The first weekend of the NIHL National season has arrived and the Wendy’s Peterborough Phantoms get started with one game, at home to the Leeds Knights on Sunday.
ABOUT THE OPPOSITION
The Leeds Knights have seen several changes to their line up over the summer, with Matt Haywood, Matt Barron, Noah McMullin, Ethan Hehir, Krisjanis Fugalis, Dylan Hehir, Harrison Walker and Jordan Buesa all moving on to pastures new during the close season.
They’ve added Balint Pakozdi, Sam Cooper, Jonas Bennett, Oliver Booth to their Brit core, whilst Matt Staudacher, Arturs Mickevics and Liam Peyton have joined Matt Bissonnette to form their four imports.
The Leeds Knights have had an interesting pre-season, splitting weekends against the Hull Seahawks and Sheffield Steeldogs. They lost their pre-season opener 4-2 at Hull, before defeating the same opposition the next night. They were then beaten 4-1 by the Steeldogs away from home, but concluded pre-season with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Dogs.
TEAM NEWS
Phantoms have made it through pre-season without any major issues in terms of injury of suspension, though Nathan Salem remains a long term absentee.
As mentioned, the Knights will feature a number of new faces when they travel to Peterborough on Sunday night. They do still have several of their usual lineup, though, with Sam Gospel, Kieran Brown, Fin Bradon, Jordan Griffin and Mac Howlett all likely to feature. Bow Neely is suspended.
ONE TO WATCH
It’s impossible to look past Kieran Brown as a one to watch at the start of the new season. The Knights’ captain grabbed 102 regular season points last season and his partnership with Bissonnette has been a big feature of the Knights’ success over the last couple of years.
COACHES CORNER
I think everyone’s excited to get going for real. We know Leeds have consistently been one of the most successful teams over the past few years so it’s a good place for us to start and benchmark ourselves albeit still very early!
TICKET NEWS
Tickets are on sale via the Phantoms website for Sunday’s home game (5:30pm) against the Knights. Alternatively, fans can pay on the door upon arrival at Planet Ice Peterborough - doors open at 4:30pm.
You can purchase your tickets HERE!
JERSEYS
Phantoms will wear their white jerseys on Sunday night as the league campaign gets underway. Teams will wear their light jerseys at home until Christmas. Phantoms’ red jerseys will also make occasional appearances throughout the campaign.
You can shop all three of Phantoms’ new jerseys HERE!