The WALDECK Peterborough Phantoms travelled to Swindon to battle the Wildcats one final time at the Link Centre, on Saturday night.
The homeside came out strong in the opening period with Tomasz Malasiński and Chris testing Hayden Lavigne in the Phantoms goal. Wildcats Josh Shaw then saw his effort blocked by Joe Gretton as the Phantoms held strong.
It was the Phantoms who took the early lead when Captain Luke Ferrara broke away from the Wildcats and ripped a puck past Cats goalie Rennie Marr from the point on 5.19.
Duncan Speirs, Barni Sári and Ferrara all had chances to extend the Phantoms lead, whilst Jones then rang the iron for the Cats. Ed Bradley threw a shot on net but could only watch on as his teammate Jake Bricknell became a temporary Phantom and blocked the shot.
The second period started badly for the homeside when Chris Jones provided the Phantoms with a 5-minute penalty after he was called for Boarding for a hit on Billy Thorpe. Despite a number of shots, Wildcats netminder Rennie Marr stood tall to hold the Phantoms at bay.
The five minute penalty kill switched the momentum to the homeside and they were level on 33.36 when Reed Sayers scored the Wildcats opening goal.
Nathan Salem was unlucky not to give the Phantoms the lead, but the Phantoms got a late powerplay when former Phantoms, Glenn Billing, was called for any Interference penalty on 36.45. This time the Phantoms powerplay dominated the Wildcats zone and when Janne Laakkonen's initial shot was saved by Marr, Luke Ferrara tidied up the rebound giving the Phantoms a slim 1 goal lead going into the final 20 minutes.
It took the Phantoms just over a minute to increase their lead when Salem fired the puck top shelf to make it 3-1, much to the anger of Wildcats Bàlint Pákozdi who decided to give the Phantoms players a bit of a shove as they celebrated. Brad Bowering’s fifth goal of the season (44.04) was a contentious one, with the Wildcats arguing a hand pass in the build-up of the goal. The following face-off saw Tyler Plews dropping the gloves against Joe Gretton only to see the Phantoms man get the takedown.
Sayers scored his second of the night on 44.36 but a minute later, Cam Hough found himself in space and the Phantoms top scorer made no mistake in scoring the Phantoms 5th goal of the night.
Dylan Lipsey and Jake Bricknell both came close to scoring for the Wildcats, but as the clock ran down, it was the Phantoms who picked up a massive road win.
Final Score: Swindon Wildcats 2-5 Peterborough Phantoms
After the game, we spoke to Nathan Salem who’s sponsored by SiFi Productions, about Slava’s plans to play in a more playoff style: "We’re finding that consistency in the last four weeks of the season. Systematically we couldn’t have played better tonight, we didn’t give them a lot of chances and we shut them down really well tonight."
Salem reflected on missing Austin Mitchell-King from our line-up tonight and the effect it had on our special teams, "Ozzie is a massive miss, he’s had a phenomenal year. But it’s a chance for guys to step up, play in different positions and see different dimensions, as we go into the playoffs injuries do happen so we’ve got to prepare for that."
Man Of The Match:
Wildcats: #16 Reed Sayers
Phantoms: #96 Jarvis Hunt
Wildcats Goals:
33:36 (SW 1-1 PP) #16 Reed Sayers / #41 Vanya Antonov / #13 Sam Bullas (EHG)
44:36 (SW 2-4 PP) #16 Reed Sayers / #41 Vanya Antonov / #61 Sam Godfrey (EHG)
Phantoms Goals:
05:19 (SW 0-1 PP) #19 Luke Ferrara / #62 Janne Laakkonen (EHG)
38:06 (SW 1-2 PP) #19 Luke Ferrara / #62 Janne Laakkonen (PPG)
41:08 (SW 1-3 PP) #91 Nathan Salem / #38 Duncan Speirs / #96 Jarvis Hunt (EHG)
44:04 (SW 1-4 PP) #23 Bradley Bowering / #91 Nathan Salem / #96 Jarvis Hunt (EHG)
45:39 (SW 2-5 PP) #29 Cameron Hough / #19 Luke Ferrara / #11 Scott Robson