The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
A mixture of gain and pain for patched-up team
There was a mixture of gain and pain for Peterborough Phantoms at the weekend.
The injury-ravaged city team collected two more valuable NIHL National Division points when seeing off Bracknell 5-1 at Planet Ice on Saturday before falling to a 6-2 defeat at Raiders on Sunday.
Martins Susters made the breakthrough for Phantoms with the only goal of the opening session which was cancelled out by Bees import Dominik Gabaj on a powerplay only 20 seconds into the middle stanza.
But Phantoms’ special teams then fired them back into the driving seat with an Ales Padelek blast being added to by a Nathan Pollard effort in another numerical advantage.
A quickfire Phantoms double then put the result beyond doubt in the final session as Padelek’s second powerplay strike was followed 23 seconds later by a Susters clincher.
Phantoms missed out on a full set of victories in Romford this season despite a battling display from their depleted roster.
They were undone by two powerplay goals in less than a minute late in the opening period.
Captain Aaron Connolly added a third goal for Raiders in the second session before Phantoms clawed their way back into contention thanks to powerplay strikes from Padelek and Corey McEwen.
But completing the comeback proved to be to big a challenge for Koulikov’s depleted side as Raiders regained the initiative in the closing period.
“It was always going to be tough in Romford,” Koulikov said. “But two out three wins there is a good effort.”