It’s another Sunday stroll

The current crop of Phantoms continued to impress last Sunday . . . in front of a group of Peterborough hockey stars of the past.

Slava Koulikov’s men reeled off an 11th successive victory when easing past much-changed reigning champions Basingstoke.

Among the crowd at Planet Ice were former Pirates players including one of the first-ever Peterborough imports – Rob Carnegie, who graced the Bretton rink back in the early 1980s.

He saw the crossbar rescue Phantoms early on as Bison man Russell Cowley powered forward shorthanded, but the city side hit the front just as that same powerplay came to an end.

Player-coach Tom Norton struck for the third time in two games when unleashing another of his blockbusters from the blue-line which flashed past the head of Bison netminder Alex Mettam before he could react.

Victory was sealed in the second period when Petr Stepanek pulled the trigger following a Will Weldon faceoff win to double the advantage before Nathan Pollard got in on the act with a hotlydisputed third goal.

The forward struck from the tightest of angles – a scenario which led to angry protests from Basingstoke who were convinced the puck had gone through a hole in the side netting.

It was a view that even some Phantoms fans shared, but the goalscorer, his coach and more importantly the officials were of the opinion it was a legitimate goal.

Phantoms were unable to find the net again despite almost half of the contest still remaining.

The only other goal was a late consolation for Bison import Michal Klejna.

Rob Carnegie chats to Phantoms Jordan Marr and Robert Ferrara before the Basingstoke game.