Short benched Phantoms put Pitbulls in the doghouse

The WALDECK Peterborough Phantoms took two cup points from the Bristol Pitbulls on the road on Saturday evening. Although the Phantoms won the game, it didn’t start that way as the Pitbulls scored two quick goals as they looked to close out the game early on.

Despite these initial setbacks, the Phantoms kept Pitbulls netminder busy with Nathan Salem and Jarvis Hunt both going close to scoring for the Phantoms. Hunt scored the Phantoms’ first goal punishing Nappier in the Pitbulls goal for a big rebound.

Janne Laakkonen fuelled by the first Phantoms goal, was terrorising the Pitbulls defensive lines at every opportunity as the Phantoms pushed for the equaliser.

As both teams entered period two, the Phantoms had a powerplay after Neil Liddiard was called for hooking Cam Hough. Phantoms controlled the Pitbulls in their zone, and Hough exacted his revenge and scored the Phantoms second goal of the night.

For the majority of the second period, both teams traded penalties and goals. Pitbulls took the lead on 24.26 through Sean Morris, but the Phantoms took just 12 seconds to level again through Joe Gretton to make it 3-3.

With the Phantoms now starting to control the game more, Nathan Salem made it 4-3 on 26.28, before Cameron Hough scored his second of the night on 31.49 to make it 5-3 to the visitors.

Pitbulls’ forwards Garry Simpson and Mason Lipsey both found their way in front of Lavigne's goal, but Lavigne defended this shot and shut down the pairings’ plans.

Period three was a fiery affair, starting with end-to-end action with neither team willing to give a goal to the other. The frustrations of the Pitbulls started to spill over when Bobby Ragan pinned Norton to the ice following a misunderstanding as they both got tangled together fighting for a puck, butno penalty was called and the play continued.

Soon after, Pitbulls’ Bayley Harewood engaged Phantoms’ defenceman Scott Robson, which saw a coming together of both sets of players. Once everything had settled, Harewood received a five-minute + game penalty for instigating the fight, aswell as a 2 minute roughing penalty. Phantoms Brad Bowering also received a 2 min roughing penalty..

Having survived a 5 minute penalty kill, the Pitbulls then netted two quick goals to level the game. Nick Pryce found the net on 50.14 before Tanner Butler scoed the Pitbulls 5th on 51.34.

The third period ended with the score level at 5-5, and it was off to overtime. The Phantoms had the bulk of the possession of the puck, but the Pitbulls equally battled well. White-Sey found himself to the right of Lavigne, shot and the Pitbulls believed they had scored and won the game, however after a short discussion the officials ultimately washed out the goal.

With neither team able to score with the remaining time, the game went to a penalty shootout.