Bowering relishes the step up in the absence of Robson

Ice hockey - Teenager taking the extra ice time in his stride

There is an old head on young shoulders in the Phantoms defensive corps.

It belongs to teenage talent Brad Bowering who earned rave reviews for his performances last weekend as the city side were beaten 8-5 at table-toppers Swindon before dishing out a 10-1 drubbing to Raiders in the NIHL National Division.

The 17 year-old has been given extra responsibility and increased ice-time by Phantoms chief Slava Koulikov with senior D-man Scott Robson sidelined by a knee ligament injury and responded impressively.

“It’s always disappointing to see a team-mate get injured, but it is great to be given more minutes,” said Bowering.

“It’s obviously a big part of my development to have that extra responsibility, but it is also important to step up for the team when we have someone missing.

“Slava keeps in contact with me all the time. He gives me a lot of encouragement and praise, as well as tips on what I can do better.

“Swindon are always a really good team to play against. We scored some good goals and got ourselves into good positions in the game.

“They came out really hard in the third period and we couldn’t really break them down to come back at them.

“It’s always annoying to play as well as we did there, and to still come away with nothing, but we had a good result on Sunday.

“We know Raiders can be a dangerous team and build a lot of momentum and I don’t think anyone would have expected a scoreline like 10-1.

“But we showed what we can do when playing well. The forwards obviously did a great job to score so many goals but I think the guys at the back also did well as we only conceded one goal.”

Bowering certainly impressed Koulikov with his displays on Saturday and Sunday.

The Phantoms head coach said: “Brad was fantastic all weekend.

“With ‘Robbo’ being out, he had to step up into the main four D-men and play a lot of important minutes.

“He was on the powerplay and the penalty kill and he can be really proud of his performances.”

Phantoms will again be without Robson when they travel to Hull this Saturday (6pm) and then host title favourites Swindon on Sunday (5.30pm).

Forward Will Weldon is also unavailable all weekend, but young prospect Jarvis Hunt could return from a shoulder injury.

National Division