MANCHESTER Phoenix 4 – 3 Belfast Giants.

Manchester Phoenix will take a precious one-goal lead into the second leg of the Challenge Cup final after a superb first leg game in Altrincham on Sunday night.

Right from the first face-off, Sunday’s game was played at a frenetic pace with the Giants laying an early siege to the Phoenix goal.

The home defended and hit back taking the lead in the seventh minute as Luke Fulghum scored on their first powerplay opportunity.

The game swung from end to end with both goalies seeing plenty of action in the first period.

The second period began with both sides in attack mode. In the 25th minute Tony Hand fed Bruce Mulherin for the second goal, and less than 90 seconds later, Brett Clouthier quickly got to the net to backhand home the third goal.

Six minutes later Kenton Smith found Tony Hand and his almost telepathic understanding with David-Alexandre Beauregard saw the Montreal native make it a 4-0 score.

Belfast captain and former Phoenix star George Awada cut the lead to three in the 33rd minute.

Phoenix kept the Giants from scoring again until the 46th minute when Colin Shields netted on a delayed penalty against the Phoenix.

Both sides upped their effort with even more strong physical play and attacking play. Both goalies made superb saves and both sets of defencemen were working overtime.

With just over five minutes to play Belfast’s Evan Cheverie cut the home advantage to just one goal. The Phoenix players responded by seeing out the closing moments to record a one-goal lead for the second leg.

Tony Hand said: “We’ve got a lead to take to Belfast and that is an important boost for us. The pressure is now on the Giants for the second leg in Dundonald.”

Phoenix travel to Belfast for the second leg of the Challenge Cup Final on March 17.

The game will be played at the Dundonald Ice Bowl with face-off at 7.30pm.