The Waldeck Peterborough Phantoms were narrowly beaten by the Raiders on their return to home ice on Sunday night.
Raiders’ import Nick Leyer was the man of the moment for the visitors, netting a hat-trick as they completed back-to-back wins over Slava Koulikov’s side.
It was an evenly contested game in the opening exchanges, but Jordan Marr was called into action to deny Tjay Anderson a goal on the breakaway.
Phantoms then found their groove as Luke Ferrara and Lukas Sladkovsky linked up to find Tom Norton rushing into the zone, but his shot was stopped well by Ethan James.
Raiders took the lead with 11:09 played as Nick Leyer notched a shorthanded goal from close range.
That was all she wrote for period one, but period two started with a bang for the Phantoms. Sladkovsky drew Phantoms level with a well taken goal in off the pipework after doing well to control a bouncing puck to spring him in on a short breakaway.
But the Raiders hit back with 27:25 played. Leyer again putting puck to twine with an effort from in close.
That was all the scoring for the second period but the buzzer saw the teams lock horns in other ways. Both teams returned for the third period with fewer players than they finished the second, with Joe Gretton, Archie Salisbury and Austin Mitchell-King not returning for the third period for Phantoms.
The shenanigans of the end of the second period saw the Raiders start the third on the powerplay and they capitalised on their chance. Leyer completed his hat-trick, this time with a well taken effort from the left circle.
Tyler De La Bertouche replaced Jordan Marr in the Phantoms goal at 40:49.
Phantoms got back to within one when Brad Bowering won the puck back on the offensive blue line, showed good hands to skate by a couple of defencemen, before ripping his shot past James and into the net.
Phantoms pulled the goalie in the final moments in a bid to force overtime, but the Raiders held out to take the victory home with them.
FINAL SCORE: Peterborough Phantoms 2-3 Raiders IHC
Phantoms goals:
20:56 (PP 1-1 LR): #91 Lukas Sladkovsky / #45 Callum Buglass / #23 Brad Bowering (EHG)
55:40 (PP 2-3 LR): #23 Brad Bowering (EHG)
Raiders goals:
11:09 (PP 0-1 LR): #28 Nick Leyer / #10 Brandon Ayliffe (SHG)
27:25 (PP 1-2 LR): #28 Nick Leyer / #14 Jack Cooper / #39 Ethan James (EHG)
40:49 (PP 1-3 LR): #28 Nick Leyer / #11 Tom Relf / #81 Adam Laishram (PPG)
Phantoms man of the match: #91 Lukas Sladkovsky
Raiders man of the match: #28 Nick Leyer