MATCH REPORT | A WINNING ONE GAME WEEKEND

The Wendy’s Peterborough Phantoms picked up two points in their only game of the weekend, as a strong second period saw them overcome the Solway Sharks.

The ‘not icing’ list was once again extensive, with Tom Norton, Flynn Massie, AJ Herring, Zaine McKenzie, Ryan Bainborough, Luke Clark, Richard Hartmann and Nathan Salem all unavailable, but Phantoms were bolstered by Preston Tombs and a home debut for Alex Rushby.

Phantoms were presented with a good chance early on, when Jordan Buesa took exception to Brad Bowering and found himself in the box, but Jordan Marr flashed a good glove to deny a Dillon Lawrence effort from the middle of the zone.

Cam Hough was next to test Marr after being found by a brilliant Luke Ferrara stretch pass, but the former Phantoms goalie was equal to it once again on the short side.

Ferrara forced Marr into another smart stop when he took the puck from behind the goal, back out in front, and ripped for the top corner. Another good save made.

And the Sharks capitalised on Phantoms’ missed chances when Duncan Speirs tied up his man on the draw and Jonathan Yantsis fired into the bottom corner on the swivel to put the Sharks ahead.

Phantoms upped the tempo from the start of the second period and quickly found themselves on a 5-on-3 powerplay, with Callum Boyd and Kell Beattie both picking up minor penalties.

Phantoms capitalised on the opportunity at 25:15, when Hough rifled a powerplay marker past Marr to level the scores.

And one became two very shortly after - 78 seconds after, to be exact. This time, it was captain Ferrara who fired in via a helpful deflection, from a good feed from Janne Laakkonen,

The Sharks might have thought they had a route back into the game when Barni Sari was called for slashing, but the outcome was quite the opposite. When Ferrara and Hough broke shorthanded, the former shot for the rebound, which was gratefully snatched up by Hough for his second of the evening.

The lead was almost extended further when Scott Robson pinched into the play along the wall and fired on net, but found his former teammate in good form as it was kicked away.

But the fourth goal did follow shortly after. When Nojus Venskutonis’ blue liner caused all kinds of problems for Marr, it was Laakkonen who reacted quickest to convert the rebound.

It could’ve been a five star period when Rushby and Jasper Foster broke 2-on-1 and Rushby went close to a goal on his home debut - but Marr saved and Phantoms settled for a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes.

A couple of early third period penalties threatened to cause Phantoms problems, but they did well to limit the Sharks’ powerplay unit to a couple of speculative Jake Bolton blue line efforts for the most part.

That was until Jonathan Yantsis found space in the right circle and he applied a good finish on his second goal of the game.

From then on in, the sides traded chances as Marr denied Hough on another breakaway, before Boyd saw a shot tipped over well by the shoulder of Hayden Lavigne.

And after Boyd and Joe Gretton dropped the gloves at 52:32, Phantoms comfortably held onto the lead they’d created, withholding the Sharks efforts with the extra skater, to claim both points at the end of the evening.

FINAL SCORE: Peterborough Phantoms 4-2 Solway Sharks

Phantoms goals:
25:15 (PP 1-1 SS): #29 Cam Hough / #62 Janne Laakkonen / #14 Dillon Lawrence (PPG)
26:33 (PP 2-1 SS): #19 Luke Ferrara / #62 Janne Laakkonen / #14 Dillon Lawrence (PPG)
29:35 (PP 3-1 SS): #29 Cam Hough / #19 Luke Ferrara (SHG)
​35:57 (PP 4-1 SS): #62 Janne Laakkonen / #4 Nojus Venskutonis / #11 Scott Robson (EHG)