weekend, with Newcastle and Hull both winning their home games of the weekend to keep things close down in the lower reaches of the playoff placings...

To be released once is unlucky...twice, and you start to think that it may just not be working out. Nottingham have announced this morning that defenceman Ed Hill is their new signing, and Corey Leclair (signed from Coventry in early January) and Jurij Golicic have both been released...

While we're on the signings: Cardiff's new forward is Matt Elich.

And, after an up-and-down weekend, maybe it's for the best: The Panthers lost 3-1 to Coventry on home ice after digging out a valuable 5-3 win in Cardiff the night before, in a game which saw Brad Voth and Kevin Bergin exchange pleasantries at the opening face off, and Jay Latulippe get himself thrown out at the end for abuse of an official. Sunday's match against Coventry saw the Blaze finally earn themselves brief bragging rights thanks to a three one win.

On Sunday, the Devils were shut out away to Manchester, as the Phoenix rebounded from the game we shall now look at in somewhat greater detail, with music and all...

"Whoa, it was never my intention to brag
To steal it all away from you now.
But God does it feel so good..."

Paramore: "Misery Business"

Remember a week or so ago, when I said that even in defeat, there were signs of hope if you were a Coventry fan? On Saturday, that hope announced itself well and truly, as the Blaze and the Phoenix graced the Skydome with a game that only usually occurs in a fan's wildest dreams or darkest nightmares. A game that passed into legend the moment that Danny Stewart's angled shot hit the top left corner of Stephen Murphy's net in overtime and a roar of pure, undiluted, primal joy rose from fifteen hundred or so throats, climbing into the heavens to let the hockey gods know that something epic had occurred. A game of which words can only paint an inadequate picture...you simply had to be there.

But I shall try.

Manchester started this game by far the stronger-there was no hint of the drama to come as the first ten minutes saw two Manchester powerplay strikes from Beauregard and Fulghum, followed by a solitary reply from Carlyle Lewis. The Phoenix were in the ascendancy, and looked fairly untroubled at the first break as the mutterings began among the home crowd.

They got louder in the second, as Tony Hand pulled a goal out of nowhere, ghosting into a seemingly harmless position covered by two Blaze d-men before somehow threading the puck between them and over Perras' shoulder. Moments later it was 4-1 as Lucas Burnett finished calmly as he kept his head after a rebounding Cloutier shot to jab the puck home, before the see-saw swung the other way thanks to strikes from Deschatelets and Cowley. When Alex Dunn then fired a bullet from the blue that appeared to be tipped beautifully by Nathan Ward, even though the Phoenix d-man was given the credit, the Phoenix visibly relaxed, and even went 6-3 ahead thanks to a second goal from Hand. At the other end Stephen Murphy was his usual excellent self, denying the busy Hjalmarsson with a well timed poke-check just when it looked like the Swede would equalise, but as the game entered the last ninety seconds with the Blaze only having a solitary Calder goal to show for their efforts, the moans were growing from the home crowd, and the stands were emptying as Perras left his net and the Skydome cringed in anticipation of the empty-netter which David Beauregard was streaking down the left wing to calmly put away...

Then, somewhere in hockey heaven, the gods decided that an already enjoyable game to watch deserved to become legend, and the next two minutes, while seeming to take place on Skydome ice, were in fact on a higher plane (or, if you're a Phoenix fan, lower).

Beauregard missed the empty net. That sentence is hard to believe in itself. But Jon Weaver slid across the ice to block the low shot, and forced the Phoenix sniper to shoot high. He did. Too high. The puck rebounded round the boards, and reached Erik Hjalmarsson by way of Calder and Weaver. The Swede twisted from side to side in the slot like an eel and found the smallest of gaps between Murphy's pads for six-five. The roar that greeted his strike was loud, but still had an element of defeat in it-the Blaze were making a fight of it at least, but surely it was too-little, too late?

Phoenix time-out. A few of the early departures were trickling back in, as messages from friends still watching reached the car park. "Don't go yet, something's happening here"...Return they did, chasing the vain hope of seeing something truly special. Perras stayed on the bench.

23 seconds to either lose with honour, or make a legend. The puck dropped, the clock began to tick, and every pass was greeted with cheers or groans. No-one was sitting anymore as the Blaze crossed the Phoenix blue-line with fifteen seconds left. The puck went round the back of the net, Adam Calder passed out in front under pressure from Josh Garbutt, hoping to find someone, anyone, in a Blaze shirt to get one final shot off.

He found Sylvain Deschatelets, in an inch or two of space, who shrugged off a Beauregard slash, aimed, and fired. The puck slid almost in slow motion below Murphy's stick, through his legs, and into the net.

Bedlam. In nearly ten years of hockey-watching I have honestly never heard a Skydome crowd roar with such joy as it did then. Or seen a team go from calm confidence to looking like its heart had been ripped out as quickly as the visitors. The Phoenix looked beaten then. Stunned. They'd worked so hard, dominated the game. Wanted a victory. Deserved a victory. And someone up there had taken it away from them.

As we prepared for overtime, the departures were streaming back in. "Lose Yourself" thumped over the speakers, and seemed somehow appropriate. Every man, woman and child in the building was lost in the drama. And most of them hoped for a Blaze goal, hard as it would have been on Manchester.

A minute into overtime, it came. Barrie Moore streaked down the left side, fed Danny Stewart in the slot, and the little Blaze forward waited, waited, and waited before firing high past Murphy to send the Skydome into new heights of ecstacy, and plunge a dagger deep into the hearts of the Phoenix players and fans.

It may be a cliché, but this is a game that neither side really deserved to lose...and will be talked about long after this season has been consigned to the history books.

And if you're a Blaze fan, then hope is re-born. Should you be a Sheffield fan, then next Sunday's game suddenly looks a lot more intimidating.

And that's your weekend reviewed...