An excellent performance earned a brilliant result for the Wendy’s Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday night, as they comfortably defeated the Hull Seahawks in front of a record breaking crowd for ice hockey in Hull.
That said, it actually got off to the worst possible start for Ashley Tait’s side, as Emil Svec gave the home side the lead with just 1:13 on the clock.
But things quickly improved and after Cam Hough went close with a breakaway, it was Dillon Lawrence who drew the Phantoms level from close range after Aleksanteri Heiskanen had kicked away Tom Norton’s blue line effort.
And Phantoms capitalised on a second consecutive powerplay when Norton laid it off for Janne Laakkonen to laser at goal, with Hough getting the decisive touch to deflect it beyond Heiskanen and in.
The Seahawks were good in possession of the puck but the Phantoms defence, and goalie, were standing tall to limit their opponents’ high quality scoring chances.
And they were rewarded for their defensive efforts at 17:28 when Lawrence notched his second powerplay goal of the evening.
Phantoms were in penalty kill action early in the second when Barni Sari went for a tripping penalty, but once again the Phantoms defence remained resolute and killed off the Hull powerplay.
And once again, defensive efforts were rewarded at 27:38 when Hayden Lavigne denied a Bobby Chamberlain spin-o-rama attempt in close before Luke Ferrara broke clear and Hough finished off the chance for 4-1.
Lawrence has been in fine form for the Phantoms of late, and he completed his hat-trick at 32:28 to give Phantoms a four goal advantage.
Just under thirty seconds later, the scoring paused for a moment as Joe Gretton and Bobby Chamberlain went toe-to-toe, five minutes each after a spirited bout.
From then on, it was all about the rearguard action for the Phantoms, who had a strong lead to hold onto through the closing 27 minutes.
The task was made harder at the end of P2 with a couple of late penalties, which saw the Seahawks pull their goalie in a gutsy move, which proved unsuccessful.
Hull had to go for it in the third period and that meant openings at the other end - Ferrara, Laakkonen and Jasper Foster all went close, whilst Jordan Stallard and Chamberlain were denied by great defensive work from Gretton and Billy Thorpe respectively.
Svec and the Seahawks did find a late consolation with the extra skater on in the final minute, but the Wendy’s Peterborough Phantoms kickstarted their weekend with an excellent win on the road.
FINAL SCORE: Hull Seahawks 2-5 Peterborough Phantoms
Phantoms goals:
07:07 (HS 1-1 PP): #14 Dillon Lawrence / #19 Luke Ferrara / #2 Tom Norton (PPG)
08:41 (HS 1-2 PP): #29 Cam Hough / #62 Janne Laakkonen / #2 Tom Norton (PPG)
17:28 (HS 1-3 PP): #14 Dillon Lawrence / #62 Janne Laakkonen / #19 Luke Ferrara (PPG)
27:38 (HS 1-4 PP): #29 Cam Hough / #62 Janne Laakkonen / #19 Luke Ferrara (EHG)
32:28 (HS 1-5 PP): #14 Dillon Lawrence (Hat-Trick) / #19 Luke Ferrara / #35 Joe Gretton (EHG)
Seahawks goals:
01:13 (HS 1-0 PP): #71 Emil Svec / #23 Lee Haywood / #21 Bobby Chamberlain (EHG)
59:11 (HS 2-5 PP): #71 Emil Svec / #17 Jason Hewitt / #24 Dylan Hehir (EHG)
Phantoms man of the match: #14 Dillon Lawrence
Seahawks man of the match: #17 Jason Hewitt