The Waldeck Peterborough Phantoms travelled to Slough on Saturday evening to face the Bees in their first away game of the new campaign.
The opening face-off was delayed by nearly an hour, due to traffic issues in the surrounding area and after a tense wait for the game to start, the Phantoms conceded within the first 8 minutes with Marcel Balaz scoring for the Bees, shooting high over Marrs shoulder.
Phantoms had some good possession and a number of early chances in the opening period, but after the Phantoms found themselves on a 5 on 3 penalty kill, the Bees took full advantage with Marcel Balaz netting his second of the game from the tightest of angles with 3 minutes left of the period.
The middle period saw the Phantoms come out strong and continue to apply pressure on the Bees Goal. Phantoms halved the defecit midway through the period through Ales Padelek's shot from the top of the face-off circle. Three minutes later and Will Stead broke down the wing and found Harry Harcup clear in front of the Phantoms net to fire past Jordan Marr and regain the Bee's two goal advantage agains tthe run of play.
Phantoms made it a 3-2 the game on 36.47 when Luke Ferrara was left unmarked in the slot, and punished the Bee's defence with a rocket of a shot. Less than 2 minutes later and some nice passing between Will Weldon and Joe Gretton on the break saw Gretton level the game going into the break.
Just 46 seconds into the third period, and Brendon Bairds shot in from the blue line saw the puck fly past a screened Jordan Marr for the Bee's to regain their lead.
Two minutes later and the Phantoms were level once more after a nice cross ice pass from Luke Ferrara found Lukas Sladkovsky who fired into the Bee's net.
With both teams hitting penalty trouble in the final period, the Bee's took advantage on 47:37 as Dominik Gabaj scored Bee's 5th of the night just as Phantoms had a skater retrn to the ice to make it 4 on 4. With Bee's on another powerplay, they extended their klead on 50.50 after a scramble in front of the Phantoms goal saw Edgars Landsbergs pok the puck past Marr.
Callum Buglass pulled one back for the phantoms 30 seconds later, after Lukas Sladkovsky's initial shot rebound the the Welshman making the score 6-5.
With the clock running down, Phantoms pulled Jordan Marr on a powerplay, but as the Bee's player returned to the ice Harry Harcup broke down the ice to net the game winner with 42 seconds of the game remaining, shgooting into the empty net.
Man of the Match:
Phantoms: Lukas Sladkovsky
Bees: Marcel Balaz