The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Season a success whatever happens next says coach Slava
Peterborough Phantoms head coach Slava Koulikov insists the current season must be classed a success.
The city team have already lifted the NIHL Autumn Cup and were due to do battle last night (Wednesday) in the second leg of the NIHL South Cup final at Planet Ice.
They will also go into the final weekend of the regular NIHL Division One South season with an outside chance of lifting the league title as well as having two further trophies on their radar in the upcoming play-offs.
Phantoms complete their league campaign with a Saturday trip to Raiders (5.15pm) ahead of a home date against another London side, Streatham, on Sunday (5.30pm).
They sit three points behind leaders Swindon but yet pip the Wildcats to the crown with four points still up for grabs. Swindon host Bracknell on Saturday and then go to lowly Milton Keynes Thunder on Sunday.
Phantoms also need to collect one point to be assured of a second successive runnersup finish.
Koulikov said: “Finishing in the top four was our goal for the season and we have certainly done much more than that.
“We have spent time at the top of the table and we are still involved in the title race going into the final weekend of the regular season.
“Those are things we can take a lot of satisfaction from and we definitely want to be second as a minimum.
“We will concentrate on getting the point we need to secure that spot and we’ll then see how the weekend pans out.”
Phantoms endured a rare disappointment when on the receiving end of a shock defeat at rock-bottom Invicta in their only game last weekend.
They trailed 4-0 before hitting back with a four-goal blitz in the space of little more than seven minutes late on to take the tie to overtime, but they were eventually pipped on penalty shots by a Dynamos side winning for only the fourth time all season.
However, Koulikov opted against issuing any criticism of his side.
He added: “I couldn’t really find too much fault with my team apart from perhaps the final execution, but the Invicta goalie stood on his head.
“It was simply a case of us conceding two goals in a first period we dominated and the second period was then very poorly managed due to long stoppages.
“That meant we couldn’t really build any momentum and we ended up conceding another goal and found ourselves 3-0 down when we could easily have been 4-0 or 5-0 up.
“We made some changes ahead of the third period and were camped in the Invicta end before a breakdown led to another Invicta goal.
“We managed to get ourselves back level and then we dominated in overtime as well, but I can only think is that it was written in the stars for Invicta to win this game.”