The WALDECK Peterborough Phantoms travelled to Milton Keynes on Saturday to visit their closest rivals, Milton Keynes Lightning. Peterborough Phantoms wanted to score early, within the first two minutes Luke Ferrara took two shots at goalie Jordan Hedley.
The game began to turn in the Lightning’s favour as Joe Gretton was punished with a slashing penalty. Although they had the man advantage, the Phantoms defended well, with Scott Robson diving to stop a puck entering Hayden Lavigne’s net.
Soon after the Phantoms returned to full strength, Toms Rutkis got the first goal of the night. The majority of the first period was end-to-end action, with Lavigne standing tall against shots from Dillon Lawrence and Jordan Spadafore.
Phantoms Austin Mitchell-King, Nathan Salem and Callum Buglass wound their sticks up at Hedley. It was Cam Hough who got the better of Hedley as he took advantage of the Phantoms' powerplay. The scoreboard was level as the teams entered the second period, Milique Martelly made sure to lean the scoreboard towards MK Lightning.
This triggered a response from Duncan Speirs as he fired a shot at Hedley, who juggled to catch the puck, dropped it on the ice allowing Robson to tap it in. Brad Bowering capitalised on an Archie Salisbury turnover - carrying the puck into the offensive zone and patiently awaiting the arrival of the Phantoms offence. The puck fell to Salem who set up Speirs, the puck rebounded out of Hedley’s eyeline, allowing Mitchell-King to sweep home. Luck continued to go against MK Lightning, as they faced three penalties within the last 3 minutes of the period.
The third period became one of nearly constant penalties for both teams. This didn’t deter the Phantoms, with Ferrara and Hough, amongst others shooting at Hedley, equally MK Lightning weren’t willing to give up as Lavigne faced numerous shots, but Jordan Cownie scored the third goal for MK Lightning. As the game continued, tensions grew, this was shown when Spadafore tackled Jarvis Hunt and tangled up Mitchell-King, additionally Coach Tim Wallace knocked over Lavigne.
Following Mitchell-King’s penalty, MK Lightning held pressure in the Phantoms’ zone, taking a range of shots at Lavigne, from the blue line to digging deep in front of the net, but Lavigne stood on his head and provided MK Lightning with no more goals. Once the Phantoms came back to full strength, the action went end to end as both teams wanted to become winners of the game.
No more goals were scored during regulation, so the game went into overtime. MK Lightning took possession of the puck and the Phantom zone for the first minute and a half of overtime but the Phantoms successfully dispossessed MK Lightning, with Janne Laakkonen and Ferrara passing between each other before Ferrara tucked the winning shot between the pipe works and Hedley.
Final Score: Milton Keynes Lightning 3-4 Peterborough Phantoms
After the game we spoke to Hayden Lavigne sponsored by Millfield Autoparts, for his thoughts "Yeah, it was a tough game, guys just battled hard all night and we found a way, our penalty kill came up huge on that over time. It's kind of the story of our team this year just to keep battling and finding a way."
Hayden went on to discuss his opinion of MK Lightning’s style of play: "I mean they're really good. They put a lot of bodies to the front of the net, they move the puck really well, so they're constantly finding seams.
I thought we did a really good job most of the night, just keeping them to the outside, even though there's a lot of shots makes it relatively easy and I have a lot of credit to our D and forwards for getting in shooting lanes and blocking pucks…… I just think, when we work that hard, we'll beat anybody any given night."
Man of the Match
Lightning: #1 Jordan Hedley
Phantoms: #30 Hayden Lavigne
Lightning Goals:
04:36 (MKL 1-0 PP) #10 Toms Rutkis / #16 Mack Stewart (EHG)
22:21 (MKL 2-1 PP) #33 Milique Martelly / #5 Jordan Spadafore / #24 Carter Hamill (EHG)
52:32 (MKL 3-3 PP) #95 Jordan Cownie / #5 Jordan Spadafore (PPG)
Phantoms Goals:
19:58 (MKL 1-1 PP) #29 Cameron Hough / #62 Janne Laakkonen / #45 Callum Buglass (PPG)
29:23 (MKL 2-2 PP) #11 Scott Robson / #4 Nojus Venskutonis / #38 Duncan Speirs (EHG)
34:28 (MKL 2-3 PP) #24 Austin Mitchell-King / #38 Duncan Speirs / #91 Nathan Salem (EHG)
62:22 (MKL 3-4 PP) #19 Luke Ferrara / #62 Janne Laakkonen (EHG)