The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Losing is bad, but losing to Milton Keynes is even worse
There’s losing. And there’s losing to Milton Keynes.
The former is never nice. The latter is absolutely horrible - especially when it happens in your own rink.
Even more so when i t brings you back down to Earth with an almighty thud four days after thumping tabletopping Guildford.
Phantoms were wonderful last Wednesday when they ( excusethepun) extinguished the Flames but against their arch- rivals they were average at best, despite a 43- 18 shot count in their favour.
As that statistic would suggest, Phantoms applied plenty of pressure to the visitors and unleashed plenty of efforts on goal, but few of them carried the accuracy or venom to unduly trouble Lightning netminder Alex Mettam.
Maris Ziedins wasthe only man to find a way through as the match approached threequarter distance.
His effort halved Phantoms’ arrears after they had conceded twice in the opening period. Adam Brittle danced through some lightweight defence after 91 seconds before Leigh Jamieson pounced on a poor Joe Graham pass.
They clinched the points with an empty- netter from Kamil Tvrdek in the final seconds after Phantoms had pulled net minder Damien King.
There were mitigating circumstances for Phantoms’ indifferent display. They continue to miss the presence of influential import defenceman Jozef Sladok while four members of their roster were playing only a couple of hours after being involved in afrightening road crash.
Nottingham- based quartet Will Weldon, Joe Graham, Tom Norton and Greg Pick were said to be ‘ very lucky’ to walk away from the smash on the A1. Weldon’s car, in which they were travelling, was written off in the accident.
All four men deserve maximum respect for pulling on the orange and white jersey and doing battle on the ice.