The WALDECK Peterborough Phantoms travelled to Swindon on Saturday to challenge the Wildcats for two points to add to their league total.
The game started with the Wildcats’ Glenn Billing and Tomasz Malasinski testing Phantoms goalie Hayden Lavigne, before Billing rang the first goal of the game for the Wildcats on 1.27.
Tyler Plews sat a 2 minute penalty after interfering with Janne Laakkonen’s play, giving the Phantoms the powerplay advantage. Despite having chances the Phantoms weren't able to take advantahge of the extra skater.
With tension building on the ice after the opening ten minutes end-to-end action, Wildcats’ defenceman Edgars Bebris wrestled with Phantoms Brad Bowering following a good save from Lavigne, but no penalties were called.
The Wildcats finished the period strong, but the Phantoms defence was resolute shutdown the Wildcats' plans.
Brad Bowering made it his mission to start the second period strong, as he led Phantoms Janne Laakkonen and Tom Norton into the Wildcats zone, both Laakkonen and Norton saw their efforts well saved by Wildcats goalie Renny Marr. Moments later and Nathan Salem did find the back of the Wildcats net to even the scores.
The game turned when Janne Laakkonen received a five-minute penalty for interference, which allowed the Wildcats to have a major advantage. They used the momentum to score three quick goals, from Jake Bricknell, Ed Bradley and Glenn Billing to turn it into a 4-1 game.
Once back to full strength Nathan Salem, Zaine McKenzie and Tom Norton tested Marr in the Wildcats. Dylan Lipsey netted a 5th goal for the homeside before Cameron Hough beat Marr to make it 5-2 going into the final period.
The Phantoms faced two penalty kills at the beginning of the third period, as Salem and Bowering sat back-to-back roughing penalties, with Bowering agitated by a boarding hit from Wiildcats Malasinski. Wildcats took advantage of their powerplay as Malasinski scored a 6th Wildcats goal on 40.30.
Nathan Salem took advantage of a Phantoms powerplay to score a third goal for the Phantoms tipping in a Norton blue line shot but less than 30 seconds later Malasinski netted his second of the night to make it 7-3 to the Wildcats.
After the game, captain for the night Cam Hough said "I thought we started well, obviously that that five-minute penalty kill kind of killed us [and] kind of killed momentum, but I thought we had some good luck, just a little slow night and that's all, hopefully we can we can come back tomorrow at home vs Telford and have a good game."
On the Phantoms Organisation, Hough said "It’s been great so far. I mean … it's like a real brotherhood in the room, like everybody's been so welcoming and I think we have a really good group of guys and I think we'll have a great year."
Final Score: Swindon Wildcats 7-3 Peterborough Phantoms
Man of the match:
Wildcats: #89 Tomasz Malasinski
Phantoms: #29 Cam Hough
Wildcats Goals:
01:27 (SW 1-0 PP) #72 Glenn Billing / #26 Jake Bricknell / #89 Tomasz Malasinski (PPG)
30:51 (SW 2-1 PP) #26 Jake Bricknell / #12 Ryan Wells / #72 Glenn Billing (PPG)
31:09 (SW 3-1 PP) #73 Ed Bradley / #3 Balint Pakozdi / #89 Tomasz Malasinski (PPG)
32:44 (SW 4-1 PP) #72 Glenn Billing / #89 Tomasz Malasinski \ #26 Jake Bricknell (PPG)
34:42 (SW 5-1 PP) #14 Dylan Lipsey / #77 Joshua Shaw / #21 Luc Johnson (EHG)
40:30 (SW 6-2 PP) #89 Tomasz Malasinski / #12 Ryan Wells / #11 Chris Jones (PPG)
45:58 (SW 7-3 PP) #89 Tomasz Malasinski / #26 Jake Bricknell (EHG)
Phantoms Goals:
22:22 (SW 1-1 PP) #91 Nathan Salem / #62 Janne Laakkonen / #29 Cameron Hough (PPG)
36:43 (SW 5-2 PP) #29 Cameron Hough / #45 Callum Buglass (EHG)
45:35 (SW 6-3 PP) #91 Nathan Salem / #2 Thomas Norton / #62 Janne Laakkonen (PPG)