MATCH REPORT | Tigers secure last minute victory

The WALDECK Peterborough Phantoms had an unusual away trip on Sunday to Telford. David Thomson started the game early when he shot a puck past Phantom’s goalie Luke Clark, opening the scoring for the Tigers, soon after Scott McKenzie copied Thomason and extended their lead. Nevertheless despite the obstacles they faced, Tom Norton and Billy Thorpe worked well together to intercept Fin Howells in front of Clark.

Brad Bowering and Nathan Salem linked up well to create chances at Tigers goalie Brad Day’s net; Cam Hough wrapped around Day’s net trying to squeeze the puck into his net. Devon Skoleski and Harry Ferguson got two more pucks past Clark. The Phantoms entered period two 4-0, this was soon increased to 5-0 at 20:27 when Eric Henderson ripped another past Clark.

Ross Connolly and Thomson both sat for slashing and high sticking penalties respectively, providing the Phantoms with the upper hand, Norton was ‘Johnny on the spot’ after a Laakkonen attempt to beat Day. Duncan Speirs, Salem and Bowering wound up their sticks at Day trying to keep momentum up and score a second goal. With momentum spilling over, Austin Mitchell-King took his chance to break from the Tigers and skate towards Day unfortunately this was short-lived.

Looking for the next opportunity to challenge the Tigers Louie Kynaston found himself in the right position as he completed a play given to him from Jasper Foster. As the Phantoms began to close the goal gap, the confidence grew in the whole team, Luke Ferrara made a shot at Day, and this rebounded and found Hough, he wound up his stick, and milliseconds later the whistle was blown, McKenzie retaliated causing a scuffle on the ice, Day also showed his disdain when he fired a puck at Hough - this led to McKenzie and Day receiving penalties and Hough receiving a unsportsmanlike penalty; less than a minute later Salem fired a puck passed Day.

With less than 5 seconds in the period, Laakkonen took advantage of Skoleski’s penalty and sent a puck into Day’s goal - allowing the Phantoms to enter the third period with one goal difference. Tensions rose in period three as both sides began to see victory, this became too much when Salem and Thomson tussled mid-ice, providing Salem with a roughing penalty. Thorpe and McKenzie fired at the respective goalies trying to lead their teams towards the win, but it was Foster who ripped an effort through traffic making the scoreboard level. Callum Buglass, Laakkonen and Norton became ultra-defensive trying at least to get the game to overtime.

Unfortunately, this dream was short-lived when Joe Gretton and Kynaston both simultaneously received penalties, this led to Henderson edging the lead towards the Tigers - the Phantoms did try to get back into the game with Ferrara breaking away and Bowering blocking shots but in the last two minutes Henderson secured the Tigers victory when he scored the seventh goal for his team.