MATCH REPORT | Seahawks Edge Out Phantoms

The WALDECK Peterborough Phantoms travelled to Hull on Saturday for the opening playoff game of the 24/25 season.

Rising to the stakes of the playoffs, both teams started strong with Tom Stubley making a shot on Phantoms goalie Hayden Lavigne less than 10 seconds into the game; Cam Hough responded for the Phantoms when he body-blocked Jason Hewitt’s shot on Lavigne. Whilst on a powerplay, Brad Bowering, Tom Norton, Austin Mitchell-King and Nathan Salem all wound their sticks up at Seahawks goalie Dmitri Zimozdra.

After a goalless powerplay, Bowering injected some fire into the team when he skated into the offensive zone, shot at Zimozdra from inside the face-off circle, but the Seahawks netminder stood tall. Jasper Foster and Joe Gretton linked up well to make chances at Zimozdra’s net, but to no avail. At the other end of the ice the Seahawks were battling hard too with Jarvis Hunt putting his body on the line to block a goalbound shot from former Phantom Declan Balmer. Seahawks finally found a way past Lavigne on 11.33 when Johnny Corneil fired past Lavigne on the Powerplay, with Austn Mitchell-King sitting a 2 minute hooking penalty.

Young Phantom Louie Kynaston showed off his more experienced skills when he dangled the puck around Seahawks players and made multiple shots at Zimozdra. Luke Ferrara also came into close to levelling the scores.

Tom Norton levelled the game after he tapped in a puck that was quickly passed to him from Salem on 15.12. Hull were quick to respond as Lee Bonner edged the Seahawks by a second goal on 17.53.

At the very end of the first period, Brad Bowering picked up a two-minute cross-checking penalty, meaning the Phantms started the middle period on the Penalty Kill. Despite being on backfoot entering the second period, the Phantoms penalty kill unit worked well in preventing any further goals.

Nathan Salem also unlucky not to drw the Phantoms level with a great breakaway, but Zimozdra was stopping everything that was heading his way. Just over halfway through the period, Scott Robson and Duncan Speirs sat for tripping and hooking penalties respectively leaving three Phantoms on the ice. Yet again the penalty kill did their job successfully with Callum Buglass and Bowering keeping the puck out of the defensive zone.

The remainder of the second period became end-to-end play with no further goals being conceded by either team.

With just one goal seperating the teams the Phantoms knew they needed to start period with a fire, and they did with Hough, Robson, Foster and Buglass all challenging Zimozdra and his defence. Lavigne was also having a standout gamekeeping the Seahawks at bay, and this was exeplified when he batted away a breakaway shot from Bonner.

Nojus Venskutonis was unlucky to see his effort ping off the goalpost; Hough also came close when he found a gap between Zimozdra and the post, but went just wide.

The Seahawks finally found a way past Lavigne on 57.37, as Emil Švec scored their of the night. Phantoms responded straight from the face-off as Luke Ferrara broke away towards Zimozdra only to be pulled back by Lee Bonner.

Phantoms Head Coach Slava Koulikov called a time-out with less than 30 seconds left to go, with the Phantoms went 6 on 5 as they looked to score and reduce the defecit and goal difference. With seven seconds of the game left Janne Laakkonen made a sneaky tap-in goal into Zimozdra’s net.