Early raids prove to be successful

Peterborough Phantoms showed their ‘power’ when stretching their NIHL National Division winning streak last Saturday.

They stormed to success at Raiders to earn a fourth consecutive victory with five of their goals arriving in powerplay situations.

Much of the damage was done in an explosive opening period when Phantoms struck four times to take control at the Sapphire Ice & Leisure venue.

“We did a good job in the first period and that meant the game was pretty much over,” said head coach Slava Koulikov

“The early goal in the second period then strengthened our position even more and it was just a case of managing things from there.

“It was a very weird night with penalty after penalty, but we didn’t really give Raiders a sniff.”

Will Weldon’s early opener (the only one of their goals to be scored in an even-handed situation) was soon followed by a double from Ales Padelek.

Captain James Ferrara then got in on the act from the blue line with Petr Stepanek continuing his prolific start to the season by unleashing a trademark thunderbolt only 84 seconds into the middle stanza.

Raiders did succeed in stemming the tide and hit backthroughLukasSladovsky but they never threatened to mount a serious comeback in a game littered with penalties

PHANTOMS

4.24 Weldon ass: Bowering/R. Ferrara 7.18 Padelek (PP) ass: Billing/J. Ferrara 9.09 Padelek (PP) ass: J. Ferrara/ Weldon

16.33 J. Ferrara (PP) ass: Weldon 21.24 Stepanek (PP) ass: Susters 59.12 Susters ass: Buglass/N. Pollard

MEN-OF-THE-MATCH RAIDERS

Callum Wells

PHANTOMS Ales Padelek

for both sides.

And it was Phantoms who made the only other breakthrough as Martins Susters struck inside the final minute to complete a terrific away display.