The Wendy’s Peterborough Phantoms suffered their second defeat of the season on Sunday evening, with four unanswered goals in the middle frame sinking the visitors in Telford.
The opening period hinted at another war of attrition between the Tigers and Phantoms, with both sides battling hard in the neutral zone. Aside from a handful of breakaway opportunities, both sides struggled to make any major impact in the offensive third.
Brynley Capps and Louie Newell both forced glove saves out of Lavigne from distance, but it was Rhodes Mitchell-King’s deflected effort through traffic that sent the home side closest to a go-ahead goal.
The Phantoms required a strong two-way effort from their forwards, with Scott Robson a late scratch and Brad Bowering sitting the third game of his five-game suspension. Both Connor Glossop and Dillon Lawrence stepped up with strong backchecks to break up a pair of Tigers’ breakaways early on.
The Tigers struggled to stay out of the box - with Tyler Somerton (slashing), Capps (tripping) and Eric Henderson (boarding) all sitting minor penalties - but a strong penalty kill kept the Phantoms out, with Luke Ferrara going closest on a short 5-on-3 powerplay.
Henderson’s boarding call triggered a brief pile-up behind Lavigne’s goal after Joe Gretton stepped in to defend Tom Norton. It was Ralfs Circenis’ tie-up with McPhee that caught the officials’ eye, with both men sitting coincidental roughing minors to close out a tense opening frame.
A much more eventful second period followed, with Patrick Brown breaking the deadlock for the home side just 47 seconds in, finishing from Eric Henderson’s feed to give Telford the lead.
A Bárni Sári breakaway was broken up in the offensive zone, allowing the Tigers to counter and double their advantage at 24:32 - as Caelan McPhee fired Kyle Ferguson’s drop pass past Lavigne.
Having successfully killed a boarding penalty sat by Lawrence, the Phantoms looked to build some momentum, but their misery was soon compounded. Brown’s second of the night came at 37:31, before captain Scott McKenzie blasted one home just 19 seconds later - capping four unanswered goals and leaving the visitors with a mountain to climb heading into the third.
The Phantoms responded quickly after the restart, with captain Luke Ferrara firing past Day just 30 seconds into the period (assisted Laakkonen and Lawrence).
The visitors huffed and puffed - with Richard Hartmann and Callum Buglass both going close, but couldn’t find the momentum needed.
Brad Day stood tall to deny Corey McEwen and Morgan Clarke-Pizzo late on - before the latter’s tripping penalty effectively called time on any remaining hopes of a comeback.
FINAL SCORE: Telford Tigers 4-1 Peterborough Phantoms
Tigers Goals:
20:47 (TT 1-0 PP): #67 Patrick Brown / #11 Eric Henderson (EHG)
24:32 (TT 2-0 PP): #2 Caelan McPhee / #84 Kyle Ferguson / #38 Tom Byrne (EHG)
37:31 (TT 3-0 PP): #67 Patrick Brown / #11 Eric Henderson / #12 Danny Rose (EHG)
37:50 (TT 4-0 PP): #77 Scott McKenzie / #23 David Thomson (EHG)
Phantoms Goals:
40:29 (TT 4-1 PP): #19 Luke Ferrara / #62 Janne Laakkonen / #14 Dillon Lawrence (EHG)
Tigers Man of the Match: #67 Patrick Brown
Phantoms Man of the Match: #25 Billy Thorpe