LUKE Fulghum inspired a late revival, but it was not enough to save Phoenix in Altrincham.

The damage had been done in the first two periods as Cardiff forged a deserved 3-0 lead while Phoenix – who should have been buoyed by their 7-1 win in Hull the night before – were half-asleep.

Two goals from man-of-the-match Fulghum brought it back to 4-3, but in the end no-one could begrudge the Welshmen their victory.
“Cardiff had a good game plan,” said Fulghum.

“They came out and put a lot of pressure on our defencemen.

“They forced us to make plays quicker than we wanted to and I don’t think we were ready for that.

“We came back a bit in the second but couldn’t take our chances and in the third we battled hard and made a game of it.

“We changed it round a bit to try and get something going and it worked, but in the end it was too much for us to claw back.

“We got it back to one goal but then they went down our end and a goal went in off someone’s shinpads.”

Goals from Tyson Teplitski, Phil Hill and Jay Latulippe put Cardiff in control leaving Phoenix with a lot of work to do in the third period.

 The game ‘kicked off’ in the 44th minute with Cardiff’s Wes Jarvis cross-checking Nathan Ward.

The resulting melee saw Phoenix’s Kyle Bruce and Cardiff’s Brad Voth thrown out of the game with the original perpetrators both in the penalty box and the home side on the powerplay.

Fulghum made the most of it with a well-taken goal but Cardiff hit back immediately through Derek Campbell.

David Beauregard and Fulghum again put Phoenix within a goal of their rivals with five minutes left but the great escape was not to be as Jarvis deflected in to put the game beyond reach.

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