The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Phantoms face a play-off showdown
Peterborough Phantoms have a play-off showdown with the Hull Seahawks this weekend.
At stake is a place at the National League Finals in Coventry on April 27/28 and Phantoms have the advantage over Hull courtesy of a brilliant come-from-behind win against league champions Leeds Knights at Planet Ice last weekend.
The city side came back from 2-0 down to level with two final period goals before claiming the extra point after a 2-1 win on penalty shots.
Phantoms went down 4-2 in Leeds the following night, but they have three wins from their opening four matches while the Seahawks have two after following back-to-back losses to Leeds with two wins over the eliminated Bees.
Leeds finish their group games against Bees this weekend so are certain qualifiers for Coventry, while Phantoms need to win one of two games this weekend to join them.
Hull host Slava Koulikov’s men on Saturday with the return at Planet Ice on Sunday. Face-off for both games is 5.30pm.
It’s impossible to predict the results. Hull finished six points and one place above Phantoms after 54 National League matches, but the six-game series between the clubs finished 3-3 with both
sides scoring 26 goals.
Phantoms won the last meeting last month 8-4 in Humberside, but Hull won the last clash at Planet Ice 7-1!
MATCH REPORTS
It was expected to be a tense, tight affair between Phantoms and Leeds Knight at Planet Ice and so it proved in an opening period of few chances that remained goalless throughout.
But the classy Leeds side looked to have taken a winning lead in the second period as Matt Haywood struck
on 23.25 and Jordan Buesa netted on 38.09 when the Knights had a five-on-three powerplay.
Austin Mitchell-King had the best second stanza chance for Phantoms, but was denied by visiting netminder Sam Gospel. However the home skater gained revenge in the final period after pouncing on a rebound after an Ivan Björkly Nordström effort was saved.
That left Phantoms 14 minutes to find an equaliser and it only took them a further three as Callum Buglass
finished under Gospel.
Phantoms dominated the rest of the contest, but couldn’t get past the excellent visiting ‘keeper.
That sent the match to penalties and it was Phantoms who emerged victorious after successes from Luke Ferrara and MitchellKing plus some outstanding netminding from Jordan Marr.
Phantoms competed hard the following night at the home of a top team who were thirsting for revenge.
Matt Barron fired Leeds
ahead in the ninth minute with the only goal of the first period, but Phantoms drew level through Ferrara from a Lukas Sladkovsky pass on 28.51
Knights pulled away in the final period with goals from Buesa and Noah McMullen before Ales Padelek made it 3-2 with seven minutes to with captain Will Weldon claiming the assist.
Tom Norton forced a fine save from Gospel before Leeds claimed an empty net goal to seal the win with seven seconds to go.